Conservation authorities are urging dog owners to keep pets under strict control after repeated incidents of dogs roaming through protected beach nesting areas used by one of New Zealand’s rarest native birds.
Recent disturbances at a fenced-off coastal site at Mangawhai north of Auckland have seen unattended dogs running close to active nests of the Fairy Tern containing newly laid eggs, creating a serious risk that adult birds will abandon their breeding efforts.
With only around 40 adults remaining in the wild and just a handful capable of breeding, even a single incident could have major consequences for the species’ survival.
The problem is believed to be linked to animals brought ashore by boat users and allowed to run freely in the dunes and on the beach, often in the evenings when rangers are not present.
The affected coastline is a critical breeding and recovery area, where nests are shallow scrapes in shelly sand and ongoing protection is vital to prevent further setbacks.
Image credit: Department of Conservation (NZ), CC BY 4.0
Please… try at least to control your dogs… in our area we still have people who think they are above having to keep their dogs on leads around our area…. Yeh, it’s all ok …. Until it’s not… one day something will happen…. the consequences are not nice…physcially or financially….