ANDY JACKSON/Stuff
A combined community effort from Taranaki conservation groups, local authorities and school children is getting behind a predator-free project to release kiwi into the Kaitake Ranges for the first time.
Adult kiwi are soon to be re-released onto Taranaki s Kaitake ranges for the first time, prompting a warning for dog owners to keep their pets leashed around the park area. The kiwi are to be released onto the range in about three month s time, following extensive trapping and aerial 1080 operations that have decimated rat, mustelid and possum numbers in the Kaitake and Pouakai ranges. The re-release is a significant milestone in the Restore Kaitake campaign, undertaken as part of the Taranaki Regional Council’s Towards Predator-Free 2050 programme.