Some feel-good nature wins to start your year.
Sure, 2024 wasn’t what you’d call a “feel-good” year for the natural world. But if your heart sank at each new blow to conservation (hello fast track bill, goodbye Jobs for Nature funding, looking at you, conservation and science budget cuts), let these despite-the-odds success stories lift your spirits.
From kiwi spotted on CCTV in Wellington backyards to record-breaking bat roosts in the Bay of Plenty, these wins, while small, remind us that when we act, nature responds.
Big comebacks
Greenstone Valley takahē thriving: it’s (nearly) 30, flirty and thriving at the newest takahē translocation site in Otago. One year on, the 28 takahē have settled into their new home, successfully hatching chicks and proving the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) intensive predator control efforts are working at reducing stoat numbers, the biggest threat to the flightless, iridescent blue birds. The national takahē population now numbers around 500, with annual growth of around 8%.
Wellington bird counts soaring: the CBD might be in a slump, but the birds of Wellington are having the time of their lives. Thanks to Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne, Predator Free Wellington, Capital Kiwi, and a horde of volunteer trappers, native bird numbers are booming so hard, even Leonardo Di Caprio noticed. Since 2011, kererū numbers have soared by 243%, kākā by 170%, tūī by 93% and pīwakawaka (fantail) by 37%. These numbers should only go up as the Predator Free Wellington project continues to get rid of predators from the region.
Tokoeka steps back from the brink: Fiordland tokoeka (southern brown kiwi) are reversing their extinction trend for the first time in their conservation history. DOC’s hard-out predator control targeting stoats means chick survival has gone from zero in 2020 to 70% in 2024. Once kiwi chicks are over 1kg, they can hold their own against stoats. The population is now growing by 2%.
Surprise sightings
Kiwi here, there, everywhere: Wild kiwi turned up on backyard security cameras and thrilled mountain bikers in 2024 as they expand their home range in the hills around Wellington. It’s a sweet reward for the Capital Kiwi project, which released 138 kiwi-nui (North Island brown kiwi) into the capital’s southwest coast, an area robustly protected by more than 4,600 stoat traps. Keep an eye out: encounters will increase as kiwi establish, breed and disperse.
Kōkako spread through Auckland forest: it started with just one pair, and now there are 250 kōkako in the Hūnua Ranges — three cheers for the volunteers who have spent 20 years working on the recovery of this soft grey, Zorro-masked, blue-wattled songbird. In March 2024, kōkako were spotted at Hūnua Falls, well outside their recovery zone, showing that efforts are helping this species repopulate and spread.
Dwarf discovery: a thriving population of dwarf galaxias was found in a river in the Manawatū-Whanganui region during a routine water quality survey in January 2024. You’re excused if you’ve never heard of this tiny endangered fish. Like all galaxiids, they have no scales and instead have thick, leathery skin and depend on trout-free, shady streams. Their resurgence in the Mangawharariki River shows good water quality and the impact of local farmers fencing off the river and its tributaries to keep stock and sediment out.
Record wins
Record-tying albatross season: Taiaroa Head near Dunedin saw 33 toroa (northern royal albatross) fledge, tying 2023’s record-breaking season. DOC staff work tirelessly, trapping stoats, incubating eggs, and monitoring chicks. These humongous fluffy chicks will head to sea for three to four years to satisfy their wanderlust before returning home to mate.
Largest bat sleepover ever recorded: 275 pekapeka (long-tailed bat), about the size of your thumb, were found cosied up in a tree roost at Whirinaki Te Pua ā Tāne in the Bay of Plenty. It’s a major milestone for New Zealand’s seriously threatened (and only) land mammal.
Tiny triumphs
Endangered rock wren holding its own: in the Southern Alps, pīwauwau/tuke (rock wren) numbers are rising in areas with predator control. A five-year DOC study found at least double the number of birds in areas with targeted trapping and 1080 drops. These plucky birds, with olive green plumage on top and a sunny yellow belly, don’t fly much. Instead, they hop, flit, and nest on the ground, making them easy prey for rats and stoats. The stakes are high, as five out of seven wren species in New Zealand have already gone extinct.
Mistletoe blossoms: it turns out Aotearoa has a semi-parasitic native mistletoe, and great news, its abundance has increased by more than 3600% in Tikitapu Scenic Reserve in Rotorua. It has taken 20 years, but volunteers are stoked that their animal pest and weed control is paying off for green and white mistletoe species. You’re unlikely to catch anyone kissing under the flowering shrub, rather native birds and insects flocking to it as a food source.
Uptick in bugs: it’s not all about the cute and feathery. New research found native beetles are nearly twice as abundant in the Okoheriki forest compared to nearby forests without pest control. This is largely thanks to Rotorua Canopy Tours, which cares for the forest it whisks people through on ziplines. Their trapping and planting means the spiny longhorn beetle, plus three new undescribed species, aren’t being eaten up by rats.
Allison Hess is a writer who works for Predator Free NZ.