September 14, 2025 • 21 mins
International campaigns, a Russian vote-tampering scandal, and an imposter taking the win, there’s one election that New Zealanders have taken very seriously.
No, it doesn’t involve politicians— or even human beings.
For two decades the public has pored over more than 80 native birds — and one controversial bat — to crown one Bird of the Year.
The fun is meant to highlight our native fauna, and the fact that New Zealand has one of the highest rates of threatened species in the world
Today on The Front Page, Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki is here to take us through the history and future of the competition, and why we should care.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. International campaigns,
a Russian vote tampering scandal and an impostor taking the win.
There's one election that New Zealanders have always taken very seriously. No,
(00:30):
it doesn't involve politicians or even human beings. For two decades,
the public has poured over more than eighty native birds
and one controversial bat to Crown Bird of the Year.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
The fun is meant to.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Highlight our native fauna and the fact that New Zealand
has one of the highest rates of threatened species in
the world today. On the Front Page, Forest and Bird
Chief Executive Nicola Tokyo is with us to take us
through the history and the.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Future of the competition and why we should care. Taking
us back twenty.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Years ago, what's the genesis for petting our native birds
against each other?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Like?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
How did this come about?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah, it's such a cool story.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So essentially, and I remember this, I just didn't remember
it was twenty years ago. So there was a time,
a very controversial time in our country that almost divided
the nation.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
And that it was in two thousand.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
And five when Aaron zed started talking about removing the
bird call from Morning Report, and I think they thought
that was probably a really straightforward thing to do. And
then the day that they announced it, I think by
the time by lunchtime, they'd had something like sixteen hundred
(01:59):
emails from you know, incensed New Zealanders about how you
could possibly take away, you know, this crucial institution of
people's mornings. And so off the back of that, a
previous employee from Forest and Bird started thinking, actually, this
is great, and there were one or two other countries
(02:21):
that had run similar poles about people picking their favorite birds,
and so Michael Sabo took it upon himself to look
into that and to kick it in the kick it
in the gea for New Zealand and it just grew
from there. So, you know, it was an opportunity that
Forest and Beird pounced on at the time.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
And it started with a little email pole.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That went out to everyone and you know, not particularly
heavily populated in terms of the responses. It probably the
zenith of it was the three hundred and fifty thousand
votes or thereabouts for the twenty twenty three which was
the Putiki Teki and now we rough enough get sort
(03:07):
of between fifteen sixty thousand votes from New Zealanders. And
you know, it's interesting, isn't it, Because people are finding
it difficult to connect with elections in general, with respect
to local government and central government elections. But for whatever reason,
this tackles people and they want to be engaged and
(03:29):
involved in us.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So over the years, Bird of the Year has faced
multiple voting scandals. In twenty nineteen, there was even some
speculation around a Russian hacking scandal.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Oh, look, we have had so many.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I mean every year there's a controversy of some description.
And yes, there was potentially the challenge with the Russian
the Russian hacking of our election process.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
We've actually we had to get really.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Rigorous with our kind of voting protocols.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
We had the.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Potential of the Russian hack. We had one year a
couple of teenagers got really excited about a particular species
of bird and just voted repeatedly and kept cranking up
the votes at a time when we really didn't have
the controls in place to be able to do anything
(04:30):
about it, and so we were having to kind of
plead with people to try and follow the rules, and yeah,
we've also had the odd hard case thing happen.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Of course, we had more than three hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Votes the year that the Pertiki Tiki won thanks to
John Oliver and last week tonight and we had someone
repeatedly voting for I think the sneers crested penguin in
naming it John Oliver. So there's always controversy and it's
always a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, speaking on John Oliver, he launched that worldwide campaign
back in that was twenty twenty three, right backing the
Teki Teki.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
His campaign team put.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Up billboards in Mumbai, Tokyo, Paris, London, Brazil and Wisconsin,
and the Techi Techi one obviously by an absolute landslide.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
What was having that global attention.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Like, it's exhausting for starters.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So there were three of US staff members at for
US and Dude who basically just did a rolling mall
of interviews with mostly international media for weeks on end
in the lead up to particularly while John Oliver was
promoting it on his show with his giant pu Tiki
(05:48):
Tiki puppet. As well as obviously that billboards he put
up all over the world turning up I think on
Jimmy Fallon's show, dressed as a putiki tiki, and so
the interest just grew and reached this sort of beaver pitch.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Yes, so it's an interesting bird. There's only a thousand
of them in New Zealand, so I think it's a
fine candidate for Bird of the Central.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
If you contact this organization running this contest before you start. Came.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
