Rare birds seized from city shops

Kaka were once abundant but, by 1930, were localised to a few areas.Threatened kaka have been killed by rat poison at the Pukaha Mt Bruce sanctuary.
Six kaka were found dead in the forest, where the native parrots had been seen "tampering" with bait stations, the Conservation Department said.
DOC's threats unit manager Jeff Flavell said the dead birds were found late last year, and toxicology results just back showed three had ingested the rat poison diphacinone.
There were about 100 kaka living in the 942-hectare forest, and some had been seen getting into the ground-based plastic distribution systems containing the cereal-pellets, which were laced with poison.