BIRD LIFE MENACED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 667, 20 May 1929, Page 16

BIRD LIFE MENACED

EXPERT’S WARNING N.Z. ZOOS’ OPPORTUNITY (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Today. When he returned to Wellington last week after a trip to Sydney. Dr. A. R. Young, formerly Director of the Live Stock Division of the Agricultural Department, made a plea for the Wellington Zoo authorities to make an effort to preserve New Zealand fauna, which he maintains is in danger of extinction. He considered that Dominion zoos should be made typical of New Zealand flora and fauna. He suggested that the Wellington Zoo should concentrate on stocking New* Zealand birds amidst their natural flora. To enable this being done, he suggested further that the zoo should set aside an area for New Zealand birds. The zoos, he maintained, should be typical of the country, and not crowded with foreign birds and animals.

He protested against the wholesale destruction of native fauna, saying, for example, that once bush was felled, there was no shelter for kiwis, which were left to the mercy of dogs. His view was that the law should be amended to enable people to hatch kiwis and other native birds, so long as they did not keep them in captivity or sell them overseas. As the law is at present no, effort can be made to save the native fauna from destruction.