A number of introduced species, some of which have become invasive species, have been added to New Zealand's native flora and fauna. Both deliberate and accidental introductions have been made from the time of the first human settlement, with several waves of Polynesian people at some time before the year 1300, followed by Europeans after 1769.
Zealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, the first urban completely fenced ecosanctuary, where the biodiversity of 225 ha of forest is being restored. The sanctuary was previously part of the water catchment area for Wellington, between Wrights Hill and the Brooklyn wind turbine on Polhill.
Secretary Island is an island in southwestern New Zealand, lying entirely within Fiordland National Park. Roughly triangular in shape, it lies between Doubtful Sound / Patea in the south and Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound in the north, with its west coast facing the Tasman Sea. To the east of the island, Pendulo Reach connects Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound with Doubtful Sound / Patea. Steeply sloped, the entirely bush-clad island rises to a chain of several peaks higher than 1000 metres. The highest of these is the 1,196-metre (3,924 ft) Mount Grono, the highest peak in the main New Zealand chain not located in the North or South Island. The island also contains three lakes. The largest, Secretary Lake, over 600 metres (2,000 ft) long, is located beneath Mount Grono at an altitude of 550 metres (1,800 ft).
Chalky Island or Te Kākahu-o-Tamatea is an island in the southwest of New Zealand, and is part of Fiordland National Park. It lies at the entrance to Taiari / Chalky Inlet, next to Rakituma / Preservation Inlet, at the southwestern tip of the South Island, 10 kilometres (6 mi) northwest of Puysegur Point, 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of West Cape, and 140 kilometres (87 mi) west of Invercargill. Chalky Island is one of the predator-free islands that is part of the Fiordland Islands restoration programme. The programme's focus is to eradicate pests and translocate native species.
Rotoroa Island is an island to the east of Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. It covers 82 hectares. The Salvation Army purchased it for £400 in 1908 from the Ruthe family to expand their alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility at nearby Pakatoa Island. Men were treated at Home Bay at Rotoroa, while women were treated at Pakatoa. This treatment facility was closed in 2005.
Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre is a captive breeding facility and visitor centre located in a protected forest area on State Highway 2 in New Zealand's Tararua district. It was formerly called Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre, then Pūkaha / Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre.
The birds of New Zealand evolved into an avifauna that included many endemic species found in no other country. As an island archipelago, New Zealand accumulated bird diversity, and when Captain James Cook arrived in the 1770s he noted that the bird song was deafening.
James Charles Russell is a New Zealand conservation biologist and professor at the University of Auckland.
1080, the brand name given to the synthetic form of sodium fluoroacetate, is used in New Zealand in efforts to control populations of possums, rats, stoat and rabbits, which are invasive species in the New Zealand environment. Although the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment deemed the use of 1080 in New Zealand "effective and safe" in a 2011 re-evaluation and the substance is widely considered to be the most effective tool currently available for controlling possums over large areas, it remains a contentious issue, with the majority of the debate occurring between conservationists and livestock farmers on one side and hunters and animal-rights activists on the other.
The stoat was introduced into New Zealand to control introduced rabbits and hares, but is now a major threat to the native bird population. The natural range of the stoat is limited to parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Immediately before human settlement, New Zealand did not have any land-based mammals apart from bats, but Polynesian and European settlers introduced a wide variety of animals. Rarely, in Southland, the fur of stoats has been reported to turn white, being the fur known as ermine, which adorns royal robes.
Shakespear Regional Park is a nature park in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is located at the tip of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, and is named after the Shakespear family who first came on to the land when Sir Robert Hamilton purchased 1392 acres on behalf of his grandson, Robert Shakespear, from Ranulph Dacre in 1883. Shakespear, Auckland Regional Council</ref>
The Brook Waimārama Sanctuary is a nearly 700 hectare mainland "ecological island" sanctuary located 6 km south of Nelson, New Zealand. The sanctuary is the largest fenced sanctuary in New Zealand's South Island and the second largest in the country; it is the only sanctuary to feature mature New Zealand beech forest.
Bushy Park is a native forest reserve and bird sanctuary located in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand. The reserve is located eight kilometres (5.0 mi) inland from Kai Iwi and has an area of approximately 99 hectares, including the Bushy Park Homestead and grounds. The forest has a diverse range of native plant species, with canopy trees including northern rātā, rimu, tawa, and pukatea. In 1962, the forest was gifted to the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand by the former owner G. F. Moore, along with the homestead and its surrounds. The reserve is now managed by the Bushy Park Trust, in partnership with Forest & Bird and local iwi Ngā Rauru Kītahi. The forest reserve and homestead were renamed as Bushy Park Tarapuruhi in 2019.
Cats are a popular pet in New Zealand. Cat ownership is occasionally raised as a controversial conservation issue due to the predation of endangered species, such as birds and lizards, by feral cats.
The NEXT Foundation was a privately funded New Zealand strategic philanthropy foundation launched in March 2014. It had a mandate to spend down $100 million over 10 years into environmental and educational projects that will benefit future generations of New Zealanders. While spend-down or sunset foundations are increasingly common overseas, they are rare in New Zealand.
Predator Free 2050 is a plan put forth by the New Zealand government with the goal of eradicating all of its mammalian introduced predators by 2050.
Goodnature is a New Zealand company founded in 2005 by two men, Robbie van Dam and Craig Bond. Goodnature specializes in the production of traps designed for the control of animal pests..
Sir Robert George Mappin Fenwick was a New Zealand environmentalist, businessman and professional director.
Ngā Uruora - Kāpiti Project is a community conservation project set up in Paekākāriki, New Zealand in 1997 by Fergus Wheeler. It is named after the book Ngā Uruora: The Groves of Life - Ecology & History in a New Zealand Landscape by ecologist Geoff Park. The main aims of Ngā Ururoa are protecting and restoring the Kāpiti Coast's unique kohekohe forest, re-establishing forests through planting programmes, and undertaking pest and weed control.
Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, is a protected natural area in Waikato Region, New Zealand where the biodiversity of 3,400 ha of forest is being restored. The sanctuary covers the mountain peak, Maungatautari.
