Diving Petrel lost (and found) in local re-cycle bin

Environmental News Issue 21 Summer-Autumn 2010

Okiwi schoolboy Tahi Ngawaka found this petite seabird in the plastics recycling bin at Okiwi. It is a diving petrel or kuaka (pelecadoides urinatrix) and how it got into recycling is a mystery. They breed in the winter on Little Barrier, the Mokohinaus and rat-free rock stacks around the Barrrier. Historically they would have been numbered in the millions here but the introduction of firstly the kiore and then the black rat means they no longer can breed on Great Barrier Is.