WAITOMO WONDERLAND - RUAKURI RESERVE CONSERVATION

Bring the bird song back to our community.

Contribute to a great cause and double your money; Discover Waitomo will match dollar for dollar (up to 15k) every contribution made to this page.

The Ruakuri Scenic Reserve is Waitomo's jewel. An epic cave karst landscape and sanctuary to New Zealand's endemic and vulnerable fauna and flora.

Discover Waitomo in partnership with the Department of Conservation is committed to ensuring this beautiful place is protected.

In the last two years, extensive predator control has reduced rat activity in the reserve from 86% to undetectable (0%) levels.

Looking to the future, to sustain low rat activity and ensure the highest standards of conservation is maintained, Discover Waitomo is fundraising for a network of Good Nature A24 traps. Good Nature traps are safe, easy to use, humane and self-setting. This greatly reduces labour input, reliance on pesticides and will deliver a more sustainable and long-term predator control programme.

The outcome of this fundraising initiative will be increased ecosystem vitality - more birds (and bird song), long tail bats, insects and bush - in the Ruakuri Reserve and radiating out to the surrounding Waitomo region.

Tiakina nga manu, ka ora te ngahere Ka ora te ngahere, ka ora nga manu: Look after the birds and the forest flourishes. If the forest flourishes, the birds flourish.