Ryan Bridge: Confession time - I have eaten a Weka

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Shock horror and online hate this week for that American who came here, the reality TV show contestant, who came here and murdered one of our native birds and then ate it.

It was a Weka that he killed and ate.

I have a confession for you: I too have killed and eaten a Weka.

Yes.

But it was buff wicker on the Chatham Islands, and you're allowed to. It's the only place you can do it in New Zealand.

And it's delicious, I have to confess. It tasted like a cross between chicken and pork quite greasy, but really delicious.

I went there to film for a TV show.

You sit in the ute in the evening drinking whiskey with the local guys. The dogs go out, get them, bring them to the window of the ute. They snap the neck, throw them on the back of the tray.

They said that sometimes they could get hundreds in a night and, they're a pest over there so they would run rampant and take over the island.

So there we are over there eating Weka, having a great time.

And Roger Beattie is a conservationist and an entrepreneur who was there with us, and he reckons we should farm Weka on the mainland.

He says no farmed species has ever died out.

Currently, it's illegal to sell Weka, DOC is dead against it. But Roger says we farm plenty of other species in New Zealand shellfish, trees, so, why not birds?

It's an interesting take. He's a bit of a radical.

DOC says that predator-free sanctuaries are the way to go and they're working.

I mean, they are working - you look at Wellington, for example, that is working. I kind of think all options should be on the table.

82 percent of bird species are currently threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened.

So, can we really be that picky or fussy if we're serious about saving them? It's at least worth a wee look, I would have thought.

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