We did.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
We did, Yeah, we did just bring that. We said
to them, would it be okay if we were campaign
managers for a bird? They said, yes, go for it,
And I don't think they understood quite what they were
unleashing when they said go for it.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It was fantastic, end really described so not just that
that year was obviously one out of the box, and
fantastic that him and his team wanted to be involved
in promoting what we consider.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
On our list is one about underbirds.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So you know, birds who may not necessarily get the
same kind of a teach in TLC and love that
a co couple or you know what some of the
better known birds might have. But every year Bird of
the Year gets picked up by you know, the guy
Smithsonian where you know, it gets reported all over the
world where I'm still reeling from the fact that last
(07:06):
year the hohyhaul won, which is obviously one of New
Zealand's iconic speaks of penguin, something we all hold dear
and love on the five dollar note, and some international
media described it as you know that a smelly penguin
had won this important contest. So no, look, it is
fantastic because what we've realized over twenty years is that
(07:28):
New Zealanders, and we already know this, they really care
about our native wildlife and particularly our birds, which are
such a difining characteristic of our nature in New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Did part of our national identity.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, that's perhaps why it was so controversial the twenty
twenty one winner, the long tailed bat one, despite not
being a bird. Was the organization prepared for the backlash
it received about that decision.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Ah, look, I think we knew that it was going
to create, you know, consternation.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
It stilled us. People still give.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Me a hard time about what about that time?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
A bat one bird of the year, And it is.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Really important because the thing about New Zealand's wildlife is
New Zealand is a land without teeth. Right, So we
don't have terrestrial mammals in this country except for two
tiny species of bat about the size of you know,
their bodies are about the size of my thumb, and
they are in as much trouble as our bird life
because of introduced predators like stoats and rats and cats
(08:30):
and birds and all of that stuff. So it's still
a great way to raise awareness of the things that
you know, forest and bird is trying to protect and
give nature a voice about. And if we just nod
over to Tao Mardi, a bat is encapsulated in the
word manu, which means which we consider the word for
(08:50):
bird as something that flights, right, so we reckon.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
We got away with it.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
It was a wonderful way to engage the New Zealand public.
Something that wound ever run up.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
A bit well argue of if there's only two species
of bat, they alternate that of the year each each
couple of years, right, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Mean, you know, who knows there's still potentially room for
the other species of bat again in there.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I mean that's.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Interesting, right, because the imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
So I know that the entomological Society have started Bug
of the Year. You know, there have been other countries
conservation organizations getting in touch with us and talking to
us about how they might do Bird of the Year
and their respective countries. But there is just something about
(09:38):
the way that New Zealanders connect with and identify with
our native wildlife and that's important to us, right because
eighty percent of our birds of our land birds here
in New Zealand are on the Critain Species list, are
in trouble and need our help. And so one of
the biggest challenges that I have found in my career
and conservation is trying to stories about our native wildlife
(10:01):
in such a way that everybody understands that they're special
and worth looking after, and that they're in trouble and
that if we look, you know, if we take particular actions,
we can do something about it. And that's a hard
conservation is a hard story to sell because often it's
things are really bad.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
And so what Bird of the Year it enables us.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
To do is focus on the joy and the love
that people have for these birds and let them get
super creative about how they're promoting them. I've been looking
at some of the online campaigning that is already going
on and having a week giggle with my morning coffee
when I see what the various campaign managers are up to.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Well, if you do have, say a major US talk
show host promoting one bird, the result is always going
to be obvious.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Right Does that take the fun out of it? Or
is it just the way politics works?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, I mean there are always scandals in politics.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Aren't there.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And you know, we had a bit of feedback at
the time about oh, but this isn't fair because you know,
sort of taking away from the New Zealand campaigns working
hard on their birds. All's fear and love and bird war,
I say. And it did a couple of things. So
(11:24):
the with respect to the Puteki Techi, you know, and
no one could compete with the kind of reach that
John Oliver has and the resources he had at his
disposal to be able to you know, put billboards up
in the biggest cities all over the world. But it
also really kicked that kind of Kiwi spirit into gear
and particularly for the likes of the campaign managers for Kiwe,
(11:50):
who then took it upon themselves to rise to the
challenge and try and secure more votes as a counter
to you know, the unwanted American influence at the time,
so that that was quite fun. But you know, there's
no harm in having one hundred people from one hundred
and ninety five countries around the world engaging in a
(12:11):
story about the things that make New Zealand so special.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Now And another controversy, I think there have been two
birds that have won twice.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Should they be able to still compete?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yes, and so that with that creants its own challenges.
