Comments from the Department of Conservation’s Threatened Species Ambassador Nicola Toki that dogs are to blame for the decline in kiwi numbers on the Coromandel Peninsula denies the real cause says the Sporting Hunters’ Outdoor Trust.
Not dogs but 1080!
The trust’s spokesman Laurie Collins of West Coast said Nicola Toki on TV One’s breakfast show blamed dogs but failed to mention that the ecosystem poison 1080 had been dropped over most of the Coromandel by the Department of Conservation.”
“Nicola Toki doesn’t seem to understand or perhaps even know that 1080 was developed in the 1920s as an insecticide,” he said. “It therefore kills invertebrates such as worms and cicada larvae which form a major part of the kiwi’s food.
Diminish the food supply and you diminish the number of kiwi. It’s so basic. Our national icon is being both killed and starved to death.”
Insecticide 1080 wipes out kiwi food
Laurie Collins said kiwi lived in a range of habitats, from mountain slopes to exotic pine forests, and kiwi diet could vary.
“However most of their food is invertebrates particularly native worms. Luckily for kiwi, New Zealand is rich in worms, with 178 native species. Cicada larva are favoured too. But since 1080 is an insecticide it will understandably severely reduce cicada and larva worm numbers.”
It had been acknowledged that the kiwi’s diet was closely related to its breeding success as the birds needed to build up large reserves to get through the breeding season.
While the occasional “rogue” dog or household pet taken for a walk might savage a kiwi, far greater kiwi losses were likely to occur from kiwi ingesting 1080 and more particularly from poor breeding due to depleted food supply lessened by 1080 killing invertebrate kiwi food sources.
DoC ignores the Meads research
Laurie Collins said the research was there, but DoC ignored it because its obsession with spreading 1080 from the Government’s SOE supplying the poison.
In the mid-1990s government entomologist scientist Mike Meads predicted that “continued 1080 airdrops over New Zealand forests would destroy much of the food supply of ground eating birds like the kiwi.”
Mike Meads warned that because 1080 wipes out many leaf-consuming insects and micro-organisms, the litter fails to properly decompose and builds up at an alarming rate.
He was quoted as saying there was already an amazing leaf build-up in some lowland forests because without the organisms, after 1080 aerial drops, the leaf litter was not decomposing.
Complicating the matter was the unusually long life cycle of many forest invertebrates, e.g. cicada has a 17 year life cycle, weta two years. One air drop of 1080 can wipe out 17 generations of cicada larvae and they and wetas were important in the kiwi’s diet.
Mike Meads warned “widespread aerial distribution can only have serious long term effects on forests and forest life with enormous risk of destroying the ecosystem.”
“But DoC did not want to know that so they pilloried Mike Meads, and dumped his research,” said Laurie Collins. “Since 1994 and Mike Meads work, the kiwi and its food supply have suffered numerous poison drops.”
Contact: Laurie Collins 03 782 8647
Quote from Sue Boyde
“Without 1080, very few kiwi chicks survey – they are all killed by stoats and cats. My friends participate in Operation Nest Egg to ensure that at least a few chicks survive.”
What a load of rubbish , “very few chicks survive ” , “a few chicks survive”
So where are your true figures , or are you just making it up like DOC ?
Where are the figures for kiwi etc before and after Ecotoxin 1080 drops ??
I put it to you and DOC. that you dont have this data and never did.
You and DOC are misleading the public, in plain speak – lieing.
Every single drop of Ecotoxin 1080 is being done outside of the parameters of DOCs Licence to kill.
Carcasses not removed , not to be spread in waterways , not be spread in water catchments used for human consumption .
Nicola Toki’s title of “Threatened Species Ambassador” is a joke. She is and always has been a spin doctor, a PR specialist who has worked for OSPRI, Forest and Bird and DOC. Her speciality is PR and spin. Never forget that. She is a propagandist first and foremost. Have a look at her profile on Linkedin.
DoC seem to be totally divorced from reality. Someone here mentioned Neil Hayes, a long time personal friend, who was awarded a QSM for his work in saving the NZ Brown Teal, in the face of DoC who told him that what he was doing a) wouldn’t work and b) was impossible anyway. The prevalence on his ponds of lots of Brown Teal with chicks was dismissed by these “experts”. If there is any group of “armchair conservationists” it is Forest and Bird who seem to be completely out of touch with reality.
