In 1867, Canterbury released 40 house sparrows to eat crop pests; within 15 years New Zealand was poisoning the birds and paying bounties after they began stripping grain crops
The Canterbury Acclimatisation Society liberated 40 sparrows in 1867. (Picture: Birds of the world) The house sparrow was brought to New Zealand in 1867 to help farmers deal with crop-eating insects, but the small bird soon became a problem of its own. Within a few years, while it grew in numbers, it also began damaging […]