Dog owners are again being urged to keep their pets out of kiwi zones after four dogs were seen wandering deep inside Opua Forest's kiwi zone on Sunday.
The Northern Advocate saw the dogs, two male, two female, none with collars and apparently all unregistered , on Sunday afternoon., about
a kilometre up a track from School Road in Paihia to a lookout point.
Bay Bush Action spokesman said owners needed to make sure they knew where their dogs were at all times, and not just let them off the lead for exercise.
"If they're roaming the bush in a pack we'd be really, really concerned, especially with kiwi already on their last legs, and all the effort we're putting into pest control in Opua Forest," he said, adding that in 1987 a single dog that was lost in Waitangi Forest for six weeks was blamed for killing more than 500 kiwi.
The Department of Conservation's Bay of Islands area manager, Rolien Elliot, said dogs were the number one killer of kiwi in the North, and it was disappointing that someone had allowed their dogs to roam in a forest that was home to the endangered Northland brown kiwi.