I would say to the 1080 supporters, just go into the bush after a drop, and subsequently for a period of years and see the effects on native wildlife. Silence. Not an insect buzzing or a bird chirping for years afterwards.
Have these clowns never seen a mammal die from 1080? It is the most long drawn out, cruel death that anyone could inflict on another being.
That filthy poison is not banned in almost every civilised country in the world for no reason.
We have been ‘carpet bombing’ NZ with it for over 40 years now, and I see little or no reduction in possums and a HUGE reduction in Kiwi, Weka, Kia, Tui, Ruru, Piwaiwaka, Waxeyes, Kokako etc. etc., where in the past there were lots of each cohabiting with possums and other exotic predators.
It’s not working people…..stop doing it!
Amazing Newspaper coming out with truth it appears, and not worrying about annoying other fund providing agencies. Top marks to Kapiti Independent providing the real news. Thank you.
Rebekah, what a revelation you are.We have so calledadministrators posing as if they under stand the subject and pocketing 6 figure salaries and it takes a high school student to spell out the tragedyin simple language even Lou Sanson CEO– DOC could possiblycomprehend.
I too, like the fine environmentalist Neil Hayes seen above here [ who may have singlehandedly saved the endemic brown teal from extinction would be prepared to educate Sue Boyde.I invite her to call me on 04 478 6641 anytime.Failure to call me puts her nonsense argument to rest on a dusty shelf with Bat Man and the Spider Woman adventures.
And yes, both Neil and I and also Tony above here would qualify for the Sue Bully name calling shut up tactic label of Astro Turf Hunters Club members, but it wont work, we will not give up in the face of Bullies, because ,if nothing more we have at least the moral high ground against whole of ecosystem poisoning. An indefensible position. Sue and her supporters, Forest and Bird and the Green Party assassins are so sad.
As a current student within tertiary education, and one who received high marks in my secondary schooling in all three science based classes that I took, I feel that Susan Boyde is a part of a group of people misguiding the public over the damage that 1080 poison does to any living organism that consumes it, whether by primary or secondary methods.
Sodium monofluroacetate is a chemical molecule that binds to proteins necessary for the metabolic processes in all living beings. The result of this chemical binding is the halting of the Kreb’s Cycle, a metabolic cycle that when stopped, will result in death of the organism. This induces a long and painful process in the organism that involves loss of muscle control, digestive function and in the last stages, cessation of cardiac and pulmonary functions. Contrary to seemingly popular belief of 1080 poison supporters, this process is not short, and it is most certainly not painless. During my study of this subject for my socio-economic report, I was tasked with finding scientific papers to back up my personal opinion as well as look at the other side of the argument. From my experience, it was significantly easier to find scientific documentation, that had been peer reviewed (as was a requirement of our paper), that supported the belief that 1080 is destructive to all living organisms, not just the pests that are the supposed target.
It would appear, to me at least, that Susan Boyde is simply repeating the same argument with slightly different details that organisations like DoC have been saying for years. I believe that the very fact that a component of 1080 bait is bird seed, speaks very clearly for itself. It doesn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that birds are attracted to bird seed and therefore make the leap in logic that 1080 is a threat to bird life when bird seed is a component of bait containing a deadly poison with no antidote.
Typical Sue Jenson-Boyd playing the man not the ball! For your information Laurie Collins was involved in the first experimental aerial drop of 1080 in the Caples valley in 1958 (probably before you were born?) and went on to become a very experienced toxin handler in the Pest Industry. He has seen the absolute destruction (decimation means only 10%) of quail, chukor, native birds, introduced species like blackbird, thrush and bees, deer, pigs, and domestic stock and eventually become heartily sickened from what he saw! Laurie is and has been a Conservationist since this time fighting on our behalf to stop the likes of DoOc, Ospri, Zip, Forest & Bird, The Green Party and NZ FIRST poisoning our animals and environment with the likes of 1080 and Brodificoum (Talon). Laurie needs a medal not ridiculing Sue!
Susan Boyde is showing all the traits of someone who is losing their argument, choosing instead to attack the credibility of an individual rather than providing concrete evidence of her statistics and research. I, Laurie Collins, don’t belong to any hunting club, especially not supposedly fake ones. But I have had 60 years of heavy involvement in the New Zealand bush and its wildlife, and the decline of the bulk of our bird life can very credibly be attributed to the widespread use of 1080 poison. 90% of Kiwi habitat is a long way off the beaten track and well outside the range of feral cats. You can ask any hunter and you will find that it is almost unheard of to even see a cat outside close proximity to suburbia. Unfortunately, it is the blind devotion by people, like Susan Boyde, that will write the final chapter and be responsible for the demise of so many of our native species.
