Northern Rata

Rata is a born winner! Starting life on the top of a tree it sends its roots down to the ground to become a huge tree in its own right.

Rata can take on any tree and win, but it is no match for an Australian brushtail possum. Just one introduced possum can eat and kill a mature 500 year-old Rata in just two or three years.

A campaign by founding Trustee Stephen King secured funding for the Department of Conservation's (DoC) first large scale possum control operation (at Waipoua) in 1990.

It looks like this rata is jubilant to be one of the survivors after a successful forest recovery.