They Released 40 Birds Into That Valley. This Week They Counted 212
A predator control project written off as too ambitious in 2019 has just produced the best count in the programme's history.
By Tui Marsden · 6 September 2026 · 5 min read
In 2019 the plan was described in one funding assessment as "optimistic to the point of unrealistic". Forty birds, one valley, an eleven-kilometre trapline maintained almost entirely by volunteers.
This week's acoustic and transmitter count returned 212.
The chick survival rate — the number that actually matters — has climbed from single digits to just over 60 per cent.
The volunteers did the unglamorous part
Roughly 3,400 volunteer hours a year go into checking, resetting and rebaiting traps in terrain that is steep, wet and frequently unpleasant. The programme's coordinator is blunt: the science was never the hard part.
Funding for the next three years was confirmed in August. The valley next door has asked for the playbook.