So we Carackapool has won twice, Boyho, I think has
also won twice, last year being the second time around,
and we took Carackopol out of the race because people
when they think about our birds, you know, we don't
have lions, tigers and beers or a panda here in
(12:45):
New Zealand, but probably our charismatic megaphore tend to be
things like Cackapool.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
So we gave kakapoul a.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Breather a few years ago and people people didn't like
that either. But what has been fantastic to see this
year are the married ways that people are getting involved
and we've been working really hard to find ways to
amplify the fun of Bird of the Year. So there's
like workplace packs that workplaces can download and use to
(13:16):
run their own bird at the year kind of activities
and their offices we've got. I don't know if you
have taken upon yourself to try birdle dot.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Nz in yet, but it's going real fun.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, it's so much fun right and.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
At a time in our society, both here in New
Zealand and beyond, we are facing a biodiversity crisis a
climate crisis, and the two of those things running up
against each other.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
It can feel quite overwhelming, and.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I know for me and my staff it is quite
hard to kind of find that kind of thing that
sparks joy in the face of quite significant challenges. And so,
you know, being able to lead people to some fun
stuff I think is also what inspires action because we're
people are you know, when people engage in something and
(14:04):
they like it and it's fun, they want to know
more and they want to and then once they want
to know more, they want to do more. And that's
been the real key.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Have you had evidence of that, is all this raising
awareness actually contributing to more donations or.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Yeah, so in.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
That the donation total the year that John Oliver hijacked
the competition forrest and Bird received over one million dollars
in donations just from Bird of the Year, so, you know,
and we have really neat supportive business partners who love
(14:43):
to get involved in supporting Bird.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Of the Year end.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And that's the other thing too, like our business partners
when they're doing it. So you know, we have the
likes of Metal Bird, and they make a Metal Bird
Bird of the Year basically the day that the birds announced.
So I went to their office a couple of years
ago and they announced the bird and they were already
sketching out the design and about to reduce. You know,
(15:07):
the thing we have blunt umbrellers. We have a number
of companies very much involved in this, but they're not
they're in it the same way that people get involved
in the Bird of Year voting process, because genuinely those
businesses love it, they love being part of it. And
obviously we are really grateful for the support because it
enables us to go out and do more, and it
(15:28):
certainly inspires people who might have just been conservation adjacent,
who get drawn into the Bird of the Year drama
and fun and controversy and suddenly become much more interested
in and want to take action.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And you're so mentioned a lack of campaign managers is
one of the reasons the full number of species isn't
available on the list. Can you tell us a little
bit about these campaign managers, like who are they?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Are they self appointed? What makes a good campaign manager?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, so it varies from year to year. But one
thing we're really proud of this year is that one
hundred percent of the birds that are up for election
for voting, you know, in the poll I have a
campaign manager this year, so that's a first for us.
That kind of tells us a bit more about how
the popularity of Bird of the Year is just growing
(16:21):
over the twenty years that it has been around. And
they campaign managers a volunteer, They get in touch with us,
they put their name forward to be associated with a
particular bird. Sometimes they are organizations or businesses, you know.
