A tame rat might seem a strange animal to have at a bird park, but it is all part of the message that conservation can be fun as well as informative at Queenstown's Kiwi Birdlife Park.
Started in 1986, the Brecon St tourist attraction was the brainchild of the Wilson family, who still run it today.
Paul and Sandra Wilson continue the business Paul originally started with his parents, Richard and Noeleen Wilson, and his sister Dawn Thiel, and it now includes input from their son Richard.
In addition to being a real family affair, the business was also very much a labour of love, Mrs Wilson said.
The park was an old refuse dump that had been planted and restored to become a bush sanctuary, close to the centre of town and, amazingly, tuatara, kiwi and rare native ducks flourished there.
"We cleared out under the big old trees and planted lots of native trees to create the bush area," Mr Wilson said.
Under the shady canopy of old Douglas fir trees and a large redwood, the native trees have thrived, attracting plenty of free-flying tui, bellbirds and even falcons that come to visit the one the Wilsons hold in captivity.
It arrived at the park injured, unable to survive in the wild, so became a permanent resident.
Saving birds such as the falcon is part of the Wilsons' commitment to conservation, which also includes their twice-daily shows and self-guided audio tours of the park.
Chloe Corne is one of two zoologists they employ not only to look after the birds and animals, but also to present the interactive talks for the public.
During the twice-daily shows, she gives the visitors a close-up view of one of the park's tuatara, the 10-year-old Zeus, and shares plenty of fascinating facts about these living remnants of the age of the dinosaurs.
Tame kereru, or wood pigeon, and an Australian lorikeet that picks up five-dollar notes as a way of demonstrating not to leave litter in the bush, are used to help tell the conservation message.
But, to the delight of the crowd, it is invariably the trio of tame rats - Gertrude, Virginia and Prudence - that steal the show.
Rats, it seems, can be trained to run along a narrow branch relatively easily when the reward at the other end is food, Mr Wilson explained.
While the effect of the running rats sends the crowd into squeals of laughter, and sometimes tears of fear, the message is very clear for those present about the impact these little critters are having when hunting our native birds and wildlife for food.
In addition to the shows and self-guided audio tours, the park also provides four meet-the-kiwi-keeper talks each day.
"We try to make it fun and entertaining throughout the day for people who have a day pass," Mr Wilson said.
Children aged up to 15 are free with a paying adult, a move the Wilsons see as an essential way of ensuring as many children as possible get a chance to learn the conservation message.
"They are the ones who are going to have to look after these birds in the future," he said.
As well as being committed to conservation, and maintaining links with other zoos and wildlife parks around the country, the Wilsons are constantly looking ahead strategically about the development of the business.
While they have always had a cross-section of visitors from around the world, their market is also changing.
With a drop in the number of Japanese tourists, they are now looking to attract the emerging Chinese market and have expanded the park to include a Maori hunting village to show people how Maori lived in the bush here and when passing through to the West Coast in search of pounamu.
Special pounamu-gathering backpacks and flax sandals, similar to those at Te Papa and made by a traditional weaver, help bring the history of Maori in the Wakatipu to life.
But the apparent low-key, relaxed feel of the park disguises the effort required to keep it vital, entertaining and informative, Mr Wilson said.
The self-guided audio tours, based on similar museum tours in New York, cost more than $100,000 to set up, he said.
"There's a huge amount of work behind the scenes."
And it all costs plenty of money, which is why they are also looking at sponsorships for some of their breeding programmes and conservation work, such as helping the national effort to save native frogs from their present rate of decline.
While it might be quite different from the rest of the Wakatipu's adventure attractions, that is also one of the Kiwi Birdlife Park's great assets.
"For some people who come here who live in high-rise apartments, this is the closest they have ever been to a wild bird," Ms Corne said.
