Trio of whio ducks released in Egmont park
Proud foster parents drove for hours to watch three young whio (blue duck) being released into Egmont National Park yesterday.
Anne Purchas from Kapiti was there with her husband Larry to watch the ducks which she’d helped care for at the Nga Manu Nature Reserve, where they were hatched, swim off in a stream near the York Rd track at Midhirst.
‘‘It’s my first time at a release. I’m the clucky foster mother,’’ she said.
Sarah O’Sullivan had left her bed before dawn to catch the young ducks and drive them to Taranaki from Turangi, where they spent the past month in a duckling ‘‘boot camp’’ at the DOC creche learning how to swim in fast flowing rivers and forage.
‘‘These were the most chilled boys we’ve had,’’ she said.
The ducks were blessed before their release by kauma¯tua Sid Kershaw on behalf of iwi Ngati Ruanui, and given names.
One duck was named for fiveyear-old Manawanui Clifton, who was with his father Te Amaroa Clifton.
When their boxes were opened, ducks Manawanui, Tane and Matu slipped into the Waipuku Stream, and dived straight in for a drink, some lunch and a quick preen for the cameras surrounding them.
The trio would bring genetic diversity to a now growing whio population on Mt Taranaki, Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Joe Carson said.
Two other whio were released last week and more would be freed in a few weeks, she said.
Once considered extinct in Taranaki, there are now 33 pairs on the eight rivers in the park surveyed by DOC, she said.
‘‘Fifty six ducklings have been found on the eight rivers, that’s phenomenal,’’ she said.
As well as the surveyed pairs, there were others living elsewhere. ‘‘We get lots of sightings by trampers of pairs on other rivers,’’ she said.