WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.160 Welcome. This is Marcia for Radio Eye and to day 2 00:00:03.399 --> 00:00:07.040 I will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated January twenty 3 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.320 twenty five. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a reading 4 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:13.279 service intended for people who are blind or have other 5 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:17.280 disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. Please 6 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.199 join me now for the first article titled can the 7 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:23.879 fragile birds of New Zealand be saved by killing millions 8 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:28.920 of predators? This article by Kennedy Warne. To protect their 9 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:33.159 most precious birds, New Zealanders have marked key invasive predators 10 00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:37.880 for total eradication. Now the world's most ambitious conservation experiment 11 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.520 is entering a brutally efficient new phase, one that could 12 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:46.479 change how we decide what's worth saving. The trail was steep, 13 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.479 overgrown and slippery from rain. I had to grip tree 14 00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:52.000 trunks and clumps of leaves to keep from sliding down 15 00:00:52.039 --> 00:00:54.840 the mountain side. It was springtime and in this forest 16 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.439 reserve in northern New Zealand, chicks were hatching. My friend 17 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:00.679 and I were part of a volunteer effort to help 18 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:05.200 protect them from a ruthless invasive predator, and packed accordingly. 19 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:09.959 Our backpacks contained bags of orange scented rat poison, except 20 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.840 our target wasn't rats at all. We were after stoats, 21 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.640 small carnivorous mammals introduced to New Zealand in the eighteen 22 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:21.120 seventies that are especially deadly to native birds. These animals 23 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:24.239 are lean and lithe, with kitten like faces. They'd be 24 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:28.079 almost adorable if they weren't such devastating killers. A stoat 25 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:30.280 can climb a sixty foot tree to take down a 26 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:34.000 fully grown pigeon, grappling the bird off its perch before 27 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:37.439 forcing it onto the ground below. Once the bird is subdued, 28 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:40.599 the stoat typically sinks a pair of long canines into 29 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:43.319 the back of its head to eat its brain, followed 30 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:47.319 by bodily organs and eventually the remaining meat. Stoats were 31 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:50.760 introduced to control rabbits, but became adept at killing ground 32 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:56.000 dwelling birds like our iconic bird, the Kiwi. The challenge 33 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:59.079 with stoats is that they are weary of traps and toxins, 34 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:02.359 so we were deployed a work around by stalking dozens 35 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:06.359 of small bait stations molded plastic boxes screwed into the 36 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:10.560 base of trees with toxic petals that rats find irresistible. 37 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:14.840 Rats are another invasive predator, but more important for this gambit, 38 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.319 stoats will also prey on them. If you can poison 39 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:21.039 a rat happily enough, then any stout that eats it 40 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.840 will probably die too. That way, you can rid the 41 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.479 forest of two predators in a single stroke. Such logic 42 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:30.439 may sound heartless, but there is a much larger mission 43 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.360 at stake for my entire country. Stoats rats another non 44 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:38.560 native mammalian pass are destroying the unique ecology of New Zealand. 45 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:42.479 Over the centuries since these animals were introduced, many of 46 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:46.000 our indigenous species have been wiped out because they aren't 47 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:50.680 adapted to defend themselves against ground hunting mammals. We now 48 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:53.080 find ourselves at a turning point with a chance to 49 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:58.120 accelerate steps to undo generations of ecological harm. Although the 50 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:03.599 ethical quandary is around directly intervening remain complex, the strategies 51 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:08.280 and technology for killing predators continues to improve life on 52 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:11.759 the land that came to be called air Torawa, the 53 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:15.719 Maori language name for the New Zealand archipelago, avowed for 54 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:19.319 eighty million years in the complete absence of terrestrial mammals 55 00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:22.599 other than a few bat species. Then in the blink 56 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:26.560 of an evolutionary eye. That changed when humans started arriving 57 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:30.439 around seven hundred fifty years ago, bringing with them, albeit 58 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:35.360 sometimes inadvertently, wave after wave of new threats. Today, the 59 