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Ryan Bridge: Confession time - I have eaten a Weka · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Shock, horror and online hate this week for that American
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: who came here, the reality TV show contestant who came
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: here and murdered one of our native birds and then
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: ate it. I have a confession for you. It was
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a weker that he did that he killed and ate.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I have a confession, I too have killed and eaten wekcker. Yes,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: but it was buff wecker on the Chatnam Islands and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: you're allowed to. It's the only place you can do
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it in New Zealand. And it's delicious. I have to confess.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: It tasted like a cross between chicken and pork, quite greasy,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: but really delicious. And you go over there. I went
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: there to film for a TV show. You sit in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the ute in the evening drinking whiskey with the local guys.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: The dogs go out, get them, bring them to the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: window of the ute. They snapped the neck, throw them
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: on the back of the tray. They said that sometimes
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: they could get hundreds in a night, and they're a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: pest over there, so they would run rampant and take
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: over the island. And they the other thing is they
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: eat native bird eggs, so they're double bad anyway. So
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: there we are over there eating wecker, having a great time.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And Roger Beatty is a conservationist and an entrepreneur who
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: was there with us, and he reckons we should farm
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: worker on the mainland. He says no farmed species has
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: ever died out. Currently it's illegal to sell wecker, so
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you can't in New Zealand. Doc is dead against it,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: but Roger says we farm plenty of other species in
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: New Zealand, shellfish trees, so why not birds. It's an
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: interesting take. He's a bit of a radical, this guy.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Doc says that predator free sanctuaries are the way to go,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and they're working. I mean they are working. You look
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: at Wellington for example, that is working. They're dead against
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: farming of any species, but I kind of think all
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: options should be on the table. Eighty two percent of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: bird species are currently threatened with extinction or at risk
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: of becoming threatened. So can we really be that picky
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: or fussy if we're serious about saving them, it's at
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: least worth a wee. Look, see, I would have thought
• 2:06
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• 2:09
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• 2:12
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