Big boost for critical bird population
A desperate rescue mission to save an endangered bird species has been enriched by the successful breeding and hatching of three precious chicks.
Yesterday, the 32-day-old chicks were taken from Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre to Palmerston North and then flown to Auckland to be taken to Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
There are fewer than 200 shore plover left in the wild and past conservation efforts have been hampered by rat infestations.
Pukaha conservation manager Todd Jenkinson said the shore plover was the most endangered bird it reared and cared for at the centre.
‘‘It is very susceptible to mammalian predators, even one rat can cause enormous damage,’’ he said.
Department of Conservation attempts to establish shore plover on Mana and Portland islands in the past were undone by what was thought to be a single rat in both cases.
The breeding and hatching of three chicks at Pukaha had been a real triumph for the staff and wider conservation efforts.
In another success for the breeding programme, five pateke (brown teal) bred and hatched at Pukaha were flown to Christchurch via Palmerston North yesterday. The endangered ducks have a wild population of between 2000 and 2500 making them New Zealand’s most rare mainland waterfowl.
Pukaha breeding programme supervisor Mandy Handley said even when birds were in aviaries it was difficult at times to capture them. It could be chaotic.
‘‘The pateke are slippery little things, sometimes it’s easy to catch them and sometimes it’s hard.’’
It is a big week for Pukaha in reintroducing birds to natural habitats. Tomorrow, two pairs of whio (blue duck) will be sent to Palmerston North and Hamilton.
Pukaha spokeswoman Laura Hutchinson said the free flight aviary it opened this year enabled the breeding pair of whio to lay eggs, which were then artificially incubated and hand-reared. Those ducks were sent to Turangi where they spent time in a purpose-built environment to prepare them for release to the wild.
The second clutch of eggs was allowed to stay with the parents and be raised naturally. ‘‘The theory is that by letting the parents raise them, the ducklings will be better parents when it is their time to breed,’’ Hutchinson said.