It’s significant to see Sue Boyde indulging in name calling. “astro-turfing fake hunters club”, “ignorant man” etc., Name calling shows weakness of argument and/.or immaturity. Oops!
I once interviewed the late Ivor Scott of Karangarua, a farmer and a man of integrity. He recalled how he would take his kids up the valley and camp ir stay in Cassel’s Flat hut to hear the kiwi. 1080 was dropped and Ivor recalled after that the kiwi were gone. Silence. I would 100% believe Ivor.
I would also 100 percent believe Ivor Scott never was there such a magnificent reputable man as he. These familys settled the area in the 1800s. I remember hearing the same thing happening at Haast in the 70s they found dead kiwis after a drop.
I see that Sue Grey sets store by Mike Meads’ report on an experiment at Whitecliffs in 1994. Unfortunately Meads’ experiment was rendered invalid by several mistakes – he moved 1080 baits because he didn’t think there were enough baits present from the 1080 drop, hence he greatly increased the dosage; his choice of pitfall traps were only valid for determining presence of species, not numbers; his control area showed the same patterns of insect presence as his treatment area, and he then ad-hoc claimed that the control area had experienced 1080 dust. In other words, the experiment was a mess. So why does the anti-1080 movement value this invalid experiment so highly? Because it suits their agenda.
You can find Meads’ report, and the peer review, here:
https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Meads%20Report%20and%20attached%20peer%20review%20notes.pdf?token=AWy8kYFth3Emo2MuALvWfAOa1zRBc3J3i-YqRjJxtVIthRaliZuxYIi_X-x1unX1Wun7DFCpA-iqBes60x0hHtSYJRQk0NbY0qbqrnu51-W08wclk4ah58K0_kY580SjVCo9bJVc2WUu8B5SvfROZx2T
Sue Grey has issued an OIA request asking DOC to provide her with the research since Meads’ report was rejected. This is a novel approach to doing a document search, and I believe that only research that DOC itself has done would come within the scope of the OIR. May I recommend https://scholar.google.co.nz/ as a better tool. For example a search on “sodium fluoroacetate effect on invertebrates nz” produced many interesting results.
What evidence do you have the paper was a mess ? Were you there or are you expressing your opinion? I think you’ll find the man was pilloried by Doc because he was true to the scientific approach, rather than produce what they instructed they wanted. He paid a high price for being principled. There still hope to become objective….. good luck.
This is what an eminent Ausie scientist had to say about modern ‘research’: These comments apply to all so-called research in NZ!
PSUEDO-SCIENCE
Eminent Australian scientist, John Reid, had this to say about the ‘modern scientific’ approach to ‘research’:
“There are issues concerning the way science and scientists are perceived by the public and by themselves. Why is it assumed that science always gets it right, that only industry is capable of wrecking the environment?
There are issues about the unholy alliance between environmental scientists on the government payroll and environmental activists and lobby groups acting politically.
There are issues about the way in which scientists continue to produce those environmental “threats” which have proven so useful in maintaining projects’ funding.”
In other words – make the science fit a pre-determined outcome (pseudo-science) – and always follow/support the funding source!
Neil Hayes
I know about half a dozen people in various parts of the country who protect and study kiwi. For example the Remutaka Kiwi Project. They know very well the state of their kiwi and the effects on them of whatever is happening in the environment.
Without 1080, very few kiwi chicks survey – they are all killed by stoats and cats. My friends participate in Operation Nest Egg to ensure that at least a few chicks survive.
After 1080, they have a couple of good breeding seasons when 60-70% of the chicks survive to adulthood. And the 1080 has no effect on the invert food supply for kiwi.
Laurie Collins is one ignorant man with an astro-turfing fake hunters’ club. I am disgusted to see Kapiti Independent News becoming an organ of anti-1080 misinformation.
