Dead weka deliver message
Anti-poison activists delivered seven dead weka to a Department of Conservation office, after a poison drop to eradicate rats on Rakitu¯ Island.
DOC went ahead with the drop on August 10 despite admitting, in an Official Information Act request, that a poison drop would probably wipe out 75 to 85 per cent of the island’s weka population and potentially kill other birds, such as hawks and morepork as a result of secondary poisoning. Rakitu¯ is an uninhabited island off the northeast coast of Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
The eradication process involved dropping cereal pellets over the island, containing 0.002 per cent brodifacoum, an over-the-counter rodent poison that slowly kills rodents from internal bleeding.
On Friday August 24, a group of protesters delivered about seven¯dead weka to the Great Barrier Island Okiwi office. Tony Storey, from Aotea Poison Free, said the situation was quite tense.
‘‘They [DOC] put the office into lockdown. So we couldn’t get access but we climbed over the fence anyway.’’
The protesters wanted to give the dead birds to local iwi, so they could give them a burial but, after a ‘‘heated’’ half-hour discussion, DOC took possession of them. ‘‘Apparently it’s an offence to be in possession of these protected birds but not to poison them to death,’’ Storey said.
It is an offence to hold native wildlife without authorisation, under the Wildlife Act 1953.
DOC Great Barrier Island operations manager George Taylor said, in a statement, more than 60 weka were relocated to Pukaha Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre before the operation began and will remain there until it is completed.
‘‘We anticipated there would be some by-kill of weka before we began the operation to remove rats on Rakitu¯ .
‘‘We’ll be using this same proven and safe method, used to remove rats from Rangitoto, Motutapu, Tiritiri Matangi and Hauturu, or Little Barrier Island, to remove rats from Rakitu¯ .’’
Taylor said the weka on Rakitu¯ Island were a North Island subspecies with an increasing population, and were thriving in the Bay of Islands, Bay of Plenty and islands of the Hauraki Gulf.
A second aerial drop awaits suitable weather conditions.