Birds Call

Wildlife sanctuary Zealandia has restored rare sights and sounds to the city

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Gorgeous but floppy kerer – our native pigeon – have fanned out in such numbers across the city’s west that the world’s first official road safety signs recently went up. The warning to motorists is simple, “Slow for kerer.”

Blame Zealandia. Minutes from the city centre, on the fringes of Karori, lies this “eco-sanctuary” set in a long green bushy valley that once enclosed the city’s water supply. The place is now encircled by a 2.2m-high wire fence: leaping stoats don’t stand a chance.