Ara o Te Kinga Trust

Predator Free Te Kinga is an ambitious landscape-scale project led by the Ara o Te Kīnga Charitable Trust, aiming to eradicate possums and significantly reduce rats, stoats, feral cats, and goats across approximately 4,000 hectares of Tekimoka (Mt Te Kinga) near Lake Brunner on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

Surrounded by natural barriers such as Lake Brunner, Lake Poerua, and farmland, Tekimoka is well positioned to resist invasive predator reinvasion. This natural protection is strengthened by a ‘ring of steel’, over 1,500 traps and monitoring devices maintained by staff, landowners, and volunteers.

The project began in 2020, after local farmers recognised the mountain as a natural ‘mainland island’ with strong potential for full invasive predator elimination. With initial funding from Predator Free 2050 Ltd, traplines were built along every ridgeline and in two concentric rings around the mountain. In 2024, a 1080-to-zero aerial operation eliminated possums from Tekimoka and made significant reductions in rats and stoats.

With possums now gone, the project is expanding its focus on rat and stoat control to create conditions suitable for the return of taonga species. A single female kiwi has been detected on the mountain, and establishing a breeding population will be essential to ending her solitude and restoring the maunga’s ecological richness.

As initial funding ends, sustainable support is now crucial to continue this progress. Please donate if you can.