New Zealand separated from Gondwana around 80 million years ago and had no land mammals apart from bats. Birds filled every niche, and many lost the ability to fly because nothing hunted them on the ground. The arrival of humans, then rats, stoats, possums and cats, has been catastrophic: about a third of native land birds are extinct and many of the survivors persist only where predators are controlled.
Kiwi
Five species of a nocturnal, flightless bird with nostrils at the tip of its beak and an egg up to twenty percent of the female body weight. Wild sightings are difficult; reliable places include Stewart Island, where the tokoeka forages on beaches in daylight, night tours at Zealandia in Wellington, and Trounson Kauri Park in Northland. Nocturnal houses in Rotorua, Napier and Franz Josef offer a guaranteed but artificial view.
Kea
The world only alpine parrot lives in the South Island mountains, is intelligent enough to solve multi-step puzzles, and will systematically dismantle the rubber trim of a parked car. Around 3000 to 7000 remain. Do not feed them: human food and the habituation that follows are among the main causes of death.
Takahe and other survivors
The takahe, a heavy flightless rail, was declared extinct in 1898 and rediscovered in the Murchison Mountains in 1948. The population is now around 500 and rising. The kakapo, a nocturnal flightless parrot and the heaviest in the world, numbers just over 240 birds, all individually named and living on predator-free islands.
Tuatara
Not a lizard but the sole survivor of an order that flourished 200 million years ago, with a third eye visible in juveniles and a lifespan beyond a century. They live on offshore islands and in sanctuaries such as Zealandia and Orokonui.
Marine life
Kaikoura sits beside a deep canyon that brings sperm whales close to shore year round, with dusky dolphins in large pods and orca seasonally. Yellow-eyed penguins, hoiho, one of the rarest penguins in the world, breed on the Otago Peninsula, which also holds the only mainland royal albatross colony on earth. Little blue penguins come ashore at dusk at Oamaru.
Predator Free 2050
New Zealand has committed to eliminating rats, stoats and possums nationwide by 2050. Fenced sanctuaries such as Zealandia, Maungatautari and Orokonui, along with hundreds of island eradications and community trapping groups, have already restored species to places they had not been seen for a century. Visitors help by cleaning footwear, staying on tracks and declaring outdoor gear at the border.