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:38.639 most common invasive predators have hunted more than fifty five 60 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:42.520 bird species to extinction, including some of the only flightless 61 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:46.159 song birds ever to have existed, two kinds of flightless geese, 62 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:49.439 and a remarkable bird called the Huya, one of a 63 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:54.199 family of wattle birds found only in New Zealand. This bird, 64 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:58.639 highly sacred to Maori, had a most unusual feature. Male 65 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:02.319 and female birds had dramatic different bills. Four fifths of 66 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:06.120 the country's remaining endemic birds, including kiwis, are at risk 67 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:09.360 of the same fate. Ninety four percent of native reptiles 68 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:13.479 are similarly threatened, as are two of our three native 69 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.519 species of frog. To counteract the destruction, New Zealand officials 70 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:20.879 have mounted an offensive for humans to hunt the hunters 71 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:24.720 into total elimination. Almost a decade ago, in twenty sixteen, 72 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:29.199 then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced the government's 73 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:33.720 seemingly audacious goal of completely eradicating major predator species by 74 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:38.360 twenty fifty. The seven invaders. Specifically targeted are three different 75 00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:43.439 types of rats, plus doats, ferrets, weasels, and possums. Key 76 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:47.720 dubbed this the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in 77 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:52.120 the world. The late New Zealand physicist Sir Paul Callaghan, 78 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:55.439 one of the first to articulate the predator free vision, 79 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:58.959 likened the difficulty of achieving that goal to creating an 80 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:03.720 Apollo program our country's moonshot. The effort has been estimated 81 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.839 to cost upwards of six billion dollars. New Zealand has 82 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:10.759 a land area of a hundred thousand square miles, with 83 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:14.959 invasive predators spread across not just mountains and forests, but 84 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.600 also glaciers, dune lands, wetlands, and hundreds of urban areas. 85 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:22.399 Any solutions would need to operate effectively on all of 86 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:27.800 those frontiers. Nine years after the predator Free campaign launched. However, 87 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:33.160 conservationists agree that existing control strategies, even deploying poison to 88 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.720 kill two predators at once and other techniques developed in 89 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:40.360 recent decades, won't get us to zero by twenty fifty, 90 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:44.160 or possibly at all. The geographical scale is too small, 91 00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:48.560 the available resources too thin, the collateral damage too difficult 92 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:53.040 to manage, but achieving any moonshot has always required rethinking 93 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:56.800 just about everything. Right now, That's what a cologist's, biologists, 94 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:01.240 trap makers, ethicists, and engineers are doing, combining their strengths 95 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:05.160 to learn from the past while accelorating the pace of innovation. 96 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:09.160 Despite the obstacles, the progress their making has them imagining 97 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:14.199 a hopeful new future. Birds safe, Predators Gone. No creature 98 00:06:14.279 --> 00:06:18.040 captures the predicament of New Zealand's native animals evolving in 99 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:22.360 isolation better than the Kiwi, the epitome of beloved, weirdness 100 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:26.120 and vulnerability. Kiwis are about the size of a chicken 101 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:29.279 and have attributes similar to the mammals that were largely 102 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:35.199 absent during New Zealand's evolutionary history. There are five species. 103 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.680 All are nocturnal and flightless, with catlike whiskers and fur 104 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:42.360 like shaggy feathers. They even have marrow in their leg bones, 105 00:06:42.439 --> 00:06:46.959 all unbirdlike features. To encounter a kiwi in the wild, 106 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.600 watching it probe the leafy rumas pushing its five inch 107 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:53.279 bill almost to the hilt as it hunts for grubs 108 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:57.240 is to be transported to an Arcadian epoch when birds 109 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:00.519 had no need to escape ground dwelling threads. But that 110 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:05.360 protective environment changed abruptly when humans arrived from Eastern Polynesia, 111 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:10.240 with the first recorded invasive predator, the ciuree rat, which 112 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:13.360 may have been carried on their voyaging canoes as a 113 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:16.639 food source. The danger grew with the arrival of Europeans, 114 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:20.040 who introduced black and brown rats that likely traveled with 115 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:24.120 them as stowaways on ships. