Milestone reached in bid to create mainland seabird colony
A third round of endemic seabird chicks have been moved to a predator-free spot at Cape Farewell, as efforts to create a colony of the birds there approach a crucial point.
HealthPost Nature Trust said 92 of the pakahā/fluttering shearwater chicks were moved to Wharariki Ecosanctuary from Long Island/Kokomohua in the Marlborough Sounds on January 13, for the project aimed at creating a breeding colony of the burrow nesting birds at the site. It brought the total number of chicks moved from Kokomohua to the clifftop sanctuary at the South Island’s northernmost point to 198, after two previous translocations in January 2022 and January 2023.
Whether it would be the final round of birds needed to create a colony along the rocky headland was expected to be known later this year, when the birds from the first round were due to return, trust spokesperson Nate Wilbourne said.
All the chicks in the first two translocations (50 chicks, followed by 56) had fledged their nests and flown away. The birds migrated to Australian and subantarctic waters, and then flew back to their “source burrow” three or four years later to breed, Wilbourne said. The chicks that had been relocated to burrows in the 3ha sanctuary near Farewell Spit were ones that hadn’t yet fledged from their burrows on Kokomohua, as birds tended to return to where they fledged.
If a colony was established at the sanctuary, it would be the first time a pakahā population had been re-established on the mainland of the South Island, he said.
A population of birds had been reestablished on the North Island, at Cape
Kidnappers, he said. Colonies of pakahā were created on Mana Island off the coast of Wellington, and Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds, after chicks were moved there from Kokomohua between 2006 and 2008 and 1991 and 1996.
The trust aimed to translocate 90 of the birds on this third round, but 60 to 70 was thought to be more likely, Wilbourne said before this year’s effort. A goal to relocate 100 of the birds to the sanctuary last year was hampered by slips on Kokomohua, so volunteers took out only 56. But hot, dry conditions brought by the El Niño climate cycle seemed to have improved breeding conditions, with more chicks on Kokomohua, Wilbourne said after the trip.
The project – a partnership between the trust, DOC, and local iwi body Manawhenua ki Mohua – was a “crucial step” towards the ambitious goal of creating a safe haven for native species at the site, he said.