![]() ![]() Mr Glentworth said they were a tricky species to control as they were intelligent birds and learned quickly to ignore initial controls of a toxin on bread and dripping. ![]() Over the past year there were sightings of a single rook, most recently at the North Canterbury property by a farm manager.Īfter an ECan staff member confirmed it was a rook a worker on the farm managed to shoot it the next week. Their numbers were reduced to about three birds in 2018 with two of them found and killed. There were rookeries with thousands of birds and they were put in a number of pest management plans because in those large groups they decimate cereal crops." "They were released in the 1800s in Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay and they really took off. He said they were a pest threat to arable production, particularly when in large numbers. They became a crop pest, taking freshly sown seeds out of the ground at arable farms, ripping up small plants and damaging crops.Įnvironment Canterbury (ECan) is calling the elimination of the last known bird and eradication of rooks before the goal of 2028 a pest success.īiosecurity team leader Brent Glentworth said they were really pleased the last known rook had been destroyed after sightings of a lone older male in the North Canterbury area since 2018. Removing the canny birds since they were declared a pest in the 1990s has taken perseverance as they are quick learners at identifying and avoiding poisoned bait.Īt their peak more than 20 years ago the purplish-black rooks - the only members of the crow family in New Zealand - reached about 5600 birds in Canterbury. ![]() Thousands of them once thrived in Canterbury but the last known rook was shot last month by a farm worker in North Canterbury’s Parnassus/inland Kaikoura road area and marks the only time a pest animal has been eradicated in the region.Ī veterinarian has confirmed it was an older male bird. PHOTO: SUPPLIEDA take-no-prisoners approach to removing a bird pest causing havoc on new crops has paid off. Canterbury is finally rook-free after the last known bird was killed following a long campaign to remove the crop pest. ![]()
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