30 Nov 2020

AK Pestival: introduce Aussie speices to help ecosystem

From First Up, 5:08 am on 30 November 2020

We're rightly proud of our native plants and animals here in New Zealand, but given the number of species that have become extinct since humans came along, .. why not introduce Aussie equivalents of the Moa or the Haast's eagle? That was the topic of debate at the Auckland Pestival event over the weekend. And while we're not likely to find many scientists willing to back the Aussie import suggestion, it does raise serious questions about the impact that losses of species have on our ecosystem, and what can be done about it. With her tongue firmly in her cheek, University of Auckland Associate Professor of Ecology Margaret Stanley advocated introducing Australian species to replace our extinct ones. She told our reporter Matthew Theunissen why it's not as outrageous an idea as it might seem at first.