the key to this recovery program is poison — specifically, 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate), a nasty, odourless poison that is illegal in many other countries (but not australia or new zealand), due to its devastating effects on not just feral mammals, but also native species. without any native mammals to worry about in new zealand, however, and a program in place to deter inquisitive keas from picking up baits, there is great hope that such a radical eradication program will be successful.
read : illegal poison is saving an animal