Navigation for Fight for the Wild

Watch the series

Series Classification: G (General Programmes) | Produced for RNZ by Fisheye Films

 

4 x 45-minute Video Documentary Series
Filmed and Directed by Peter Young

Episode 1: Loss (Available Now)
Episode 2: Defiance (Available Now)
Episode 3: Battle (Available Now)
Episode 4: Hope (Available Now)

  • *Choose your episode to watch from the playlist above.


Listen to the Podcast

4 x 25-minute Podcast Documentary Series
Written and Presented by Dave Hansford

 

Episode 1: Dealing with Loss

Tim Raemaekers tracking tagged Tokoeka Kiwi chicks for recruitment study, Shy Lake, Fiordland National Park

Tim Raemaekers tracking tagged Tokoeka Kiwi chicks for recruitment study, Shy Lake, Fiordland National Park Photo: Fisheye Films / Peter Young

Dealing with Loss takes listeners back to Gondwana, to explore just why our native birds are so tragically vulnerable to predation by mammals from another hemisphere and another time. It then presents a series of “criminal profiles” introducing listeners to the Predator Free target species: the brushtail possum, the stoat, the kiore, and the ship and Norway rats, through accounts from the country’s leading experts. The podcast then quantifies the loss — one of the worst extinction episodes on the planet — before relating the peril that continues today, with commentary from field experts on the impacts of this suite of predators. See more about this episode.

 



Episode 2: Remove and Protect

Laura Young with Kea, Otira, Arthur's Pass

Laura Young with Kea, Otira, Arthur's Pass Photo: Peter Young / Fisheye Films

Remove and Protect  reveals what Aotearoa means to do about the losing battle for our wildlife. It sets out the critical distinction between business-as-usual pest control — simply holding a line — and the step change, and monumental challenge, that is eradication. It looks at some ingenious new tools — smart, autonomous devices that are already changing our idea of what’s possible and what’s affordable. Host Dave Hansford and the experts then tell listeners the plan, the nuts-and-bolts detail of exactly how we mean to find and catch that last rat. See more about this episode.

 



Episode 3: PF2050 and Māori

Tāwharanui Peninsula, north of Auckland

Tāwharanui Peninsula, north of Auckland Photo: Peter Young / Fisheye Films

PF2050 and Māori looks at the vital contribution of Māori towards achieving Predator Free. It begins by exploring the deep relationship between Māori and the natural world, and the ways in which the loss of biodiversity impact on the identity and well-being of Māori, and on the very culture itself. Commentators set out their expectations around Predator Free, and we explore the chance it offers for tino rangatiratanga, and a genuine bicultural partnership. They talk too, about how, by healing Nature, people can themselves be healed. See more about this episode.

 



Episode 4: What’s in it for Us?

Another Kiwi chick successfully hatched, Operation Nest Egg, Auckland Zoo

Another Kiwi chick successfully hatched, Operation Nest Egg, Auckland Zoo Photo: Peter Young / Fisheye Films

The final podcast in the series, What’s in it for Us?, counts both the costs and benefits of Predator Free. It explores the costs of not doing it, before setting out a range of possible, positive outcomes for the economy, our exports, for Aotearoa’s standing on the world stage - and most importantly, for ourselves and those who will follow. In one of the last interviews Sir Rob Fenwick gave before his death in March 2020, he talks about what Predator Free meant to him, and estimates our chances of success. See more about this episode.

 



Fight for the Wild takes viewers into the wild heart of Aotearoa and documents the desperate battle to protect it; it explores the notion of a Predator Free 2050 and asks whether this big, bold initiative is achievable and if so, how?

Every year an army of introduced predators devours the eggs and chicks of some 26 million native New Zealand birds, as well as countless insects, amphibians, reptiles and plants.  We currently have more than 4000 natives on the threatened species list and many more vulnerable to predation – New Zealand’s catalogue of shame.

But in 2016, the nation decided enough was enough.  Predator Free 2050 was born — an eviction order served on the three most voracious predators — rats, stoats and possums.  It’s our most ambitious conservation effort ever and is to be enforced by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Kiwis.

In Fight for the Wild we walk with the kaitiaki, ecologists, inventors and community trappers desperately defending our taonga species. We follow the fortunes of kea, kiwi, kakariki and other native species and discover the fascinating initiatives underway as we come to their rescue.  We examine the tough choices our nation needs to make as we navigate the challenges of protecting our wildlife.  And among the hard decisions and desperate losses, we discover bold visions, hard won victories and hope.

Fight for the Wild is a call to action for all New Zealanders.  It tells how each of us holds a piece of a jigsaw, and how, if we all play our part, we might just see a wilderness saved and our Wild returned.