Maui's dolphins appear to be as endangered on land as they are at sea.
Only a day after World Wildlife Fund (WWF) representatives installed eight life-size cutouts of Maui's dolphins on a school fence in Auckland as part of a campaign to protect the species, six were stolen.
WWF campaigner Jenny Riches said the dolphins - installed on the fence, which was to represent a trawling net - were going to be moved around Auckland.
WWF is campaigning to protect rare Maui's and Hector's dolphins from being killed in commercial set nets, but Ms Riches said the latest campaign had been derailed by the theft.
"I was totally gutted," Ms Riches said. "Obviously it's not as serious as real Maui's dolphins going missing, but the fact we've got this endangered species, it's ironic that even man-made ones are endangered by people."
She said whoever took the cut-outs was "stealing from a charity", and WWF appealed to Aucklanders to help ensure they were returned.
Ms Riches said a draft threat management plan involving the dolphins was being worked on by the Government, but its release had been delayed several times. She said more than 100 Maui's and Hector's dolphins were killed in commercial nets each year.
The cut-out dolphins were stolen from outside St Joseph's School on Great North Rd in Grey Lynn. WWF described them as having a dorsal fin on the back "like a Mickey Mouse ear. Their other main standout feature is, they're dolphins."
