We are not just a country of birds, our native fish, insects and reptile species are in big trouble. Scientific evidence shows that once you get below 20% of a habitat remaining extinction of species follows and a rapid rate. We have lost 85-90 percent of our wetlands, have changed stream-side habitat and water quality, decreased native bush and removed passageways for migration, have biosecurity breaches ( you may have heard about the bee vaeroa bee mite disease in honey bees did you ever think what happened to the native bees? How many orb web spiders do you see these days compared to your childhood?). Birds of course are also disappearing but they are not the only ones.If you are a species that’s not “cute” public funding is hard to come by. I visited wingspan with a school group recently our falcon and owl are in much more trouble than say the kiwi, the long finned eel is another good example a threatened species that is still commercially fished. Plenty of examples in our marine fishing grounds as well. So you see threatened species/loss of species is precisely due to us not being “pure” it is a symptom of illness not the illness itself.