Our photo of the week shows an orange fronted parakeet/kākāriki karaka—the rarest of our parakeet/kākāriki species.
In the past decade, rat and stoat explosions have wiped out some breeding strongholds for our orange fronted parakeet and reduced other local populations by up to 85%.
Orange fronted parakeet were one of the species targeted for protection in our Battle for our Birds campaign to combat this year’s rat and stoat plague.
This week the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, congratulated DOC on the initial results of the campaign, which successfully knocked down predator populations in key target areas.
Photo © Sabine Bernert. Used with permission.
