400th Kākā Banded At Zealandia

400th Kākā Banded At Zealandia

As the Dominion Post reported today, we celebrated the 400th kākā chick to be banded at Zealandia!
His/her bands are “Mauve Yellow – Green”, one of four chicks from a nest box in the sanctuary.

We first transferred kākā in 2002 and the current sanctuary population is believed to be around 200 – 250 birds. So many Wellingtonians see kākā in their garden or local park now it’s amazing to think how very rare they used to be.

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About Zealandia
Zealandia is managed by Karori Sanctuary Trust, a not-for-profit charitable community trust. It has a 500-year vision to restore this corner of New Zealand as closely as possible to the way it was ‘the day before humans arrived’.

Founded in 1995, in 1999 it became the world’s first fully-fenced eco-sanctuary. It has, to date, re-introduced 17 locally or nationally-endangered species into a wild state, including tuatara, little spotted kiwi, hihi and giant weta. As a result of these successes, at least 14 other fenced projects have been established in New Zealand.

In 2010 the Prime Minister opened the new $18m Zealandia Visitor Complex, New Zealand’s first facility fully-dedicated to showcasing NZ natural history and the story of our conservation movement. State-of-the-art interactive exhibits enable visitors to ‘step back in time 1,000 years and experience a long-lost world.

Zealandia is recognised around the world, not only for the groundbreaking work it is doing to turn back the clock, but also for the way it engages both locals and visitors in conservation. In 2009 it was recognised by the Global Restoration Network as one of the top 25 eco-restoration projects in Australasia, and in 2010 it received a prestigious Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award at the World Travel Market in London. It has been consistently listed by The Rough Guide as one of New Zealand’s top attractions and was recently included in The Guardian’s Green Travel Guide as one of the top 75 green tourism companies in the world.

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