Sue Boys. There is a huge difference between front-country operations as you have described and the far more remote back-country. The former has far more feral animals from the nearby inhabitants. In remote areas without 1080 there is a balance established between prey and predator with stable numbers on both sides. Disrupting that balance with massive eco-toxins unfortunately gives the predators the upper hand – the law of unintended consequences. Plagues of rats and mice closely followed by stoats rapidly follow aerial 1080 application creating problems where none existed before. DOC and OSPRI have been responsible for so many deaths of species supposedly in their care. Sadly both organisations are immune from prosecution for killing protected species. Would it be otherwise!
Sue , appreciate you have an opinion, but rather than denigrate someones position look to the science.
Its not about the short term impact, its the long term impact of continually fiddling with mother nature. She will never recover in our lifetime. Think of DDT , Agent orange and there impacts . 1080 is in the same category and with time the truth in New Zealand will be known. Its certainly known in all other countries around the world, and is known to have almost killed of the Bald Eagle in America. Laurie I think is talking about the impact on insect which is also substantial. If 1080 was a one time use to cure the perceived problem that would be acceptable and Nature would be able to repair itself. However its really wrong to think of it as a fertiliser that improves the environment. Its just not able to be contained. Despite 1080 being a long painful deaths its not the poison thats the issue its the mass “fertilising ” by air that the main objection exists. Its just does not make sense when its known as a non specific poison. Using 1080 in containment such as bait stations become much more target specific, which after all is what we all accept needs to happen , including Laurie I suspect. Also your comment about the hunter’s club is wrong as well. I know they are all keen hunters that Laurie speaks for and they have spent many years watching the bush, birds and mother nature. They are entitled to an opinion which seems to be factual based without being slandered. Stick to the facts , rather than you mean vilification of other people and groups whom you do not even know. . Read the Mead report.
Sue Boyde needs put her brain into gear before writing such arrant nonsense, because all the people she abuses are all involved in attempting to save our endemic species.
Many have also made significant contributions towards enhancing and preserving our environment – by creating wetlands, planting vast numbers of trees and eliminating predators.
Many have also represented New Zealand in shooting sports!
I’m more than happy to attempt to ‘educate’ Ms Boyde!
Neil Hayes QSM CEnv PhD FRSA
As a Kiwi ‘expert’ perhaps Ms Boyde could tell us why at least 120 captive reared Kiwi (including all the white Kiwi) have died in the Mt Bruce bush – 30 minutes drive from my computer.
Neil Hayes QSM, etc
Dr Mike Meads’ published research in 1994 when he was employed by the NZ government indicating that 1080 poison has a significant impact on insects, and that more research was required to assess wider effects- presumably on the insects themselves and also as part of the food chain for native birds and other species.
In his report of June 1994 (DoC Report 1414) Dr Meads recommended:
“Investigations on the effects of this poison on non¬target species has mostly been confined to its direct impact on birds, with little or no research on the effects on lizards, bats, or invertebrates. Few studies have dealt with the direct impact of 1080 on native insects and other invertebrates, and there is no research on the effect of 1080 on populations or communities of invertebrate species….”
I recently sent an OIA request to Lou Sanson the CEO of DoC and to the Minister of Conservation asking: Please could you provide:
1. copies of all research undertaken by or commissioned by DoC and/or MPI (or their predecessors) to follow up this recommendation by the government’s then expert Dr Meads and
2. copies of analysis of the impacts of poisoning of insects and invertebrates by 1080 on the food chain, native birds, wild foods, food products such as honey, and on NZ’s clean green reputation and reputation for food integrity, and accordingly impacts on food experts, tourism and the wider economy.
I have been unable to find Dr Mead’s report or any research or analysis of this type I’ve requested on DoC or MPI’s website (other than the warnings associated with consuming trout that may have been exposed to 1080 within the previous week) . If this information is available to the public and to researchers without waiting for the OIA process, please could you provide a link or links to help locate it.
Thank you for your help.
Sue Grey LLB(Hons), BSc, RSHDipPHI
The article is sadly correct in blaming heavy-handed poisoning by DOC rather than dogs for the demise of kiwi. Besides starving worm and insect eaters like the kiwi the insecticide 1080 is long-lasting and birds which eat poisoned insects will also die. The 1080 poison is also noted as disrupting breeding success, so if kiwi receive sub-fatal doses they will be infertile.
So discusting. Killing our kiwi and wild life. Stopping guys earning a living with possum fur. Distroying our clean grean immage. Worst of all its a cruel unhumane way to kill something. How wrong is our government.STOP NOW
The departments spokesperson blaming a very serious issue of kiwi destruction on a dog is surely a deflection from the real facts. Surely its another public smokescreen from the truth. With all the science that Doc uses they must be analysing the causes of death of dead birds by autopsy and the true facts available rather than pointing at escape dogs. Who checks Government deliberate misrepresentations?
