The Department of Conservation (DoC) has confirmed a number of kea were killed in a recent 1080 drop around Arthur's Pass.
The department says it's awful, not good enough and it wants to do better.
Arthur's Pass Village has an exclusion zone for 1080 drops. It's an area the curious kea love to roam free.
But DoC has confirmed to Newshub, a controlled drop of the poison in the Arthur's Pass district last month has killed some of the native birds and DoC isn't mincing their words.
"It's awful, this is a hell of a dilemma for us," DoC's Tiakina Ngā Manu programme manager Peter Morton said.
It was a large aerial drop in mountainous ranges and outside of the village the dead birds were found and tested.
"Seven of the 95 odd radio-tagged kea that we've got in Arthur's Pass have died and they've been killed by 1080," Morton said.
That's a little more than 7 percent of the birds it monitors, which means it's likely that many more than that have died.
"No we can't be sure, we only know about that we're radio tagging," Morton said.
It's a dilemma for DoC because the 1080 they are using to control the predators that kill the kea, is also killing the kea.
DoC said on balance aerial 1080 is still the best bet but it could be better.
"Where we're at right now isn't good enough, we're not satisfied that some birds are being killed by the 1080 bait that we're using, even though overall there's a benefit for the population overall," Morton said.
People in Arthur's Pass on Friday were upset at the news.
"I feel pretty upset because they are an endangered species so it seems totally unnecessary," one person said.
"We have to be aware of the side effects of what we're doing," another said. "In my mind, it's too big a sacrifice for what's been trying to be achieved here."
"Killing kea, no way, they're one of our native birds," a third said.
Arthur's Pass brings kea close to humans, teaching them to take unnatural foods. So, DoC is researching bird repellants to try and stop kea from eating 1080 bait.
"But it's really tricky because something that turns the kea off from eating it, there's a likelihood that it's going to turn everything else off it including the rats and the possums," Morton said.
DoC said ground control doesn't work in many of the mountainous areas kea live and they are a bird seriously under threat.
"Kea are endangered and they're going downhill," Morton said.
DoC now putting its heads together to prevent one of the world's most intelligent birds from making a fatal mistake.
