Chick relocation completed

AUCKLAND: The biggest mottled petrel chick relocation ever attempted has been completed after a batch of young birds was moved 1131km from Codfish Island to mainland New Zealand.

Also known as korure, the 99 chicks were put into new nests in the Maungaharuru Range in Hawke’s Bay last week as part of a broader plan to help seabirds repopulate the region.

They will now spend four to six weeks at the Maungaharuru site where Doc staff and volunteers will monitor their health and feed them sardine smoothies.

When ready, they should spend three to four years at sea before returning to Maungaharuru to nest, having taken a mental picture of the site when they emerged from their burrow.

Doc’s Connie Norgate expected the relocated chicks to return to Maungaharuru rather than their original home on Codfish Island because they were moved from their burrows earlier than usual.

The relocation programme has been running since 2014, and the first korures were already returning to Maungaharuru, she said.

‘‘In January this year, we had one adult return from one of our earlier translocations, providing excitement and evidence that the manu (birds) will return to the site they fledged from.’’

Millions of seabirds had populated Maungaharuru in the past, so efforts to regrow the colonies were important, she said.

Korure were culturally significant to Maori and were ecologically important because they deposit nutrients from the sea into native bush, she said.