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 116 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:30.279 more intentional animal introductions also went awry. Colonial settlers unleashed 117 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:34.199 a deadly triumvirate of ferret's weasels and of course, stoats, 118 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:37.680 in an ill conceived effort to keep rabbits, which themselves 119 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:41.439 were introduced for food and sport, in check. The proposed 120 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:45.360 control agents barely dented the rabbit numbers, turning their attention 121 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:48.160 to birds and other fauna, which were much easier to 122 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:51.759 catch and had no natural defenses against them. Then, in 123 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:55.560 an attempt to establish a fur industry, Colonial New Zealanders 124 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.199 imported the Australian brush tail possum, which is a bit 125 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:02.399 larger than its American cousin, with a furry tail and 126 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:08.439 luxuriant pelt. These omnivorous eaters quickly spread through the country's forests, 127 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.839 but the nineteen eighties, more than fifty million possums were 128 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:15.199 estimated to be in the wild, consuming twenty three thousand 129 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:19.360 tons of vegetation every night, along with birds and their eggs, 130 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:23.920 snails and other invertebrates. The accumulative damage inflicted by these 131 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:28.519 animals is almost beyond comprehension. At least twenty five million 132 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:30.839 chicks and eggs of native birds are believed to be 133 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:34.559 consumed by such predators each year. It has been estimated 134 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:38.120 that ninety five percent of kiwis that hatch in areas 135 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:41.759 where stoats are active do not live to adulthood. Every 136 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:45.960 New Zealand habitat is under siege, says Colin Muirk, a 137 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:50.320 landscape ecologist at the University of Canterbury. The initial attempt 138 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.919 to eradicate predators began sixty five years ago on many 139 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:58.039 of the country's small offshore islands. The techniques and devices 140 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:03.039 used were rudimentary hardware snap traps for rodents, bigger, more 141 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:07.279 powerful versions for stoats. Toxic baits dropped from low flying 142 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:12.440 aircraft to blanket an entire island with rudenticide, but the 143 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:15.799 effort worked. More than three hundred New Zealand islands are 144 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:19.799 now predator free and have become sanctuaries for vulnerable creatures, 145 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:23.960 such as the tuartara, a lizard like reptile that's evolved 146 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:28.320 little since the age of dinosaurs, and the owl faced cacapo, 147 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:33.559 the world's only flightless parrot. The elegant tieca or North 148 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.360 Island saddleback, which is named for a chestnut blaze of 149 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:41.879 feathers across its jet black plumage, once survived on only 150 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:45.519 one predator free island. It has since been reintroduced to 151 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:49.159 others as those areas have become safe to inhabit. On 152 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:52.600 the mainland, gains have been slower and hard won. In Miramar, 153 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:56.960 a four square mile peninsula in the country's capital city, Wellington. 154 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:01.480 It took workers for Predator Free Wellington four years to 155 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.399 fully rid the area of black and brown rats, stoads, 156 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:08.360 and weasels. Doing so required installing more than eleven thousand 157 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:13.159 bait stations and traps in residence yards, schools, shopping centers 158 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:15.840 and even the studios where sets for the Lord of 159 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:19.279 the Rings were constructed. These had to be checked weekly 160 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:22.559 for at least six months before project staff began the 161 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:26.799 extended process of locating any animals that had evaded traps 162 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:31.279 and toxins. At least a thousand Miramar households formed their 163 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:35.639 own volunteer network to help out through careful management. Key 164 00:10:35.720 --> 00:10:38.919 predators have also been removed from a three hundred fifty 165 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:43.399 square mile swath of wilderness in the country's mountainous southwest, 166 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.919 proof that eradication is possible in both urban and back 167 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:50.639 country regions, but all told, the area cleared so far 168 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.360 is still less than half a percent of the whole country. 