Predator-free island: No rats on Hauraki Gulf's Rakitū Island

Sunday, 2 August 2020

A little blue penguin during its rehabilitation at Natureland in Nelson after being found unwell at Mārahau. This video was first published in 2017.

An island in the Hauraki Gulf has been declared predator-free, offering a sanctuary for native wildlife.

Pāteke and kākāpō are among several threatened species to flourish on Rakitū Island after rats were removed nearly two years ago.

Other native wildlife, including the little blue penguin and the grey-faced petrel, have also made the island their home.

A little blue penguin makes a nest on the island.

Rakitū is the last Department of Conservation (DOC) island in Hauraki Gulf Marine Park to be pest-free, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage said in a statement.

It will join more than 40 existing pest-free islands in the area.

Rakitū Island in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is now pest-free

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Grey-faced petrel are among the native wildlife making a home on the island.

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Pest-free islands provide a safe haven for threatened native wildlife including takahē, kākāpō, kokako, kiwi, geckos, skinks, bats, wetāpunga and tuatara.

“The recovery of breeding populations of threatened species on these taonga offshore islands provides an invaluable lesson in how we might restore native plants and wildlife on mainland sites once introduced pests have been removed.”

The operation to remove rats from Rakitū island, off the east coast of Aotea/Great Barrier Island, was a partnership between Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea and DOC and was carried out during the winter months of 2018.

A check of the island with conservation dogs last week proved that rats had been eliminated.

Rakitū, a 330 hectare island, sits on a native seabird highway that spans a chain of pest-free islands from the Poor Knights Islands, north of Whangarei, to the Mercury Islands, south of Aotea/Great Barrier Island.

Sage said now that Rakitū is rat free, there is an opportunity to begin developing a restoration programme for the island which had been farmed for more than a century.