Meet the dogs helping bring birds back to Waiheke Island

The sound of birdsong is getting louder on Waiheke and now the data backs it up.

New results shared with 1News show native bird numbers on the island have doubled since 2020, marking what conservation leaders describe as the strongest recovery in years.

Kākā have surged by 930% over five years – including a 111% increase in the past year alone. Pīpīwharauroa, or shining cuckoo, numbers are up 611%, while weka have risen by 346%.

Kiwi, reintroduced to the island last year, are now breeding.

Te Korowai o Waiheke project manager Jenny Holmes said the results were a significant milestone.

"It’s so exciting and really a great reward for a team who work really hard," Holmes said.

The community-led project has spent years working toward becoming the world’s first urban predator-free community, supported by Auckland Council and national conservation funding.

Last year, however, the Government disestablished Predator Free 2050 Limited as part of a cost-saving drive, transferring its projects to the Department of Conservation.

Holmes said maintaining progress remained top of mind.

"It would be a really huge shame to lose all the gains that have been made so that’s very top of mind for me at the moment is funding."

Helping protect those gains is Parker – a newly certified stoat detection dog.

Owned by Auckland Council and working alongside the Waiheke team, Parker has just graduated from the Department of Conservation’s conservation dog programme.

On a recent patrol in Ōtānakī, he located stoat scat within minutes.

"Parker just found a scat on the road here, and his response is to lie down and pop his nose on it," handler Tilde Sorenson said.

Stoats are agile predators capable of devastating native bird populations if left unchecked.

Across Waiheke, more than 1700 traps are now set as part of an island-wide effort to remove the remaining predators.

So far, 271 stoats have been removed – including 12 since September.

The strategy combines detection dogs, intercept fencing and innovative trapping systems designed to funnel stoats into hidden trap lines.

The results are now being reflected in the bird counts.

For the first time, the vulnerable weweia, or New Zealand dabchick, has been recorded on the island.

The work doesn’t stop at Waiheke.

On nearby Browns Island, biosecurity teams are focused on prevention.

The island has remained pest-free since a 2020 incursion, when a stoat was believed to have swum across from Musick Point.

Detection dog Ronnie, who graduated alongside Parker, now patrols the island several times a year, checking landing sites and likely hideouts for rats or mice.

"Our role is that we come out a few times a year to do surveillance work," Auckland Council biosecurity advisor Rochelle Prosser said.

The Hauraki Gulf is considered one of the world’s most important seabird habitats, home to around 70 seabird species.

Just one predator can devastate nesting colonies in a short period of time.

With bird numbers rising on Waiheke and surveillance continuing on surrounding islands, conservation teams say the work is proving that sustained predator control can deliver measurable results.