Moving juvenile kiwi from a predator-free crèche island back to their natural range isn’t as straight forward as you might think! DOC Biodiversity Ranger, Ieuan Davies, explains.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
Today’s photo shows one of the Coromandel brown kiwi relocated to predator-free Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf last week.
It was the biggest ever single translocation of Coromandel brown kiwi and was done to create new diversity and future-proof the species.
Did you know?
- There are only around 1,500 Coromandel brown kiwi on the Coromandel Peninsula.
There are 5 kiwi species:
- Little spotted kiwi on several offshore islands and at Karori Sanctuary in Wellington
- Great spotted kiwi/roroa in the northern South Island
- Brown kiwi in the North Island
- Rowi at Okarito, on the West Coast of the South Island
- Tokoeka in the South Island (Fiordland, the Haast Range and on Stewart Island) and on Kapiti Island.
2 of the 5 kiwi species have distinct geographical varieties within them:
- Brown kiwi have four geographically and genetically distinct forms: Northland, Coromandel, western and eastern.
- Tokoeka also have four distinct geographical forms: Haast, northern Fiordland, southern Fiordland, and Stewart Island.
From Fiordland to Motutapu island, in the heart of Auckland, is a long way to travel in a day – particularly if you’re a flightless bird. Nine takahē made the journey on Sunday November 4.
The birds were captured early in the morning at Burwood Bush Takahē Rearing Unit, near Te Anau, by rangers who run Mitre 10 Takahē Rescue. They were placed in transportation boxes and driven to Queenstown Airport to catch an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland.
The birds joined passengers on board a regular Air New Zealand flight to Auckland.
DOC Takahē Recovery Programme Manager Phil Tisch and Mitre 10 Sponsorship and PR Co-ordinator Alison Rowland at Auckland Airport with the takahē
The takahē proved popular with the Air New Zealand stewards and passengers on the flight. They were thrilled to be able to see the rare birds – there are only 260 in the world – inside their boxes. On arrival at Auckland Airport the takahē were carried from the plane to DOC and Mitre 10 utes and driven to Devonport. There they were transferred to a DOC boat, Taikehu, and ferried to Home Bay on Motutapu.
Ngai Tahu representative, Stewart Bull, made the journey from the deep south with the birds. He linked with Ngai Tai and Ngati Paoa representatives to provide a powhiri for the takahē on Motutapu. The birds were then released into native vegetation planted by volunteers from the Motutapu Restoration Trust.
Mitre 10 staff and family at takahe release on Motutapu
Ella, a takahē released on Motutapu on August 27, 2011, curious about new takahē arriving on November 4, 2012
The birds join four other takahē released on Motutapu on August 27 last year. The first release marked the declaration of Motutapu and neighbouring Rangitoto – the islands are joined by a short causeway – as pest free. Ella, one of the takahē released last year, was seen at Home Bay checking out the action surrounding the arrival of the new birds.
A powhiri for takahē on Motutapu
The translocation on November 4 was the largest movement of takahē outside Fiordland ever. The aim is to have up to 20 breeding pair on Motutapu. This will make it the largest population of takahē outside Fiordland. This is an important step in securing the survival of takahē as the other pest free islands providing a safe haven for the species – Kapiti, Mana, Maud and Tiritiri Matangi – are now running out of room for the birds. Motutapu provides a large safe site, with a good habitat for takahē, that will enable the overall population to keep growing.
Two takahē are released onto Motutapu Island
A big thank you to Phil Tisch, the Takahe Programme Manager, who travelled with the birds all the way from Burwood to Motutapu Island; Phil Marsh and Helen Dodson who helped trap the birds in Burwood; Claudia Babirat who filmed the whole transfer; Glen Greaves, the Takahē Productivity Manager, who helped out with the release; and Andrew Nelson and Hazel Speed from Auckland who put a huge amount of effort into organising the event on the day.
DOC’s partnership with Mitre 10 is crucial in the work to ensure takahē survive. Takahē were thought to be extinct until rediscovered in 1948 in the Murchison Mountains deep in the Fiordland National Park. DOC has been working with Mitre 10 to save takahē since 2005.
Codenamed ‘Tuatara on Tour’, DOC, together with Air New Zealand and Ngāti Koata, have just achieved the largest and most complex tuatara relocation ever undertaken.
Over 260 tuatara were transported, on commercial flights from Wellington to Gisborne, Hamilton and Dunedin, to live in new homes at predator-free locations on the mainland. DOC staff were on hand to help facilitate the relocation.
The tuatara traveled by helicopter from Takapourewa (Stephens Island) in the Marlborough Sounds to Wellington Airport. After hanging out in the Koru Lounge and meeting some of their fellow passengers, the ancient reptiles boarded their flights, housed in their own travelling tubes complete with “handle with care” baggage tags.
Mike Elkington (Ngati Koata), Chris Birmingham (DOC), Rob Fyfe (Air New Zealand) and one Takapourewa tuatara
Carrianne Boyd checks the tuatara through to Maugatautari in the Waikato
Tuatara are not well known for being frequent flyers, in fact they don’t generally travel more than about 20 metres from their burrows over the entire course of their lives. Luckily Air New Zealand stepped in and was happy to provide them with the transport needed to ensure these mainland populations could be re-established throughout the country.
