Critically endangered kakapo, tuatara and other threatened New Zealand species will feature in a British television series by writer and actor Stephen Fry.
The BBC series celebrates 20 years since the late Douglas Adams' Last Chance To See book and radio series, which profiled eight species worldwide facing extinction, including New Zealand's native nocturnal parrot, the kakapo.
Tourism New Zealand is supporting Fry's visit this month, along with wildlife photographer and zoologist Mark Carwardine, who worked on the original radio series and book.
The pair planned to film kakapo on Codfish Island (Whenua Hou), near Stewart Island, kiwi in Northland's Waipoua Forest, black robin on the Chatham Islands, giant weta and tuatara at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington, and kea in Fiordland. A one-hour episode dedicated to their New Zealand visit would be shown in prime time on BBC2 late next year.
"This is an excellent opportunity for us to push New Zealand's profile in the UK," Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton told the Sunday Star-Times.
"Tourism New Zealand is working closely with the BBC to make sure Stephen and his crew have the opportunity to experience more of New Zealand beyond our native wildlife, so the programme gives viewers a real taste of what a New Zealand holiday has to offer."
The new five-part Last Chance To See series aimed to portray the issues surrounding some of the planet's most threatened species and various techniques conservationists used to help them survive, as well as check out how the original wildlife had fared two decades on.
At the time there were fewer than 50 kakapo, but the population had since grown to 90 birds with a bumper breeding season predicted for this summer. Although most of the other featured animals and birds had increased their numbers, the Yangtze River dolphin had been labelled functionally extinct after an extensive search in 2006.
Karori Wildlife Sanctuary also had some positive news to share with Fry and his film crew for their New Year's Eve visit. The first tuatara eggs laid on the mainland in more than a century were due to hatch any time over the next month or two in the predator-free reserve. Sanctuary educator Tom Lynch said four tuatara nests containing an unknown number of eggs had so far been discovered, including one accidentally uncovered in October, and a second with 14 eggs that had to be moved because the female burrowed underneath one of the sanctuary's roads. The breeding programme was the result of relocations of 200 tuatara from Stephens Island.
