Mōhua were once widespread. Today they are estimated to number less than 5000. The spikes in predator populations threatened to undo two decades of pest eradication in the valley, which had allowed mōhua to slowly rebound. But the country’s largest-ever predator control programme was launched in December 2019, protecting forest birds over 848,635 hectares of conservation land nationwide as they nested and reared their young over summer months. It will cost $81.2 million over four years. Experts began counting birds in the Landsborough Valley in 1985. “This was the last stronghold for [mōhua] in the whole of the West Coast,” said Colin O’Donnell, principal science advisor for the Department of Conservation.