169 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:56.960 Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have proved willing to 170 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:00.080 engage in this effort. Many schools teach students how to 171 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:05.159 humanely trap and kill predators as part of a conservation curriculum. Now, 172 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:10.039 eradication experts want to accelerate progress by increasing the impact 173 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:14.639 of these volunteers. Dan Tompkins, science director of Predator Free 174 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:19.159 twenty fifty Limited, a company that allocates government funding toward 175 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:22.240 future innovations, says one of the top priorities is to 176 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:27.080 draadically reduce the time spent servicing killing devices in the field, 177 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:31.879 self resetting traps with dispensers to automatically bait them are 178 00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:36.039 already doing that. The devices can operate autonomously for months, 179 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:40.080 while sharing their catch status and other data, giving projects 180 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:45.159 staff a continuous update on predator numbers and activity. One 181 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:48.440 popular variety has the trap mechanism housed in a wire 182 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:51.279 mesh cage that is screwed to a tree at shoulder 183 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.879 height to keep it out of reach of curious ground 184 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:58.879 birds such as kiwis. A wooden ramped leads predators up 185 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:01.559 to the device, which they enter from below, lured by 186 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:05.600 the promise of food. The specially formulated bait, appealing to 187 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:09.720 both rodents and possums, is a flavored mayonnaise. When the 188 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:13.200 animal crosses a light beam, the trap triggers a kill bar, 189 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:16.279 crushes the skulls of rats and mice, and strangles the 190 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:21.440 much larger possum. Once it has been triggered, a motor 191 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:25.279 rebates and resets the trap, rewinding the kill mechanism. The 192 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:28.279 carcass then drops out of the trap enclosure to the ground. 193 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:31.600 These traps are being deployed across the country. In the 194 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:35.519 Southern Lakes region of New Zealand's South Island, Paul cavanaught 195 00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:39.600 the direct project director for a consortium that supports over 196 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:44.799 one hundred volunteer groups and conservation minded organizations, estimates that 197 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:48.639 self resetting traps are forty nine times more effective than 198 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:52.960 traditional devices. Our self resetting traps have been catching two 199 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:55.799 to six possums per night, and we might not need 200 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:58.399 to check the trap more than once every six months, 201 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:00.720 he told me at a project field site in the 202 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:06.039 hills beyond Queenstown. In contrast, a single set trap might 203 00:13:06.120 --> 00:13:08.000 make one kill and then be out of service for 204 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:11.279 a month until a volunteer comes to reset it. Other 205 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:15.200 lower tech devices require even more work. Leg holed traps, 206 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:18.120 commonly used in the fur trade but also sometimes in 207 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:22.639 pest control, don't kill animals outright. New Zealand law requires 208 00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:25.399 they be checked every twelve hours so the animal can 209 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:29.879 be dispatched without undue suffering. Collectively, the four hundred self 210 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:34.200 resetting traps at Kavanaughs Field sides dispatched more than seventy 211 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:38.200 two hundred pests in twelve months. It's game changing technology, 212 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:40.519 he said. We used to say you can't trap your 213 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:45.000 way to predator elimination. These traps are challenging that idea. 214 00:13:46.279 --> 00:13:49.039 Until now, traps have also needed to be placed inside 215 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:52.519 boxes or structures with openings just wide enough to admit 216 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.320 the target predator but prevent non target species from being 217 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:00.639 snared accidentally. The problem is many predators are trap shy, 218 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.639 disinclined to enter the confines of a box or other 219 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:08.480 housing despite the temptation of a tasty treat. That's changing 220 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:12.039 with artificial intelligence recognition, which allows for a trap that 221 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:15.960 is completely open. These traps, expected to debut this year, 222 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:19.720 will trigger only when the target predator approaches them and 223 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:23.600 an AI powered camera confirms the identity of the species. 