60 of the tuatara flew to Dunedin where they were relocated to the Orokonui Sanctuary. This marks the first return of the species to the wild in the South Island and is by far the furthest south that tuatara have been free to roam in 100 years.
Other groups of tuatara went to Whangaokeno Island in north east of Gisborne, Cape Sanctuary in Hawke’s Bay, Young Nicks Head Sanctuary near Gisborne and Maungatautari in Central Waikato.
Takapourewa, where the reptiles originate, is also predator free and home to around 30,000 tuatara, which is around half of the country’s population.
‘Handle with care’ tags were attached to this precious cargo
Because Takapourewa is home to so many tuatara it is hoped that relocating these living fossils will enable them to grow bigger. The overpopulation on Takapourewa means that the tuatara won’t grow to their full capacity. There has also been evidence that some of the mature males have hunted juveniles.
The relocation was a great success and all the tuatara arrived safe and sound at their new homes.
Have you been lucky enough to see a tuatara in real life? What did you think of these amazing and ancient creatures? We’d love to hear your story. Leave us a comment.
Tuatara facts
- Tuatara were once widespread in New Zealand but were extinct on the mainland by the late 1700s due to predation by introduced mammals, human harvest and habitat changes.
- Tuatara survive naturally on about 30 offshore islands – the equivalent of just 0.5% of their former range.
- New Zealand’s total tuatara population is estimated at greater than 60,000.
The recent hatching of a Chatham petrel chick in the Sweetwater Conservation Covenant on Chatham Island is another significant step in the long road to recovery for one of the world’s rarest seabirds.
In decline
Probably once abundant throughout the Chatham Islands, human exploitation, habitat destruction and introduced predators saw the species restricted to Rangatira Island by the time of its discovery in 1892.
A Chatham petrel chick tucked up in its down duvet
Until 1961 farming activity on Rangatira resulted in the petrels being confined to small forest patches, where they competed for burrows with the similarly sized broad-billed prion. Nesting at different times of the year, many petrel chicks were ousted from their burrows by returning prions. By 1990 the Chatham petrel population was estimated to be around 1,000 birds and heavily outnumbered by some 600,000 broad-billed prions.
Detering prions
Studies found that while adult Chatham petrel survival was high, less than 50% of pairs were managing to fledge a chick, placing the population in peril. So, finding a way to deter prions from entering Chatham petrel burrows was a priority.
The competition: a broad-billed prion outside its burrow
Natural burrows converted into ‘state houses’
Natural burrows were converted into wooden ‘state houses’ with plastic pipe entrances, to aid inspection of the contents, and efforts were made to dissuade prions from using them by removing any found within and relocating some distance away. This required frequent nightly inspections of the petrel burrows and numerous DOC staff and volunteers will have memories of the nightly burrow rounds, clumping around the forest with ungainly petrel-boards attached to their footwear to avoid crushing the numerous seabird burrows. It was futile.
Wetsuits work
Lincoln University researchers finally came up with a simple solution – stretching a piece of neoprene wetsuit material over the entrance of the burrow pipe and cutting a slot just large enough for a petrel to squeeze through. It has proved remarkably effective, the petrel ‘homeowner’ tolerates the inconvenience of a tight squeeze, but prospecting prions are deterred by it. This, along with barricades erected while the petrels are away over the winter has increased nest success to around 90%.
A Chatham petrel squeezing through the anti-prion flap into its burrow
New colonies
The relative abundance of Chatham petrel chicks has since allowed for the next phase of recovery, the creation of new colonies on Pitt and Chatham Islands.
200 chicks were translocated to new homes in the predator-proof Elizabeth Ellen Preece Conservation Covenant (aka Caravan Bush) on Pitt Island between 2002 and 2005. Hand-fed until ready to fledge, the chicks remembered Caravan Bush as their new home and some returned after two or three years at sea with the first pair breeding in 2005.
Rangatira Island (left) and Caravan Bush (right) on Pitt Island
Return of Chatham petrel to “Sweetwater”
Once the success of the Pitt Island translocation was evident work started on the return of Chatham petrel to “Sweetwater” on Chatham Island in 2008.
Ranger Antje Leseberg checking the band on an adult Chatham petrel
In partnership with the Chatham Island Taiko Trust another 200 Chatham petrel chicks were moved over 4 years to nest boxes within a 4ha predator-proof enclosure built by the Trust. As at Caravan Bush, petrel sounds played over loudspeakers encouraged returning petrels to land at the site.
The first indication of success at Sweetwater was seen last autumn when a pair of petrels were seen in a burrow. After wintering off the South American coast, the pair have returned to Sweetwater and laid an egg in February.
Taiko Trust members were delighted to find a chick present during burrow checks in early March. All going well this chick should fledge in May and spend 2-3 years at sea before returning to Sweetwater. By then it should have more company, as four more burrows show signs of activity, surely signalling the sweet smell of success.