Sometimes they're towns like Dunedin basically as a city through
(16:41):
the various museums and you know the key players Indonedan
all got together and really pushed hall last year, which
probably contributed a lot to its success. We've had politicians
I was, I got in touch with Christopher Luxen's off
for example before he so when he was still in
(17:03):
opposition about it. So we've had a number of politicians
involved over many, many years, and you know Cinder and
durn Hall and Clark.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Chris Reluxon put his name forward.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It is to promote the riebill, which is a little
river bird in quite a lot of trouble found in
braided rivers down here, mostly in the South Island, and
travels migrants around the country. But they are really really
special birds and they're the only bird in the world
with a beak that bends to the right, that curves
to the right. And I thought this is a sitter
(17:36):
for the National Party right so, and at the time
christpher Luxon did a very clever video about throwing his
weight in behind the rie Bill.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
And I appreciate while this may disappoint many of our supporters,
I do this with a very heavy heart, knowing the
consequences or the full weight of my decision, because today
I announce that I am supporting the rye Bill for
Bird of the Year twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So, you know, we've had all kinds of people and
it might they might be a student, they might just
be someone who's really passionate about a particular bird, and
they get involved and we work with them and they
do neat meat with the best thing that they do
and the thing that everybody loves about this competition, other
online memes and reels, and you know, they get very
committed to their campaigns and we love them for it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
As they should.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Of course, I suppose there's probably the birds that always
end up in like the top four or top three
or something, right, So the obvious ones Karkapor you mentioned
kia Kiwi, of course, and the penguins do all right
as well.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Are there any birds that just always receive the lowest
votes and why is that?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Are they the least cute or are they the ugliest
or the the least lesser known?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I think often it is lesser known. And so you know,
one of the things that we love in value about
Bird of the Year is that it creates conversations all
up and down the country about you know, our various
bird species. And the challenge, of course, in this busy
world that we live in is New Zealanders on the
(19:25):
one hand, feel very connected to our native wildlife, and
on the other hand, I think probably don't know a
lot about it.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
You know, and and one of.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
The challenges we have as a conservation organization is in
New Zealand we have the highest proportion of threatened species
in the world.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Many of those obviously are birds.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
We've already lost many, many species of birds to extinction
in this country because of kind of pess predator's habitat loss.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Et cetera.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And so we want to raise awareness of those underbirds
in particular. And you know, David and Bruh often talks
about the fact that people won't care about what they
haven't experienced, and experiencing it doesn't mean you have to
go out into a national park somewhere and discover these
birds for yourself. You might experience these birds by learning
(20:14):
more about them through you through this competition and falling
a bit in love with the things you didn't know about.
And once you experience them, you start to love them.
Once you love them, you want to care about them,
So you might put a trap up in.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Your backyard, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
You might start contributing to your local conservation project.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Thank you so much for joining us, Nikola, thanks for
having me.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
That's Itid for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who is also
our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page
on iHeartRadio or where wherever you get your podcasts, and
(21:01):
tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Kilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. International campaigns,
a Russian vote tampering scandal and an impostor taking the win.
There's one election that New Zealanders have always taken very seriously. No,
(00:30):
it doesn't involve politicians or even human beings. For two decades,
the public has poured over more than eighty native birds
and one controversial bat to Crown Bird of the Year.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
The fun is meant to.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Highlight our native fauna and the fact that New Zealand
has one of the highest rates of threatened species in
the world today. On the Front Page, Forest and Bird
Chief Executive Nicola Tokyo is with us to take us
through the history and the.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Future of the competition and why we should care. Taking
us back twenty.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Years ago, what's the genesis for petting our native birds
against each other?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Like?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
How did this come about?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah, it's such a cool story.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So essentially, and I remember this, I just didn't remember
it was twenty years ago. So there was a time,
a very controversial time in our country that almost divided
the nation.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
And that it was in two thousand.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
And five when Aaron zed started talking about removing the
bird call from Morning Report, and I think they thought
that was probably a really straightforward thing to do. And
then the day that they announced it, I think by
the time by lunchtime, they'd had something like sixteen hundred
(01:59):
emails from you know, incensed New Zealanders about how you
could possibly take away, you know, this crucial institution of
people's mornings. And so off the back of that, a
previous employee from Forest and Bird started thinking, actually, this
is great, and there were one or two other countries
(02:21):
that had run similar poles about people picking their favorite birds,
and so Michael Sabo took it upon himself to look
into that and to kick it in the kick it
in the gea for New Zealand and it just grew
from there. So, you know, it was an opportunity that
Forest and Beird pounced on at the time.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
And it started with a little email pole.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That went out to everyone and you know, not particularly
heavily populated in terms of the responses. It probably the
zenith of it was the three hundred and fifty thousand
votes or thereabouts for the twenty twenty three which was
the Putiki Teki and now we rough enough get sort
(03:07):
of between fifteen sixty thousand votes from New Zealanders. And
you know, it's interesting, isn't it, Because people are finding
it difficult to connect with elections in general, with respect
to local government and central government elections. But for whatever reason,
this tackles people and they want to be engaged and
(03:29):
involved in us.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So over the years, Bird of the Year has faced
multiple voting scandals. In twenty nineteen, there was even some
speculation around a Russian hacking scandal.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Oh, look, we have had so many.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I mean every year there's a controversy of some description.
