Kea 1080 deaths ‘predictable’
The deaths of six kea following a 1080 drop in Otago were the result of a ‘‘perfect storm’’, internal documents reveal.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) dropped 1080 in the Ma¯tukituki Valley in Mt Aspiring National Park as part of a predator control operation on February 11. Within days there were indications of kea deaths.
Kea Conservation Trust chairwoman Tamsin Orr-Walker said the deaths were ‘‘devastating’’.
At the time, DOC staff blamed tourists feeding the kea for the birds’ willingness to take the bait.
Emails and text messages released to Stuff, under the Official Information Act reveal one DOC staff member believed the birds’ scrounging and the two pre-feeds that preceded the drop had created a ‘‘perfect storm’’. The pre-feeds involve using non-toxic bait to attract the target species – rats and stoats – and encourage them to take the poisoned bait later.
It was ‘‘pretty predictable’’ the kea deaths would occur, the staffer wrote. Another wrote that in a location like Ma¯tukituki ‘‘we expect some kea deaths to occur,’’ due to the level of scrounging.
The two pre-feeds were given eight weeks apart, due to heavy rain after the first in late November.
This was in line with DOC’s Kea Code of Practice, but the first staff member wrote that DOC should not be pre-feeding twice in ‘‘red zones’’ such as the Ma¯tukituki Valley – areas where kea exhibit scrounging behaviour.
In an interview with Stuff DOC’s biodiversity threats unit Nelson manager, Meg Rutledge, said the deaths of the six kea were not predictable and were regrettable, she said. ‘‘However, the science on the risks and benefits of predator control to kea gave us confidence that the effective control of rats and stoats would benefit the kea population as well as other native species in these valleys.’’