224 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:28.480 In addition, whereas traditional traps require the target animal to push, pull, 225 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:32.360 or stand on a trigger to activate them, AI traps 226 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:35.720 do not demand that level of interaction. They ensure an 227 00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:39.639 instant killed with few near misses, and importantly create less 228 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:44.720 collateral damage. While some inventors focus on trap technology, others 229 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:48.919 use their understanding of predator behavior to advantage. One product 230 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:52.919 that's close to being released commercially is the Spitfire. It's 231 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:56.240 designed to turn the grooming impulse of furry animals into 232 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.120 a fatal last act. The device could use peanuts, but 233 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.559 to attract predators to reach it, an animal must stand 234 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:07.519 on a platform which weighs records its weight. This then 235 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:12.039 triggers an infrared beam to assess height, accurately determining whether 236 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.000 this is a desired target, all within a fraction of 237 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:19.080 a second. Once a positive identification is made, the device 238 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.320 sprays toxin onto the animal's belly, prompting the critter to 239 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:27.200 groom and in so doing, in just the toxin spitfires 240 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.759 can deliver up to a hundred lethal doses and be 241 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:33.360 left in the field an attendant for a year. When 242 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:37.399 development that excites Tompkins is the impending commercial release of 243 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:42.919 the world's first rat selective toxin, a chemical called norbormide. 244 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:46.080 It was discovered by accident in the nineteen sixties but 245 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.639 fell out of use because of inconsistent effectiveness and the 246 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:54.159 evergence of second generation anti coagulants. Now it shows promise 247 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:58.480 in reducing the collateral damage of eradication efforts. A rat 248 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:01.240 toxin that puts no other speed at risk is a 249 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:04.759 game changer, he says. For example, the rat toxin I 250 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:07.840 carried through the forest could accidentally poison a range of 251 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:12.440 birds and animals, including dogs, which might scavenge a poisoned carcass. 252 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:15.639 A rat specific toxin could be deployed to remove the 253 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:20.080 last holdouts in a rodent population and prevent re invasion 254 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.639 once an area has been cleared to ensure the removal 255 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:27.960 is permanent. New Zealand is now poised to automate the 256 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:31.399 mass killing of animals on an unprecedented scale, but some 257 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:35.799 animal rights experts argue that the predator eradication community has 258 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:39.879 always addressed the obvious ethical implications. I'm not opposed to 259 00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:44.960 the principles of predator Free twenty fifty, says Nio Busserli, 260 00:16:45.720 --> 00:16:49.080 co director of the Animal Welfare, Science and Bioethics Center 261 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:52.480 at New Zealand's Massy University. But if you're going to 262 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:56.879 undertake something that has potential impacts for millions of sentient animals, 263 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:00.320 then there's an ethical obligation to do the as you 264 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:03.919 can for them. The eradication effort, at least as conducted 265 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:07.440 so far, hasn't met the correct standard of compassion. Critics 266 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:11.000 argue the campaign in New Zealand to exterminate all non 267 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:14.440 native animals relies on the use of poisons, which are 268 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:18.960 known to cause intense suffering and agonizing deaths. Conservationist Jane 269 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:23.319 Goodall stated in her own ethical review of the eradication programs. 270 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.720 As I read more and more about this plan, I 271 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:32.160 became increasingly concerned. For now, despite their welfare issues, toxins 272 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:36.640 remain indispensable to the predator free mission. But as James Russell, 273 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:42.039 an ecologist and National geographic explorer who works to restore 274 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:45.799 endangered populations, explained to me, there are two kinds of 275 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:48.880 animal welfare to consider, that of the predator and that 276 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:52.240 of the prey. The harm that predators inflict on native 277 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:55.799 species far exceeds the harm we inflict in managing them. 278 00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:00.480 He argues. The presence of mammalian predators in air Heroa 279 00:18:01.079 --> 00:18:06.279 is an historical environmental injustice. Russell said, just as we 280 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:09.720 try to correct historical social injustices, I believe we should 281 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:14.920 try to correct historical environmental injustices. On a late May day, 282 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.240 I was helping Russell catch and band gray faced petrels, 283 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.480 one of the few burrowing seabirds that still nest on 284 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:27.000 the mainland. A petrel may transfer traverse thousands of miles 285 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.680 of ocean in its lifetime. To