Dear Department of Conservation,

Please advise the origins and any other associated/related info of the Native, Protected Whio Blue Ducks released onto Mt Taranaki. Of the many that have died since 1080 poison drops, is there a map showing where these deaths occurred? As DOC admits in writing that 1080 poison is a teratogen, and that Whio are eating so much 1080 that their poo is pouring down the rocks discoloured by 1080 bait dye, have you studied the breeding capability of these poison exposed Whio to see if the survivors have been adversely effected by 1080 poison, if so please send the study. If not can you explain why instead of the 210 birds released breeding and increasing, they are in fact plummeting in numbers? Could it be that the 5 fold increase in rat numbers DOC and Landcare has noticed after a 1080 drop (an increase that is ongoing for up to 6 years), is having an effect on Whio numbers thru expanding stoat numbers as stoats thrive on rats and then go hungry when rats die off late winter? When you notice that some DOC staff are spending large sums of taxpayers money moving birds into an area and then poisoning them in large numbers and otherwise bringing about their demise via inflated pest numbers, do you have a strategy to single out these individuals and discipline them and fine them and then bring a halt to such extreme activities?

Thank you,

T Benseman

Dear Libby Kemp,

I am looking at DOCDM-25427-1080 Pesticide Review (iii) and it states 1080 has sublethal effects on reproduction and is classified as a teratogen. Couple that with a previous OIA where a DOC ranger says he has seen 1080 poo -heaps of it on the rocks, from Native Whio Blue ducks. Couple that with the one time you ever tested a Kiwi scat and it came back positive for 1080.

SO I want to know why you are feeding 1080 to our endangered native birds and then playing dumb in the newspapers saying basically Gee, we don't know why they are having breeding problems. Is there a government or bureaucratic directive to DOC to deny 1080 is a major problem for our native species because the folks who make 1080 at 408 Heads Road in Whanganui, are also the people who supply your department with most of its funding?

T. Benseman