gryphonvert
Karori Nature Reserve, Wellington
Located in the middle of Wellington's city limits (in the largest version of the pic you will be able to see houses covering the hill in the far background), this nature reserve is located in a bowl of a valley with a couple of Victorian-era reservoirs in the bottom.
What makes Karori special is that the entire valley has been encircled with a specially-designed predator-proof fence that is meant to exclude all of the mammalian predators that were imported to New Zealand, and that cause so much trouble for NZ's native bird life. After fencing it, they spent a long time painstakingly exterminating those imported species from inside the fence, and they monitor everything VERY carefully. (I think they said that they removed something like 3500 possums alone?)
So the valley is a haven for native birds, as well as a lot of native bush.
Karori Nature Reserve, Wellington
Located in the middle of Wellington's city limits (in the largest version of the pic you will be able to see houses covering the hill in the far background), this nature reserve is located in a bowl of a valley with a couple of Victorian-era reservoirs in the bottom.
What makes Karori special is that the entire valley has been encircled with a specially-designed predator-proof fence that is meant to exclude all of the mammalian predators that were imported to New Zealand, and that cause so much trouble for NZ's native bird life. After fencing it, they spent a long time painstakingly exterminating those imported species from inside the fence, and they monitor everything VERY carefully. (I think they said that they removed something like 3500 possums alone?)
So the valley is a haven for native birds, as well as a lot of native bush.