It’s the bird of the year, but how much longer can the piwauwau survive.
Forest and Bird’s Nicola Toki says the tiny rock wren which live above the tree line in the Southern Alps are being affected by climate change in a terrifying way.
“As the alpine climate warms, sort of degree by degree over the long period of time, the rats and stoats and mice which have previously been limited by temperature are able to get further and further up which means the poor old rock wren are starting to run out of room in their little sanctuary in the sky so it’s created a break in the force field if you like up there in those alpine areas which means where we don’t do best control, every one of those eggs and chicks can get taken out by mice and stoats,” she says.
Nicola Toki says the korora or little blue penguin actually got more first preference votes, but the little underbird came through once the undervotes were counted.