And yes, there was potentially the challenge with the Russian
the Russian hacking of our election process.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
We've actually we had to get really.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Rigorous with our kind of voting protocols.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
We had the.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Potential of the Russian hack. We had one year a
couple of teenagers got really excited about a particular species
of bird and just voted repeatedly and kept cranking up
the votes at a time when we really didn't have
the controls in place to be able to do anything
(04:30):
about it, and so we were having to kind of
plead with people to try and follow the rules, and yeah,
we've also had the odd hard case thing happen.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Of course, we had more than three hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Votes the year that the Pertiki Tiki won thanks to
John Oliver and last week tonight and we had someone
repeatedly voting for I think the sneers crested penguin in
naming it John Oliver. So there's always controversy and it's
always a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, speaking on John Oliver, he launched that worldwide campaign
back in that was twenty twenty three, right backing the
Teki Teki.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
His campaign team put.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Up billboards in Mumbai, Tokyo, Paris, London, Brazil and Wisconsin,
and the Techi Techi one obviously by an absolute landslide.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
What was having that global attention.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Like, it's exhausting for starters.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So there were three of US staff members at for
US and Dude who basically just did a rolling mall
of interviews with mostly international media for weeks on end
in the lead up to particularly while John Oliver was
promoting it on his show with his giant pu Tiki
(05:48):
Tiki puppet. As well as obviously that billboards he put
up all over the world turning up I think on
Jimmy Fallon's show, dressed as a putiki tiki, and so
the interest just grew and reached this sort of beaver pitch.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Yes, so it's an interesting bird. There's only a thousand
of them in New Zealand, so I think it's a
fine candidate for Bird of the Central.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
If you contact this organization running this contest before you start. Came.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
We did.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
We did, Yeah, we did just bring that. We said
to them, would it be okay if we were campaign
managers for a bird? They said, yes, go for it,
And I don't think they understood quite what they were
unleashing when they said go for it.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It was fantastic, end really described so not just that
that year was obviously one out of the box, and
fantastic that him and his team wanted to be involved
in promoting what we consider.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
On our list is one about underbirds.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So you know, birds who may not necessarily get the
same kind of a teach in TLC and love that
a co couple or you know what some of the
better known birds might have. But every year Bird of
the Year gets picked up by you know, the guy
Smithsonian where you know, it gets reported all over the
world where I'm still reeling from the fact that last
(07:06):
year the hohyhaul won, which is obviously one of New
Zealand's iconic speaks of penguin, something we all hold dear
and love on the five dollar note, and some international
media described it as you know that a smelly penguin
had won this important contest. So no, look, it is
fantastic because what we've realized over twenty years is that
(07:28):
New Zealanders, and we already know this, they really care
about our native wildlife and particularly our birds, which are
such a difining characteristic of our nature in New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Did part of our national identity.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, that's perhaps why it was so controversial the twenty
twenty one winner, the long tailed bat one, despite not
being a bird. Was the organization prepared for the backlash
it received about that decision.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Ah, look, I think we knew that it was going
to create, you know, consternation.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
It stilled us. People still give.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Me a hard time about what about that time?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
A bat one bird of the year, And it is.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Really important because the thing about New Zealand's wildlife is
New Zealand is a land without teeth. Right, So we
don't have terrestrial mammals in this country except for two
tiny species of bat about the size of you know,
their bodies are about the size of my thumb, and
they are in as much trouble as our bird life
because of introduced predators like stoats and rats and cats
(08:30):
and birds and all of that stuff. So it's still
a great way to raise awareness of the things that
you know, forest and bird is trying to protect and
give nature a voice about. And if we just nod
over to Tao Mardi, a bat is encapsulated in the
word manu, which means which we consider the word for
(08:50):
bird as something that flights, right, so we reckon.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
We got away with it.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
It was a wonderful way to engage the New Zealand public.
