Listen Now: 
After years of being down the pecking order, the ungainly Kereru has won Forest & Bird’s annual Bird of the Year competition.
The native wood pigeon established an early lead to amass a total of 5833 votes, beating out the Kākāpō and the Kaki or black stilt.
Its campaign was helped by digital natives including Green MP Chloe Swarbrick who highlighted the bird’s size, appetite, and all-roundness.
That appetite links it to the health of the ngahere, as it’s the only native bird big enough to swallow and disperse the large fruit of karaka, miro, tawa and taraire.
While the Kererū population is classed as stable overall, it is in danger of becoming locally extinct in some areas where there has not been sustained predator control.
!["p_facebook"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/facebook.jpg")
& !["p_twitter"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/twitter.jpg")
Copyright © 2018, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
