page_title: Rakiura National Park
section_title: Natural history
hierarchical_section_title: Rakiura National Park / History / Natural history
caption_attribution_description: Southeast of, and near to, Port William Hut on the Rakiura Track, Rakiura National Park, Stewart Island, New Zealand. Picture taken looking to the northwest.
context_page_description: Rakiura National Park is a nature reserve park located on Stewart Island / Rakiura, New Zealand. It is the newest national park of New Zealand and opened in 2002. The protected area covers about 85% of the island.
context_section_description: The popular Rakiura Track is within the national park. Many native birds can be found within the park, and Rakiura offers perhaps the best opportunity anywhere in New Zealand for viewing kiwi in the wild. This is in part due to the absence of stoats and ferrets. Certain coastal areas of this park are breeding areas for the endangered yellow-eyed penguin. Weka, a flightless and curious bird species, can only be found on offshore islands.
  In the 1970s, kakapo were found in the Tin Range at a time when it was thought that the species was nearly extinct. The kakapo have been transferred to nearby Codfish Island, which is not part of the national park.
caption: Near Port William Hut, North Coast
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