Nine threats, actual and potential, to the wild kea population are currently identified. These may be broadly defined as either environmental and ubiquitous or human and localised:
- Introduced mammalian predators
- Lead in kea habitat (e.g. flashings and lead-head nails, tyre weights, lead shot)
- Ground based pest control devices (e.g. poison baits and traps laid for pest control)
- Poorly timed aerial 1080 pest control (non target risk without compensatory benefits)
- Avian diseases
- Climate change (through changes in predator abundance, food availability and habitat)
- Accidents with human objects (e.g. motor vehicles, snow groomers, rubbish bins, electricity sub-stations, life-stylers)
- Destruction/removal of nuisance individuals (permitted or un-permitted)
- Illicit wildlife trade
Projects are being developed to minimise the impact of each of these threats. Click on the link to view our current Threat Mitigation Projects.