More than 150 traps designed to catch predators in Mt Aspiring National Park have been intentionally disarmed, the Department of Conservation says.
Doc Wakatipu operations manager David Butt said the alleged tampering would result in more predators, including stoats, remaining at large and able to kill native wildlife.
The was a critical time of year to remove predators from the environment, Mr Butt said.
"The people who have done this to the traps will be responsible for an increase in the death of many individuals from our taonga species," he said.
At the start of this month, high trapping lines between Dart Valley and the west Matukituki Valley were checked by Matukituki Charitable Trust volunteers and Southern Lakes Sanctuary staff, who found the entrances to all 45 traps blocked off by strategically placed rocks.
Doc staff subsequently found all the traps from Shelter Rock hut to Dart hut and down the Rees valley had also been triggered or had rocks placed in front of their doors.
"This means someone has made the effort to disarm more than 150 remote traps in total across two locations," he said.
An introduced species, stoats were the number one killer of many of New Zealand's endangered native species.
"We have a team of hardworking Doc rangers, Southern Lakes Sanctuary staff and volunteers who put in a lot of hard graft to ensure our trapping network is effective.
"It is very concerning someone, or potentially several people, covered challenging terrain and clambered through bush to find these traps and block them off so predators cannot enter. It means we will see an increase in predators."
Doc's Takahē Recovery Group was working to establish a new population of the birds on and around Mt Aspiring and there were concerns those birds would be at risk if traps in the area were found to be compromised as well. - APL
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