Something that wound ever run up.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
A bit well argue of if there's only two species
of bat, they alternate that of the year each each
couple of years, right, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Mean, you know, who knows there's still potentially room for
the other species of bat again in there.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I mean that's.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Interesting, right, because the imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
So I know that the entomological Society have started Bug
of the Year. You know, there have been other countries
conservation organizations getting in touch with us and talking to
us about how they might do Bird of the Year
and their respective countries. But there is just something about
(09:38):
the way that New Zealanders connect with and identify with
our native wildlife and that's important to us, right because
eighty percent of our birds of our land birds here
in New Zealand are on the Critain Species list, are
in trouble and need our help. And so one of
the biggest challenges that I have found in my career
and conservation is trying to stories about our native wildlife
(10:01):
in such a way that everybody understands that they're special
and worth looking after, and that they're in trouble and
that if we look, you know, if we take particular actions,
we can do something about it. And that's a hard
conservation is a hard story to sell because often it's
things are really bad.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
And so what Bird of the Year it enables us.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
To do is focus on the joy and the love
that people have for these birds and let them get
super creative about how they're promoting them. I've been looking
at some of the online campaigning that is already going
on and having a week giggle with my morning coffee
when I see what the various campaign managers are up to.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Well, if you do have, say a major US talk
show host promoting one bird, the result is always going
to be obvious.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Right Does that take the fun out of it? Or
is it just the way politics works?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, I mean there are always scandals in politics.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Aren't there.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And you know, we had a bit of feedback at
the time about oh, but this isn't fair because you know,
sort of taking away from the New Zealand campaigns working
hard on their birds. All's fear and love and bird war,
I say. And it did a couple of things. So
(11:24):
the with respect to the Puteki Techi, you know, and
no one could compete with the kind of reach that
John Oliver has and the resources he had at his
disposal to be able to you know, put billboards up
in the biggest cities all over the world. But it
also really kicked that kind of Kiwi spirit into gear
and particularly for the likes of the campaign managers for Kiwe,
(11:50):
who then took it upon themselves to rise to the
challenge and try and secure more votes as a counter
to you know, the unwanted American influence at the time,
so that that was quite fun. But you know, there's
no harm in having one hundred people from one hundred
and ninety five countries around the world engaging in a
(12:11):
story about the things that make New Zealand so special.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Now And another controversy, I think there have been two
birds that have won twice.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Should they be able to still compete?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yes, and so that with that creants its own challenges.
So we Carackapool has won twice, Boyho, I think has
also won twice, last year being the second time around,
and we took Carackopol out of the race because people
when they think about our birds, you know, we don't
have lions, tigers and beers or a panda here in
(12:45):
New Zealand, but probably our charismatic megaphore tend to be
things like Cackapool.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
So we gave kakapoul a.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Breather a few years ago and people people didn't like
that either. But what has been fantastic to see this
year are the married ways that people are getting involved
and we've been working really hard to find ways to
amplify the fun of Bird of the Year. So there's
like workplace packs that workplaces can download and use to
(13:16):
run their own bird at the year kind of activities
and their offices we've got. I don't know if you
have taken upon yourself to try birdle dot.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Nz in yet, but it's going real fun.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, it's so much fun right and.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
At a time in our society, both here in New
Zealand and beyond, we are facing a biodiversity crisis a
climate crisis, and the two of those things running up
against each other.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
It can feel quite overwhelming, and.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I know for me and my staff it is quite
hard to kind of find that kind of thing that
sparks joy in the face of quite significant challenges. And so,
you know, being able to lead people to some fun
stuff I think is also what inspires action because we're
people are you know, when people engage in something and
(14:04):
they like it and it's fun, they want to know
more and they want to and then once they want
to know more, they want to do more. And that's
been the real key.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Have you had evidence of that, is all this raising
awareness actually contributing to more donations or.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Yeah, so in.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
That the donation total the year that John Oliver hijacked
the competition forrest and Bird received over one million dollars
in donations just from Bird of the Year, so, you know,
and we have really neat supportive business partners who love
(14:43):
to get involved in supporting Bird.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Of the Year end.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And that's the other thing too, like our business partners
when they're doing it. So you know, we have the
likes of Metal Bird, and they make a Metal Bird
Bird of the Year basically the day that the birds announced.
