Student answers call of the wild
Enthusiast gives up her summer to help rare hihi
Hihi are “little rays of sunshine” for Masters student Emma Gray as she watches out for their success in breeding at a Whanganui wildlife sanctuary.
“I just want all the eggs to hatch. I really just want as many [to survive] as possible,” she said.
Gray is on a summer placement at Bushy Park Tarapuruhi for her Masters in Wildlife Management at Otago University. She moved into the bunkhouse at the sanctuary, a predatorfenced 95ha forest 25km from Whanganui, in mid-November and will stay there until hihi breeding season ends in February or early March.
She’s a spectator at the battle for survival of a nationally vulnerable bird. Once common in the North Island, they were reduced to a single population on Little Barrier Island until 1980 when some were reintroduced on the mainland.
There are now six mainland populations, and since 2013 Bushy Park Tarapuruhi has been one of them. An
estimated 2000 birds survive in New Zealand. They need complex forests and are vulnerable to predation and diseases from introduced bird species.
Bushy Park had a bad breeding season last year, with just 39 eggs laid, 17 hatching and 16 chicks surviving to fledge at 21 days. That’s when they get their “bling” - the coloured leg bands that set them apart, Gray said.
A Bushy Park Tarapuruhi population survey in September found 34 adult hihi.
There are now known to be only 13 females, Gray said, but 12 nests have been built, mainly in supplied nest boxes. Each will have three to five eggs, and the females can raise up to three clutches of eggs in a season.
This year their nests will be sprayed to kill mites that can prevent the chicks from thriving. Feeders with sugar water have been set up near the nests to make sure the chicks get enough food.
With the right kinds of food provided in a complex forest, less sugar water would be needed, Gray said. Predator trapping would also aid the survival of hihi outside the sanctuary.
“There was a pair that ended up in a forest patch away from Bushy Park. I think they are slowly starting to expand out of the sanctuary.”
Gray is loving being on the spot to monitor the birds from day to day, and also help with volunteer activities. Her placement in a small sanc
tuary is enabling her to see more aspects of wildlife management.
During the day her eyes are glued to binoculars whenever she hears a hihi call. All her work is unpaid.
“I’m just having a great time, living for the experience.”
It’s a high octane environment, she said, brimming with birdsong and friendly chases. She’s hoping visitors will come to share it.
“Come and see the adults zooming through the trees and stopping by our feeders in between visits to their demanding chicks.”