Ka¯ka¯po¯ duo flying home for Christmas
Two ka¯ka¯po¯ are returning to their remote island home after successful treatment for a disease which has had a deadly impact on the endangered species.
Cyndy, an adult female, and Huhana 2-A, a juvenile, are being discharged from Auckland Zoo this morning. Avian specialists have been treating the birds for aspergillosis — a fungal disease which infects the respiratory system. Nine ka¯ka¯po¯ have been killed by the disease this year, four dying before they even left their home island. The flightless ka¯ka¯po¯ is classified as critically endangered with a known adult population of 142.
The two birds have been under the watchful eye of veterinary staff since May. Their departure today leaves three ka¯ka¯po¯ at the zoo. Two more are expected to return to pest-free Whenua Hou Island, or Codfish Island, next month.
Vet Lydia Uddstrom said as much as the team loved the ka¯ka¯po¯, they were excited to see them return home.
“We love and adore them, but it’s very much time for them to go home and get on with being ka¯ka¯po¯,” she said.
Huhana 2-A will now spend some time getting used to the outdoors on Whenua Hou, a small island west of Stewart Island/Rakirua.
“When they’ve been in the zoo they’ve been in very strict quarantine, so they’ve not had any access to the outside world,” Uddstrom said.
The young female will need to learn skills such as how to climb up and down trees, as well as to take shelter when it rains. Uddstrom said the juvenile bird was “a little shy”, but like any young parrot she was interested in exploring her environment.
“It’s amazing to watch them explore the world,” she said.
Originally from Stewart Island, Cyndy, an adult female, was “very tolerant” of the treatment she had to undergo, Uddstrom said.
After a “huge effort” from all involved in treating the sick birds these past months, Uddstrom said she is “cautiously optimistic” that the worst is over.
“It’s so hard to diagnose sometimes you don’t actually know until the bird is dying,” she said.
“At our peak time we had 19 birds in hospital.”
The zoo team did at least 60 CT scans, more than 1433 diagnostic tests, seven endoscopy procedures and 170 anaesthetics or sedations as of this month. “Since April, 28 individual birds have been assessed at the zoo,” Uddstrom said.
The team also had to feed, collect plants, clean the ka¯ka¯po¯ pens and house each bird.