Welcome to the extinction capital of the world!
New Zealand is home to some of the planet's most extraordinary flora and fauna. It has also suffered from one of the highest rates of extinction of any country on Earth.
Giant Haast's eagle attacking New Zealand moa. Created by John Megahan. Copyright PLoS Biology. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Licence.
Evolving in a world without mammals for 80 million years, New Zealand's extraordinary flora and fauna was ill-equipped to cope with the arrival of human settlers and the exotic species the brought with them. In the last 750 years almost half of our vertebrate fauna and an untold number of invertebrate species have disappeared forever. While habitat loss, and competition have undoubtedly played their part, predation and browsing by exotic mammals has played by far the biggest patrt in this catastrophic loss.
The list of New Zealand species known to have become extinct since human settlement includes one bat, at least 51 birds, three frogs, three lizards, one freshwater fish, four plant species, and a number of invertebrates. (Source: Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)
The International Uniton for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN) lists New Zealand among the five worst countries with threatened birds as a percentage of total number of native bird species exceeding 15%. Not surprisingly, the other four contenders, the Philippines, Mauritius, Madagascar and Hawai'i, are all island nations like ours with high endemism.
Extinctions are not a thing of the past. Habitat loss, competition for food, pollution and mammal predation are all still taking a heavy toll on New Zealand's unique native wildlife. As recently as 2007, conservationists declared the South Island kōkako extinct after decades of fruitless searching.
Karori Sanctuary Trust is part of a nationwide conservation movement working hard to reverse 750 years of decline and stop any more species going the way of the South Island kōkako. Find out more about Karori Sanctuary Trust's 500-year restoration plan.