hold one in your 286 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:36.200 hands reinforces this feeling of environmental responsibility. Not acting in 287 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:40.119 it is ethically fraught to doing nothing about predators gives 288 00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:43.759 them a license to kill, says Brent Beavin, who manages 289 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:48.039 the Predator Fee twenty fifty project for the government's Department 290 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:51.400 of Conservation. You make a choice, and it's inactive choice 291 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:55.079 either way. Indigenous species are animals that don't belong here. 292 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:58.519 Which one will it be? Either way, you're condemning animals 293 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:02.960 to death. Mori have another perspective on the issue. For them. 294 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:07.920 The natural world to Tayo is literal kin in the 295 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:12.000 mayor e. In the Maori world view, human and non 296 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:15.119 human are woven together like fibers in a traditional cloak. 297 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:19.319 Break any individual thread and the whole garment starts to unravel. 298 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:24.759 On Iota, or in Western terms, Great Barrier, an island 299 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.880 off the coast of Auckland, Mayori are taking the lead 300 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:31.440 and removing predators so that the unraveling may be halted 301 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:35.359 and the cloak restored. They call the project to my Taunga. 302 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:39.960 Let the treasured ones stand strong. They were here before us. 303 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:43.559 As Marilyn Davies Stephens, one of the projects leaders of 304 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:48.799 the indigenous species, there are tupuna, the Mayori term for ancestors. 305 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:52.160 A wrong has been done to our tupuna. We need 306 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.200 to turn it around. There is escalating momentum now. Sixty 307 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:58.960 years ago, when the first New Zealand island was cleared 308 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:01.680 of rats, a tiny speck of land at the size 309 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.920 of four football fields, the attempt had seemed futile. In 310 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:09.799 the result miraculous. Each decade since, the size of islands 311 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:13.160 cleared of predators as increased by an order of magnitude. 312 00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:17.400 New Zealand technologies and expertise have been employed for island 313 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:21.039 eradications around the world. Success can be measured in other 314 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:24.160 powerful ways. When I was a child, a kiwi egg 315 00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:26.480 used to hang on a nail in the family beach 316 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:29.519 house in the Bay of Islands. The shell was huge, 317 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:32.720 almost five inches from end to end. Kiwis lay the 318 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:36.240 largest eggs relative to body size of any bird, up 319 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:39.119 to a fifth of the mother's weight. I marveled at 320 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:43.119 that egg, but never saw the bird. By then, stout 321 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:46.720 predation had rendered kiwis in the North a rarity, but 322 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:49.079 our efforts have changed that. Now in the Bay, I 323 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:53.440 hear them every night. Where eradication is working, some two 324 00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:56.799 million invasive predators have been eliminated in a phased and 325 00:20:56.839 --> 00:21:00.480 accelerating effort to read New Zealand of the unwelcome hunters. 326 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.440 By twenty fifty, the greatest progress has been made on 327 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:07.960 islands and peninsulas. Up next the rest of the mainland. Next, 328 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:10.559 a star among stars. The race to save one of 329 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:14.319 the world's largest sea stars from extinction just got interesting. 330 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:17.839 The Sunflower sea star, which can span more than three 331 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:21.599 feet across, is a ravenous roving apex predator able to 332 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:26.119 devour armored animals like urchin, snails, clams, and crabs, but 333 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:29.680 a mysterious wasting disease thought to be worsened by climate change, 334 00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:32.880 has led to an estimated global population decline of over 335 00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:36.599 ninety percent since twenty thirteen. In a bid to restore 336 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:40.599 these hunters, which range across the northeastern Pacific West Coast, 337 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:43.960 scientists are learning to breed them in captivity. The entire 338 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:50.240 aquarium heard us cheering, says Melissa Torres, senior aquarist at 339 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:54.920 UC San Diego's Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 340 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:58.519 when her team produced its first fertilized eggs in twenty 341 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:02.480 twenty four, following the lead of Washington State scientists with 342 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:06.680 more than three hundred juveniles now growing across six partner institutions. 