Minty repellent keeps kea from eating poison

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-10-14 03:00

New Zealand

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In areas where they have access to human foods, kea are more likely to try eating new things—and some end up eating enough 1080 bait pellets to kill them. Now, trials in and around Arthur's Pass using poison-free baits show that adding an extract from the mint family could help protect the birds. Earlier versions of the minty repellent degraded too fast inside the bait, but in trials with versions where it's used as a coating, wild kea ate less of the bait with high concentrations of repellent. Kea in the village still had access to human food, with some trials even interrupted as they were distracted by people feeding them nearby. The researchers say it's harder to change the parrots' behaviour with repellents when they're used to trying new foods, and stopping them getting human food should remain a priority.