Cats kill precious bird life

Greater Wellington’s latest Be the Difference campaign is about turning the tide on biodiversity loss.

But what is biodiversity? It’s the combination of plants and animals, fungi and micro-organisms, even genes, and the places on land or in water where they live.

Many of the living things that make the Wellington region distinctive are becoming rarer – fauna like kotare (kingfishers) and lizards. We can all help protect what we’ve got by keeping pest animals away. Pest animals eat plants and other animals and push them out of all the good places to live. For example, possums, rats and mice eat the berries and leaves that are food for our native birds and prey on nesting birds.

So, what’s a pest? A cat indoors is a pet; a cat outdoors at night is a pest. A sheep in a paddock is stock; but when it’s in the bush it’s definitely a pest. Things you can do include: keep your cat indoors at night, get involved with pest animal control, and plant a native tree. Native plants help our native ecosystems survive and flourish and they look great in your garden.

All the small things we do make a big difference.

Areas where Greater Wellington carries out possum control now have more rare plants such as mistletoe. Greater Wellington also controls rabbits and hares, feral goats and sheep, rooks and magpies, feral cats, mustelids (ferrets, stoats and weasels), and rats and mice.

We can turn the tide on biodiversity loss. Greater Wellington is doing all we can to protect the region’s special plants and animals from introduced animals and weeds. Dedicated people and volunteer groups have also made impressive gains.

You can help too.

Join Be the Difference online at www.bethedifference.gw.govt.nz
email info@bethedifference.gw.govt.nz or phone 0800 496 734