Illustration of a Brown Kiwi chick. A History of the Birds of New Zealand. 2nd ed. by W.L. Buller (London, 1888). page 326 via WikiMedia Commons

It is not surprising that one of the nations that stands to lose the most from invasive mammals is also the first country in the world to announce its ambitious plan to remove them all by 2050, but the islands of New Zealand have a lot of work ahead of them to eradicate animals like rats, stoats, and possums – around nineteen and a half million US dollars worth of work, which will be the government investment in a new public-private joint venture called Predator Free New Zealand Limited . And now that deforestation has been controlled better, it’s time to protect the country’s wildlife another way. The kiwi illustrated above, for example, is one of five species in New Zealand, all of which are threatened or endangered, or critically endangered, thanks to predation by invasive mammals that the flightless birds can’t avoid.

This group will be tasked with leading the effort to solve what has been a $2.3 billion per year problem for the country’s economy given the loss of millions of birds and other native species like lizards and the fact that some invasive mammals are vectors for bovine tuberculosis. The NZ Department of Conservation is expecting community support and combined central and local government coordination, and they’ve set themselves four goals for 2025, according to their website:

• An additional 1 million hectares of land where pests have been supressed or removed through Predator Free New Zealand partnerships
• Development of a scientific breakthrough capable of removing at least one small mammalian predator from New Zealand entirely
• Demonstrate areas of more than 20,000 hectares can be predator free without the use of fences
• Complete removal of all introduced predators from offshore island nature reserves

Steven Joyce, Minister of Science and Innovation, says, “New Zealand is a world leader in conservation technology and research. The Biological Heritage Challenge has an established network of scientists who are ready and willing to take on the Predator Free Challenge. For the first time technology is starting to make feasible what previously seemed like an unattainable dream.”

His counterpart in the Ministry of Conservation, Maggie Barry, continues, “New Zealand’s unique native creatures and plants are central to our national identity. They evolved for millions of years in a world without mammals and as a result are extremely vulnerable to introduced predators, which kill around 25 million native birds every year. Now is the time for a concerted long-term nationwide effort to rid ourselves of the introduced rats, stoats and possums that have placed so much of our natural heritage in jeopardy. New Zealanders have rightly taken great pride in our conservation efforts to date. If we harness the strength of everyone who is keen to be involved in this project, I believe we will achieve the vision of a Predator Free New Zealand by 2050 and make our landscape a safe haven again for our native taonga species.”

Read on at the New Zealand Department of Conservation press release, the Government press release, or for more full coverage go to National Geographic’s news page.