So I went to their office a couple of years
ago and they announced the bird and they were already
sketching out the design and about to reduce. You know,
(15:07):
the thing we have blunt umbrellers. We have a number
of companies very much involved in this, but they're not
they're in it the same way that people get involved
in the Bird of Year voting process, because genuinely those
businesses love it, they love being part of it. And
obviously we are really grateful for the support because it
enables us to go out and do more, and it
(15:28):
certainly inspires people who might have just been conservation adjacent,
who get drawn into the Bird of the Year drama
and fun and controversy and suddenly become much more interested
in and want to take action.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And you're so mentioned a lack of campaign managers is
one of the reasons the full number of species isn't
available on the list. Can you tell us a little
bit about these campaign managers, like who are they?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Are they self appointed? What makes a good campaign manager?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, so it varies from year to year. But one
thing we're really proud of this year is that one
hundred percent of the birds that are up for election
for voting, you know, in the poll I have a
campaign manager this year, so that's a first for us.
That kind of tells us a bit more about how
the popularity of Bird of the Year is just growing
(16:21):
over the twenty years that it has been around. And
they campaign managers a volunteer, They get in touch with us,
they put their name forward to be associated with a
particular bird. Sometimes they are organizations or businesses, you know.
Sometimes they're towns like Dunedin basically as a city through
(16:41):
the various museums and you know the key players Indonedan
all got together and really pushed hall last year, which
probably contributed a lot to its success. We've had politicians
I was, I got in touch with Christopher Luxen's off
for example before he so when he was still in
(17:03):
opposition about it. So we've had a number of politicians
involved over many, many years, and you know Cinder and
durn Hall and Clark.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Chris Reluxon put his name forward.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It is to promote the riebill, which is a little
river bird in quite a lot of trouble found in
braided rivers down here, mostly in the South Island, and
travels migrants around the country. But they are really really
special birds and they're the only bird in the world
with a beak that bends to the right, that curves
to the right. And I thought this is a sitter
(17:36):
for the National Party right so, and at the time
christpher Luxon did a very clever video about throwing his
weight in behind the rie Bill.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
And I appreciate while this may disappoint many of our supporters,
I do this with a very heavy heart, knowing the
consequences or the full weight of my decision, because today
I announce that I am supporting the rye Bill for
Bird of the Year twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So, you know, we've had all kinds of people and
it might they might be a student, they might just
be someone who's really passionate about a particular bird, and
they get involved and we work with them and they
do neat meat with the best thing that they do
and the thing that everybody loves about this competition, other
online memes and reels, and you know, they get very
committed to their campaigns and we love them for it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
As they should.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Of course, I suppose there's probably the birds that always
end up in like the top four or top three
or something, right, So the obvious ones Karkapor you mentioned
kia Kiwi, of course, and the penguins do all right
as well.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Are there any birds that just always receive the lowest
votes and why is that?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Are they the least cute or are they the ugliest
or the the least lesser known?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I think often it is lesser known. And so you know,
one of the things that we love in value about
Bird of the Year is that it creates conversations all
up and down the country about you know, our various
bird species. And the challenge, of course, in this busy
world that we live in is New Zealanders on the
(19:25):
one hand, feel very connected to our native wildlife, and
on the other hand, I think probably don't know a
lot about it.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
You know, and and one of.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
The challenges we have as a conservation organization is in
New Zealand we have the highest proportion of threatened species
in the world.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Many of those obviously are birds.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
We've already lost many, many species of birds to extinction
in this country because of kind of pess predator's habitat loss.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Et cetera.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And so we want to raise awareness of those underbirds
in particular. And you know, David and Bruh often talks
about the fact that people won't care about what they
haven't experienced, and experiencing it doesn't mean you have to
go out into a national park somewhere and discover these
birds for yourself. You might experience these birds by learning
(20:14):
more about them through you through this competition and falling
a bit in love with the things you didn't know about.
And once you experience them, you start to love them.
Once you love them, you want to care about them,
So you might put a trap up in.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Your backyard, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
You might start contributing to your local conservation project.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Thank you so much for joining us, Nikola, thanks for
having me.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
That's Itid for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who is also
our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page
on iHeartRadio or where wherever you get your podcasts, and
(21:01):
tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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