Stewart Island divided over proposed 1080 drop

Efforts to save the critically endangered Southern New Zealand dotterel have driven Stewart Island into one of its most emotional battles in years.

DOC ranger Daniel “Dotterel Dan” Cocker and his team face a constant onslaught from feral cats, which kill dozens of dotterel each breeding season.

With only 105 birds left, he told state-funded media trapping alone has proved “painfully slow”, prompting a shift to a “secondary kill” strategy using 1080 poison.

The idea: rats eat the pellets, cats eat the poisoned rats, and the dotterel finally get a season free from predators.

Early signs from trail cameras show “promising declines” in cat activity within treated areas, with new nests and chicks spotted for the first time in years. For DOC and Predator Free Rakiura, the operation offers cautious hope that the species might climb toward its 300-bird recovery goal before extinction becomes inevitable.

But the 1080 drop has fractured the tight-knit community of Oban. Many residents and members of the Protect Rakiura Trust, fiercely oppose the poison, fearing impacts on wildlife, water, the island’s economy and way of life.

Tensions have simmered through meetings, protest signs, and strained friendships, with some locals reporting dead deer and quiet forests after the drop.

Others argue Stewart Island’s ecology has been out of balance for generations, and without intervention the dotterel will vanish like many native species before them.

While early monitoring shows healthy birdlife and fewer predators, mistrust remains. Even as DOC and locals continue walking the bush together to compare perspectives, many on the island believe the divide is far from healed—just quietly waiting beneath the surface.