Haven't opened the link yet but I'm sure this must be to do with the flightless birds in NZ. Certainly, when Europeans emigrated to New Zealand, many of them took their cats with them...and the rest as they say is history as far as the local fauna is concerned. It really is very sad but cats cannot be blamed because they are just behaving like the natural predators that they have evolved to be... Once again it was unthinking humans who caused the damage.
The NZ Govt is very environmentally aware and I think this is a good thing but they should be passing laws prohibiting cats from free-roaming if they want to conserve the population of many of their flightless birds. New Zealand is a fabulously beautiful country which is still largely unspoilt but the indigenous birdlife had no real predators so evolved to be flightless in many cases. However, the irresponsible introduction of the cat changed all that.....sadly. This of course includes the kiwi which is their national bird.
They have fenced off many reserves but imo they should be tackling the problem from the opposite angle. Keep the cats contained and the birds will be able to lead a natural life.
Best wishes,
Roz
