On the shores of Wellington, the arrival of avian influenza in New Zealand has set in motion something the world has never attempted: a preemptive vaccination of critically endangered birds against a threat that had not yet reached them. New Zealand's Department of Conservation, having spent over a year preparing, moved swiftly to inoculate kākāpō and four other vulnerable species—acting not in response to catastrophe, but in anticipation of it. The effort arrives at a moment of rare fragility and rare hope, as a record-breaking breeding season has produced more kākāpō chicks in a single year