Environment

Muttonbird numbers on the rise

Oct 10 2023 Updated October 10, 2023

Gisborne Herald

4 min read

A predator-proof fence erected at the tip of Te Kurī-a-Pāoa/Young Nicks Head 18 years ago will help ensure a successful return of petrels and shearwaters to the headland. Pictured in 2005 after the fence went up are (from left) Native Garden Nursery’s Nigel Hope, Nick’s Head Station manager Kim Dodgshun, former wildlife ranger Sandy Bull and Ecoworks’ Steve Sawyer. File picture

Petrels and shearwaters belong to the same family of seabirds that once nested in their millions within underground burrows across mainland New Zealand and were an important food source.

However, by 1930 nearly all were extinct. The country’s native forests no longer benefited from the continuous source of marine nutrients the birds used to spread as they flew in their millions inland each nigh...

Muttonbird numbers on the rise

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