Bandits of the Beech Forest

A rampaging horde of wasps spreading death and destruction across New Zealand has left scientists struggling to protect animal and human victims from these yellow and black marauders.

Produced by NHNZ

In Europe, wasps are just a nuisance, but in the beech forest of New Zealand, where numbers have reached plague proportions, they are an environmental catastrophe.  Native birds, like the kaka, have managed to cling to their existence on the mainland despite the presence of immigrant killers, like the stoat; may now succumb as wasps join the bandit hordes and a last great wave of extinction sweeps across the country.                           

This is the story of the scientist’s campaign to rid the island of its rat population.

Episodes From This Series

Wanted Alive

26 minutes / 1992

Colony Z

24 minutes / 1986

The Black Stilt – A Bird Surrounded by Change

48 minutes / 1984

The Black Robin – The Chatham Island Story

48 minutes / 1990

Lost World of the Poor Knights

48 minutes / 1992

Castles of the Underworld

46 minutes / 1992

Wild Horse, Wild Country

51 minutes / 1995

City Under the Sea

47 minutes / 1992

Bandits of the Beech Forest

52 minutes / 1996

Battle for Breaksea

26 minutes / 1989

Snares Gift from the Sea

24 minutes / 1984

Up With the Birds

24 minutes / 1982

Same Time Same Place

24 monutes / 1982

Swan Lake

24 minutes / 1985

Kakapo – Night Parrot

24 minutes / 1982

Sealion summer

24 minutes / 1982

Possum a New Zealand Nightmare

26 minutes / 1990

Sanctuary

23 minutes / 1990

Pukeko

26 minutes / 1989

Invaders in Paradise

51 minutes / 1999

The Mangroves

24 minutes / 1984

Islands of strange noises

30 minutes / 1980

Island Eaten by Rats

24 minutes / 1984

Tale of the Crayfish

48 minutes / 1987

Land of the Kiwi

48 minutes / 1987

Gull City

23 minutes / 1990