I’m lucky enough to have Ruru in my back garden. While I rarely, if ever, see them I do often hear them gently hooting throughout the night, and I love them for that.
I’m way under qualified to comment on the efficacy of the rat poison drops, but my impression is that they are generally seen as a necessary evil in the fight to protect native wildlife. There’s definitely a fringe, but vocal, anti 1080 (the most prominent poison used) movement, but that’s less rooted in environmental concern and more on conspiracy theories: 1080 activism: Going down the conspiracy ‘wormhole’
It is worth noting that poison drops aren’t the only tool employed. There’s been some massive victories in the Wellington region using trapping to eliminate rats (and other pests such as stoats) from a large area of the capital: Rats, stoats and weasels eliminated from Miramar
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Zealandia when talking about the return of native birds to the capital. It’s large sanctuary in the city suburbs that’s completely surround by a 1.8 - 2.2m (6.2 - 7.2 ') predator exclusion fence. This area allows native birds a space to thrive without rat predation. It’s been so successful that threatened birds are growing in numbers and returning to areas outside of the sanctuary - good example being the Kaka (not an owl but still superb) which seem to growing steadily in number in my area.
Morepork / Ruru (lemmy.world)
Photo by Hayden Wood...