Ruru into the lead in Bird of the Year poll

Kiddy campaigners catapult ruru into the lead in Bird of the Year poll

A Dunedin primary school has pushed the ruru (morepork) into the lead in the final days of voting in Forest & Bird’s Bird of the Year poll.

The poll, in its ninth year, is aimed at raising awareness of threatened native bird species.

So far, over 7,500 votes have been cast and although several well-known New Zealanders have thrown their celebrity weight behind their favourite native bird, it is the competition’s pint-sized campaigners who have won the public over.

Tainui school decided to campaign for New Zealand’s only surviving species of native owl when a ruru was found sitting in a tree on their school grounds last summer (see picture – credit Marian Gray).

In preparation for the month-long campaign, a large group of students researched the ruru’s habitat, dining habits and the threats it faces, in order to come up with a compelling poster slogan.

“They thought the ruru had super powers because it is equipped with superb night vision, a dangerous attitude to rodents and has special wings that make them silent in flight,” says Tiff Stewart, the manager of Forest & Bird’s junior division, the Kiwi Conservation Club.

Students have put up posters throughout the school, and have been encouraging their fellow pupils and their families to vote ruru.

The ruru currently has over 1100 votes in this year’s hotly contested competition.

“The ruru is important to the students not just because of its many ‘super’ powers, but because of its place in Māori mythology as a guardian or omen,” Tiff Stewart says.

New Zealand was once home to two owl species. The whēkau or laughing owl became extinct in the early 1900s because of a loss of habitat and predation, two factors that severely limit the growth of the ruru population today.

The bird with the fewest votes is the skua, which is known to chase birds into a vomitous state in order to scavenge ready-made meals.

The Bird of the Year poll (www.birdoftheyear.org.nz) closes on October 29th at 5pm. Results will be released shortly after.

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