Photos Under the cover of darkness the rat is a devastating predator and has been responsible for the extinction of a number of New Zealand bird species A ferret smart deadly and cunning After being introduced in the 1800s possums found no predators in the forests and have thrived Conservative estimates put their numbers at about 30 million nationally They eat and kill birds and devastate the native vegetation Extinct on the mainland by the turn of the 20th Century it is now one of New Zealands greatest conservation success stories The Worlds largest flightless parrot Once the 3rd most populous bird in New Zealand Now only 123 remain Beautiful native songbird the Kokako numbers have been decimated due to rats stoats and cats Conservation Manager Gary loaded up with Rotorua Canopy Tours made rat traps Another load of Rat traps loaded up for transportation and placement in the forest Gary moving the rat traps to their final destination by zipline Michelle prefeeding the 10 kilometres of trapping lines on 30 August 2013 Brad prefeeding and carrying in more rat traps at the sames time The ugly side of conservation but work that needs to be done 169 Rats and 45 possums caught on the first night of trapping A rat caught in a trap one of 169 caught on the first night Canopy Tours staff removing dead pests from the forest Staff checked cleared and rebaited over 500 traps every day for 8 days over conservation week