‘Exciting’ – Great spotted kiwi found far from home
The discovery of a great spotted kiwi at the northern tip of the South Island is being hailed as remarkable, and a boost for local pest eradication efforts.
The kiwi was caught on camera in Pūponga Recreation Reserve, next to Farewell Spit/ Onetahua, by local conservation group, Pest Free Onetahua.
Once common in the area, there had been no sightings of kiwi in the hills behind Pūponga for decades, with the nearest known population of great spotted kiwi about 40km away.
Field officer Bert Harris said he was “blown away” to discover the image of the kiwi, captured as part of efforts to eradicate pests from the region.
He was “quickly rattling” through images on Friday morning from a camera, set up to detect feral pigs.
“Lots of possums, lots of stoats ... then there it was. “I had to do a triple take before telling the team.”
Project lead Brian Alder said it was “incredibly exciting” to have found a kiwi in the 1200-hectare Puponga Farm Park - in between Onetahua Farewell Spit nature reserve, and Kahurangi National Park.
The largest of the kiwi species, the great spotted kiwi or roroa was only found in the top half of the South Island.
Classified as “threatened - nationally vulnerable”, an estimated 14,000 of the birds lived in remote, generally mountainous habitat in four “genetically distinct populations” - in northwest Nelson, Westport, Paparoa Range and Arthur’s Pass–Hurunui, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said.
“This bird is 40km from where it’s commonly agreed that the boundary [is] of where you’d find great spotted kiwis,” Alder said.
“There’s local reports of people hearing them closer, but that’s still 25km away.”
Finding the species next to Farewell Spit raised not only the profile of the conservation land, but a “whole heap of unanswered questions”, he said.
“Where [the kiwi] may have come from, is it resident, has it walked a long way?”
DOC said it was working with Pest Free Onetahua to find out if there were other great spotted kiwi in the area where the kiwi was seen.
“Acoustic recorders will be put out to record bird calls, including any kiwi calls, to help find this one, and others in the wider area,” DOC Golden Bay operations manager, Ross Trotter said.
The great spotted kiwi sighting in Pūponga Recreation Reserve was “astonishing and significant”, he said.
“Kiwi are thought to have last been seen in the Pūponga area about 50 years ago, based on reports from local people whose families have lived in the area for many years.
“The nearest known great spotted kiwi population, confirmed by acoustic monitoring, is approximately 40km away in the Mt Stevens area in Kahurangi National Park.”
A great spotted kiwi sighting had been reported in the Kaituna Track area, also in Kahurangi National Park, which was about 25km away, he said.
DOC was grateful to Pest Free Onetahua, and Health Post Nature Trust for their efforts in the area to protect native species and increase their abundance, Trotter said.
“This ongoing work will help protect this kiwi, plus any other kiwi that might be in the area.”
Pest Free Onetahua, a community-based partnership with Tasman Environmental Trust and Manawhenua ki Mōhua, aimed to remove pests from an almost 12,000ha area in northwest Golden Bay, stretching from Farewell Spit to Whanganui Inlet.
The project received $3 million from Crown-owned Predator Free 2050 three years ago, to help target target possums, rats, mustelids (stoats mainly) and pigs.
Manawhenua ki Mōhua chairperson Margie Little was among those who said the kiwi sighting showed that local conservation efforts were heading in the right direction.
“It’s just awesome to find a vulnerable tāonga living in this wāhi tapu, it’s going to propel us forward on our shared pest free journey.”
Collingwood-based charitable trust, Health Post Nature Trust, has been trapping in the region since 2017.
Centred on protecting remnant colonies of shearwater seabirds along the northern coast, the trust has deployed more than 700 traps in the area, with a pest proof fence at Cape Farewell also protecting a translocated colony of shearwaters.
“Trust volunteers, some of whom live close to the kiwi sighting, have put in a huge commitment of time and will be stoked to hear of this tāonga in the area,” project coordinator Marian Milne said.