343 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:09.000 The hope is to one day release the species back 344 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:13.920 into California waters, where it's considered essentially extinct. All this 345 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:16.440 is excellent news unless you happen to be a sea 346 00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:22.839 urgent by Jason Bittel. Next the Kazanlach Tomb frescoes of 347 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:27.000 a fated kingdom. During World War II, Bulgarian soldiers stumbled 348 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:29.880 upon a lavishly painted tomb, the first of many to 349 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:34.359 be found in an ancient necropolis. Fighting during World War 350 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:38.400 II led to surprising discoveries near the Bulgarian city of Kazanlach. 351 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:42.480 Bulgaria had sided with Nazi Germany, and toward the end 352 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:44.759 of the war the country was bombed by the Allies 353 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:48.039 from the west, while the threat of Soviet invasion loomed 354 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:51.160 in the east. To protect their lands, the Bulgarian army 355 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:55.400 built anti aircraft defenses near the central city of Cousin Loch. 356 00:22:55.960 --> 00:22:59.920 These works set off a remarkable series of archaeological discoveries 357 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:03.359 that would hugely expand knowledge about the ancient peoples who 358 00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:06.440 lived in the region thousands of years before World War II. 359 00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:12.519 Their kingdom was called Thrace. Ancient Thrace extended over what 360 00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:17.039 today is Bulgaria, Northwest Turkey, southern Romania, and southeast Serbia. 361 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:22.319 Not unlike nineteen forties Bulgaria, Thrace sat at a geopolitical crossroads, 362 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:27.960 surrounded by great rival powers Persia, Athens, and late later Macedomia, 363 00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:33.160 neighbours with whom Thracian kingdoms formed a series of shifting alliances. 364 00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:36.160 Much of what is known about Thrace comes from Greek 365 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:39.759 sources written by settlers living along the Black Sea coast 366 00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:43.640 that fringed Thrace, who admired and feared these wild seeming 367 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:47.160 people of the rugged interior. They were portrayed by Homer 368 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:50.519 as allies of the Trojans in the Iliad and the Odyssey, 369 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:55.680 warrior aristocrats who flaunted their gold and fine horses. Thracian 370 00:23:55.720 --> 00:23:59.039 culture bears the marks of both Eastern and Western influences. 371 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:03.119 Their elite drinking vessels made of precious metals were inspired 372 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:06.920 by both Persian and Greek styles and motifs. Greeks considered 373 00:24:06.920 --> 00:24:11.039 the Thracians barbarians, yet Greek contacts led them to associate 374 00:24:11.079 --> 00:24:14.440 their gods with Apollo and Hermes. Greek writings on the 375 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:19.160 Thracians often noted their warlike nature and with relief their disunity. 376 00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:21.519 They would be the most powerful people in the world 377 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:25.079 if they had one ruler, wrote Greek historian Herodotus. But 378 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.920 such union is impossible for them, and there are no 379 00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:32.440 means of ever bringing it about. Nevertheless, in four seventy 380 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:35.519 nine BC, the Persian retreat after their defeat by the 381 00:24:35.559 --> 00:24:39.359 Greeks created a power vacuum in Thrace and a chance 382 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:44.279 for unity the Thracian Terries. The first emerged as the 383 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:50.640 founder king of what would become known as the Odrisian Kingdom, 384 00:24:50.839 --> 00:24:56.200 under which forty Thracian tribes united. Although Odricia was conquered 385 00:24:56.200 --> 00:24:59.279 by Alexander the Great's father Philip in three forty two 386 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:03.960 to three four, y Odrisian co rulers retained a degree 387 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.319 of independence. There were ten tensions with Macedonia, but a 388 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:13.839 flowering of Odrisian monument building did emerge under King Suthis 389 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:18.000 the Third. His power base was centered where Cozenlock in 390 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:21.079 Bulgaria now stands and we are. In nineteen forty four, 391 00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:25.720 Bulgarian soldiers found the first of many ancient Thracian tombs, 392 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:29.599 the first of the big Thracian discoveries at Kazanloch came 393 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:33.599 in April nineteen forty four. Digging trenches, soldiers stumbled on 394 00:25:33.640 --> 00:25:38.319 a tomb containing richly colored frescoes. Archaeologists would later learn 395 00:25:38.359 --> 00:25:41.200 that this place, the Tomb of Cozenloch, was not a 396 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:45.440 standalone monument. It belonged to a royal necropolis that stretched 397 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:51.000 across the landscape for miles around a lost Thracian city 398 00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:57.039 from the fourth century BC. Archaeologists led by Dimitar p. Dimitrov, 399 00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:00.799 the director of the Archeological Museum in Sofia, were able 400 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:03.759 to begin a scientific investigation of the site in nineteen 401 00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:08.759