Ka¯ka¯po¯ recovery numbers
Vercoe agrees. Social media interest was huge from the DOC perspective as well.
‘‘We took a very open approach with our communications, making sure we were keeping people as informed as possible, through the good news and the bad.’’
The number one question was reliably the same: how can we help? From established programme supporters Meridian and Air New Zealand to a specific donation option that raised $200,000 from countries far and wide.
Gradually the good news was coming back from the exhausted labs.
‘‘I think it was the 17th bird tested who was our first negative. That was a relief – I’d been extremely worried as the positives kept coming back.’’
Next raft of good news, the affected birds were responding unexpectedly well to treatment.
‘‘It took months of treatment, but birds we thought would surely die were improving.’’
Ultimately, when the last of the evacuees – Margaret Maree – headed home in early February, the crisis had been weathered.
The season that started with 147 birds ended with 211. Still a small number but on balance, a big step ahead for ka¯ ka¯ po¯ recovery.
And now, of course, we have Covid-19 and a lockdown of the humans. For the recovery team, the timing has been reasonably fortunate. They’d been winding down monitoring of the breeding season and those birds who had recovered from aspergillosis – all doing reasonably well.
‘‘Outside a breeding season, we’re very handsoff with the birds. They’re essentially wild birds taking care of themselves. Our rangers are safely at home,’’ Vercoe says.
Not to draw too long a bow, but can Vercoe see any lessons applicable to the Covid-19 emergency?
‘‘It can be amazing to see how people really pull together in a crisis. It takes everyone working together to get through, and a clear path of action.
‘‘In our crisis there were times when we didn’t fully understand what the best path to take was, but decisions had to be made based on the best information to hand at the time. We couldn’t just sit and wait to see what would happen, there was too much to lose... being prepared to adapt quickly as new information came to light was really important.
‘‘When people feel committed to fighting for something and can clearly see the role they have in that fight – that purpose and connection brings out such strength.’’ birds were affected birds died – two adults and seven chicks birds – 17 adults and 31 chicks were sent to the mainland for assessment for aspergillosis, 43 from Whenua Hou (Codfish Island) and five from Pukenui (Anchor Island)] birds that remained on Whenua Hou and all the breeding females on Pukenui (21) were health checked and had blood samples taken.
Longest hospital stay was Toiora, who underwent eight CT scans, 28 sedations/anaesthesias and more than 150 diagnostic tests.
Longest stay for an adult bird was for MargaretMaree, pictured right. were conducted on birds with the number of scans per bird ranging from one up to eight (Toiora). would have likely died without treatment. It is also conceivable that the numbers of birds infected was reduced due to the decision at the end of May to remove all remaining chicks and females from nests to minimise exposure.