Feature
Gone forever
by Susan Buckland
Prince Charles is not the only Briton voicing conservation concerns about New Zealand. We’ve already lost a third of our bird species.
Think of New Zealand as the extinction capital of the world, says British scientist Dr Tim Blackburn. To understand the damage humanity can wreak on irreplaceable flora and fauna, New Zealand is the place to be.
Every year for the past seven years, Blackburn has visited this country to research New Zealand’s extinction process, and that of our native birds in particular.
“Species are now going extinct 100 to 1000 times faster than was natural before humans came on the scene,” he says. “That leaves ecosystems ragged, with the danger that the ecological fabric could tear completely.”
The renowned American biologist Jared Diamond calls the extinction drivers the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Humans hunt, destroy native species’ habitat, and introduce competitive exotic species. When one species becomes extinct, it also brings about the extinction of species dependent on it. Ecologists liken the process to losing rivets from the wing of a plane. How many would you have to knock out before the wing drops off?
“Because New Zealand was the last major land mass to be colonised by humans, there is still lots of evidence of what was here originally,” says Blackburn. “Roughly a third of the bird species that lived on these islands 800 years ago are extinct. Gone forever. You had 11 species of moa and this was the only place in the world they lived. No one will ever again see a living huia, or a piopio. Or hear their songs.”
The effect of exotic species introduced by humans is widely acknowledged. However, the worst invader is humanity. “Hunting by indigenous people can no longer be denied as a cause of species extinction,” says Blackburn.
Exotics still pose a threat. “Anyone who thinks of releasing yet more exotics into New Zealand’s backyards is, at best, silly and outdated, and, at worst, irrespons-ible,” says Blackburn. “The effects of habitat destruction and exotic predators – the worst among them rats, cats, possums and stoats – have undone 80 million years of unique evolutionary history in just one hundred-thousandth of that time.”
Only 220 years ago, Captain Cook’s botanist, Joseph Banks, wrote of these shores: “I was awak’d by the singing of the birds ashore from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile. Their voices were certainly the most melodious wild music I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells but with the most tuneable silver sound imaginable … They begin to sing at about 1 to 2 in the morn and continue until sunrise.”
It is those small songbirds that have been devastated. Exotic bird species compete with native species for food. Exotic animals eat the native birds directly and can also bring diseases.
Other countries have lost a greater proportion of their birds. Easter Island, for example, has lost all but one of its native bird species. In the Hawaiian islands there have been thousands of bird extinctions. Avian malaria is carried in the blood of introduced birds and Hawaii’s native songbirds had no immunity. They are now restricted to the high altitudes that the mosquito vectors of the disease cannot tolerate. On Maui, the population of native po’ouli is down to just three individuals.
We can still listen to the songs of the kokako and saddleback, and the booming of the kakapo. But it is imperative that there are organisations like the National Parks and Conservation Foundation, which promotes business sponsorship of New Zealand’s priceless national treasures, says Blackburn. Foundation chairman Murray McKee says that all money raised through the Dawn Chorus brand is channelled into native birdlife projects.
Vital to the survival of our endangered native species are offshore islands on which predators have been eradicated. DOC is also keeping areas of the “mainland islands” as free as possible from predators.
“The fight against extinction continues,” says Blackburn. “There is no second chance for anything that’s lost. Celebrate all that is distinctive. People come here to experience the so-called ‘100% pure’ New Zealand environment, and that includes special birds like the bellbird.
“To encounter mostly starlings, mynahs and sparrows is as deflating as coming across a branch of McDonald’s in the Champs Elysees.”
