In the 19th century, the British introduced rabbits to New Zealand, hoping to harvest them for meat and fur. Lacking natural predators, rabbit numbers exploded, threatening New Zealand’s economy, which was heavily reliant on the export of wool. The rabbits were eating crops that farmers were growing for their sheep, and their burrows were eroding the soil in fields. So, starting in 1882, the colonial government released around 8,000 stoats and weasels into New Zealand, believing that these predators would bring rabbit numbers down.
But New Zealand’s ground-nesting bird species—like the kiwi, which had not evolved any fear of these foreign…
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