AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
New Zealand is embarking on one of the most ambitious conservation projects in the world, and it's relying on everyday people to help. They're signing up volunteers to help save their unique birds from extinction. Lauren Sommer from NPR's climate desk has this report.
MILA MCKENZIE: It's a birds nest.
LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: Mila McKenzie is working in a neighborhood park with her student group in Dunedin, New Zealand. They've done a lot - cleaned up litter, planted more than a hundred trees.
FINN HIBBERT: It's a - it's lucky almost all of the kids love weeding.
SOMMER: Finn Hibbert is with McKenzie in the group, which is called Town Belt Kaitiaki. When I talked to them, Hibbert was 17 and McKenzie was 11. Their volunteer work also involves something most kids don't do.
HIBBERT: These are traps, basically, yes. We call these trapping stations.
SOMMER: They're getting rid of animals that aren't supposed to be in New Zealand.
HIBBERT: So we have a possum trap. So the white ones that are up on the trees.
SOMMER: It targets brush-tailed possums, an Australian mammal that was brought here by European settlers. Possums devour native trees. Other traps catch rats, which were also brought here. The traps were specially designed in New Zealand to kill as humanely as possible and to be safe for people to use.
HIBBERT: So the new types of traps that we have are really almost child-friendly, so it's really good.
MILA: Yeah. So the whole reason we trap these sort of creatures is they're - they can be damaging to native birds and other native animals that you want here.
SOMMER: New Zealand's birds didn't evolve with land mammals. There weren't any, aside from bats. So the birds are extremely vulnerable to invasive predators, especially flightless birds like the kiwi. Rats eat the baby birds. And birds of all sizes are eaten by ferrets and their relatives, stoats. Around 4,000 species overall are considered threatened in New Zealand, so conservation experts say saving those animals means killing others.
MILA: Though it is a bit gross sometimes - just thinking about it's a bit gross - it's actually quite an ethical thing 'cause it's easier if you kill off something that's causing a problem than let - instead of letting them kill off everything else.
SOMMER: Nationwide, New Zealand has a goal of getting rid of these invasive predators by 2050. Much of that work is being done by the government, but people and community groups are volunteering all over.
JAMES MCCARTHY: Oh, these are tui having a feed on our flax.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
SOMMER: James McCarthy spots a black-and-blue bird in his backyard in Whakatane on a rainy morning.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
MCCARTHY: What we noticed here was that the birds started coming back. We've seen heaps of birds returning and nesting.
SOMMER: That's happened since McCarthy put in native plants and started trapping. He's got four traps right in his backyard. He says it's a commitment to maintain and check them daily, but it's worth it because he can see the difference it makes.
MCCARTHY: Yeah, I don't feel vengeful about it. But definitely, it's a - it's our responsibility, especially as a colonized country. All the things that were introduced into it were brought here by colonizers.
SOMMER: Since many of New Zealand's birds are only found here, people have rallied to save them, says Emily Parke. She studies the ethics of conservation at the University of Auckland.
EMILY PARKE: There's just a really strong commitment throughout the country to conservation and valuing the natural environment and respecting and caring for the ecosystems around us.
SOMMER: But eliminating invasive predators entirely by 2050 is a huge goal because it'll mean killing off millions of animals. Parke says that won't happen without public buy-in.
PARKE: Predator-free New Zealand is as much a social challenge as it is a biological challenge. This isn't just about coming up with the right technologies and methods. It's about a lot of social change.
SOMMER: Even if invasive species decline, it'll take constant vigilance from the public to keep it that way. Many conservation experts doubt that New Zealand will reach its goal without new tools and technology. But so far, many New Zealanders are stepping in to try to save the animals that make the country unique.
Lauren Sommer, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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