We have a healthy population of kiwi and tui, bellbird and big populations of all the species, in our small bush 6 acres near the bush but also close to beach housing. We have rats and possums that we do catch in traps but no 1080. I’m thinking that there is a balance with little interference certainly not chemical .
Can this be for real. I’d am surprised that a government department would be doing this. Surely they would not be deliberately contaminating our beautiful country. If it’s true who holds the department accountable? Surely there must be a government control to prevent departmentall abuse of our country and people.
I’m constantly amazed at DoC people who just don’t seem to understand 5th form biology basics on food chains. Mind you they’re not alone, Ministry of Fisheries have same failing. It’s interesting how Nicola Toki is now blaming dogs for kiwi decline. They jump from one reason to another just to justify their flawed policies. It could be laughable except they are inflicting destruction on bird and invertebrate numbers in wilderness and secondly they are using our taxpayer money to carry out their fiascos.
The science is there as Laurie Collins has pointed out, exemplified by the late Mike Meads work but they ignore it and use “paid” contracted science to try to justify their actions. Tony Orman
No dogs at Masons Bay at Stewart Island perhaps it’s 1080 poison or the herbercide Gallant used by DoC to spray the marram grass in the sand dunes which is toxic to worms and probably other invertebrates that kiwi feed on in the dunes that’s killing them.
Easy to blame dogs, my guess would be DoCs obsession with 1080 poison and other chemicals they use kill more kiwi than any predators ever would.
DoC have been using the herbercide Gallant to kill marram grass at Stewart Islands Masons Bay a favourite feeding ground of kiwi, worms and probably other insects are known to be poisoned by Gallant could it be that kiwi deaths recorded there have been secondary poisoned from the use of this chemical
Other chemicals DoC have used is Gallant to spray marram grass in the sand dunes at Masons Bay Stewart Is, a favourite haunt of kiwi, a quick search found that Gallant is toxic to worms could the kiwi deaths at Masons Bay been a result of eating invertebrates poisoned by this chemical. DoC probably have killed more kiwi than the odd out of control dog.
Laurie Collins is right on this one, Nicola Toki like her DOC CEO boss Lou Sanson are card carrying 1080 poison pushers and would have no idea about any effects on kiwis from dogs It is just a smoke screen divergent tactic to avert the eyes of the public from their criminal and fraudulent carpet bombing of the wildernessusing taxpayer funding with a broad spectrum poison1080 that kills all creatures that metabolize oxygen. It is all originating from the cleansing mentality to eradicate any species not native to NZ.
The origin of this cleansing dates back to the German botany scientist Ernst Haeckel [late 19th C. early 20th C.]the father of the ecology concept. He promoted the idea that things, [flora and fauna] have their native place and should remain there and be removed from any relocated new environment to keep purity of place. To Haeckel the concept of the father land and the blood and soil of the German “race” is one and the same and must remain pure. TheNazi 3rd Reich picked up on this and of course we all know where that went, [“Juden Verboten”, and Hermann Goering’s infamous decree “I alone will decide who is a Jew” when sending folks to Auschwitz or Dachau.
Sadly, NZ has picked up on this turning the clock back to cleansingthe land and purity a concept where all things native, are superior read [wonderful] including people get a free pass ,”get out of jail free card” others are at risk of being labelled a”pest” [2nd class] and could be subject to eradication i. e. “Pest FreeNZ by 2050”.our resident Hermann Goering Lou Sanson and his henchmen assassins, Forest and Bird/Green Party decides which ones get the target poison.
Sadly, now it is the kiwi diet– insects— no food no kiwi!!!
No doubt a dog might take the odd kiwi, but the author hits the nail squarely on the head with DOC, OSPRI and Regional Council’s all pouring massive quantities of this eco-poison across vast sages of New Zealand.
Our silent forests are bearing equally silent witness to the appalling effects 1080 has, with ever decreasing populations of all manner of species.
Time for a change of direction, but despite Winston Peter’s pre-election promises, we continue down this destructive path of blind zealotry.
This is a factual article and watch the terrorist pro poisoners crawl from beneath their rocks to try to justify 1080!