The Milford Track is one of the six Great Walks being targeted to restore native birdlife. Photo / Ruth Lawton.
The Milford Track is one of the six Great Walks being targeted to restore native birdlife. Photo / Ruth Lawton.
One of the joys of hiking through the remote bush of New Zealand is hearing our native birdsong.
Away from the low drone of motorways or the hum of urban life, escaping into the outdoors and listening to the chirps of our korimako, tūturiwhatu, tūī or tīeke gives us respite from the daily grind, while also reminding us to appreciate the country in which we live.
But thousands of our native species are fighting to stay alive, two organisations are working hard to protect our native birdlife.
Air New Zealand, a longtime partner of the Department of Conservation, has released a new video explaining its plans to bring back the birdsong to New Zealand's Great Walks.
A huge number of our native birdlife is on the fast track to extinction, so we’re working with the @docgovtnz bring birdsong back to our Great Walks 🌱 #AirNZSustyhttps://t.co/Elp8hUTlIx
The airline is supporting a range of biodiversity projects across six of New Zealand's Great Walks.
The Great Walks being targeted include the Abel Tasman National Park, Heaphy Track, Milford Track, Paparoa Track, Routeburn Track and Whanganui Journey.
Across the six walks, the sustained predator control covers 38,000 hectares.
"Our objective with DOC is to bring birdsong back to our Great Walks by enabling sustained predator control and species monitoring on an ongoing basis," the airline said.
"We have over 4,000 native species that are classified as 'at risk' and 900 of these are threatened with extinction. A further 3,000 species are currently sitting in a 'data deficient' pile, of which many more are also likely to be at risk."
DOC partnerships manager Christine Officer says the Great Walks network allows people to experience New Zealand's unique landscapes in appropriate numbers, while also recovering costs and investing in conservation.
"New Zealand's Great Walks are premier walking experiences that lead through some of our most special natural ecosystems which are home to rare and unique species - such as takahe, mohua, kiwi and whio - that face predation by introduced predators and habitat loss elsewhere," she says.
The 'Bringing Back the Birdsong' campaign is a joyful goal for our Great Walks, after flooding last week in Fiordland washed out parts of the country's most popular track.
The Routeburn Track sustained significant damage and is now closed for the foreseeable future as it will require considerable repair work until it is operational again.
The Routeburn Track in Fiordland is currently closed indefinitely due to flood damage. Photo / Grace Houpapa
The Kepler Great Walk remains open and operational.
The Milford Track has also been damaged and is closed until at least the end of the month.
A number of huts along the tracks have been severely damaged.
A State of Emergency remains in place for Fiordland.
Images from some of the extensive damage to Fiordland's tracks and huts after this week's severe weather.
