A Government pest ecologist says more work is needed to find out how rare birds respond to new methods of applying the poison 1080.
Department of Conservation ecologist Dr Clare Veltman said there had been enough studies in the past 20 years to be very confident that kokako, kiwi and kaka were at low risk from 1080.
However, it would be prudent to study the effects of the latest method - dropping non-toxic baits first to encourage possums and rats to eat baits, she said.
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