Survival of little spotted kiwi and other forest birds exposed to brodifacoum rat poison on Red Mercury Island

Twelve Little Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx owenii) were introduced to Red Mercury Island in July 1983. We radio-tagged nine Little Spotted Kiwi on Red Mercury Island before brodifacoum rat poison (‘Talon’) was air-dropped and hand-spread to eradicate kiore (Rattus exulans). All nine birds survived the apparently successful eradication operation. We expect that the population of Little Spotted Kiwi will continue to grow from the 11 pairs we estimated in September 1992, as the absence of rats should improve the availability of invertebrate prey. Populations of other forest birds did not appear to be harmed by the poison either.