Kiwis are New Zealand's iconic flightless birds, severely threatened by introduced predators. Predator control programs that use toxins and traps raise welfare questions about both target and non-target species.
Kiwi conservation involves difficult welfare trade-offs. The welfare of kiwi is protected by predator control, but the methods used — 1080 poison and leg-hold traps — cause suffering to target predators and occasionally to non-target species. 1080 causes death over hours in affected animals; welfare-focused debates continue about its relative humaneness compared to alternatives. Research into more humane control methods and species-specific toxins is ongoing. The alternative — allowing predator populations to kill 95% of kiwi chicks — represents a much larger welfare harm distributed across a highly endangered bird population. Predator Free 2050 represents an ambitious approach to removing this dilemma entirely.