Devilish tale of fame and ill fortune
Tasmania has Taz the devilish devil to promote tourism. New Zealanders have discovered a playful parrot, says Don Knowler
THE rise of the selfie has finally put New Zealand’s mercurial mountain parrot, the kea, in the picture. For long considered a pest by many New Zealanders, particularly the farmers, the kea is basking in the spotlight of celebrity.
New Zealanders are learning to live with the super-intelligent kea — the only bird or animal known to seek out humans for play — at a time when its numbers are falling. In many ways the promotion of the kea has a parallel with the Tasmanian devil, an endangered animal becoming an unlikely tourist attraction.
The devil, though, had a head start, initially becoming Taz, the star of Hollywood cartoons. The kea’s awakening has been slower and the parrot owes its new-found fame to television documentaries. From the time renowned wildlife filmmaker David Attenborough described it as his favourite bird, the kea has been a must-see for tourists visiting New Zealand’s South Island, where the alpine landscape is its stronghold.
First photographs of kea, now the selfie. Images of kea antics and interaction with humans have made their way around the world. As smartphone wielding tourists have quickly discovered, the kea is more than happy to pose for shots in return for a reward of food.
The kea has human traits which cannot be ignored, as strong as those attached to the waddling penguin in the waiter’s suit, or the wise owl who has the mannerisms of a judge. And these traits are proving a green tourist bonanza for New Zealand, in the same way that the roguish Tasmanian devil is doing its bit for the tourist industry here.
But the new-found status as tourists’ most popular bird has brought with it headaches for
conservationists trying to save this threatened species from both itself, and those who want to join it in play.
The rush by foreign visitors to see kea in the wild has reinforced the message that kea and mankind do not mix. So much so that visitors are being discouraged from seeking out kea in some of the areas where they are known.
In a once popular spot to find kea, Arthur’s Pass in the Southern Alps between Christchurch and Greymouth on the east and west coasts of the South Island, signs warn against feeding the parrots, proclaiming their “potential to cause mayhem”.
The signs designed to discourage interaction with the kea are part of a program of action across the New Zealand sierra to keep kea and human apart. But such well-meaning plans always appear to run into trouble when dealing with the world’s only mountain parrot. The kea might belong in the remote mountain environment, out of reach of humans, but how do you keep them there?
As with the Tasmanian devil, human interaction with the kea in colonial and post-colonial times has not always been a happy one. An estimated 150,000 kea were killed from the 1860s onwards as a result of a government bounty introduced after conflict with sheep farmers. The birds were finally given total protection in 1985.
The birds, still considered a pest by many New Zealanders, are only found in the mountains of the South Island in a vast habitat of some 3.5 million hectares. And there, sadly, kea are under threat. Numbers have plummeted as a result of predation by non-native animals and the kea’s association, good and bad, with humans and human infrastructure. Conservationists are raising the alarm after years of crashing population numbers, with the population estimated to be as low as 1000-5000 birds.
“Kea are one of the most maligned of New Zealand birds, as well as one of our most loved,” says Tamsin Orr-Walker, chair of the Kea Conservation Trust.
Despite their protected status, kea still divide New Zealanders between those who enjoy the cheeky parrots’ animated nature and those who curse their destructive habits, such as damaging cars, tents and buildings in alpine environments, attacking stock and habitually stealing food.
Although kea are totally protected, the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the Kea Conservation Trust continue to record intentional kea deaths each year, birds either shot, bludgeoned or poisoned. These deaths are thought to be under-reported.
The biggest threat to the kea, though, is predation by introduced mammal species, and, to counter this, traps are increasingly being laid in kea nesting areas to catch predators, feral cats emerging as an increasing problem in recent years.
Interaction with tourists is also a major program, with the kea being killed on roads or being fed inappropriate food. To lure them away from roads and people, conservationists have constructed “gyms” for them. The kea immediately took to these playgrounds, which feature ladders, spinning flight devices, swings and climbing frames.
The kea in 2017 was crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year. Last year the vote in the annual poll went to a less threatened bird, an endemic wood pigeon, the kereru, but the kea’s fans still savour the earlier victory.
Orr-Walker said of the 2017 win the kea had finally achieved acclaim and in some ways the species was more representative of New Zealanders than the official national bird, the reclusive kiwi.
“A lot of people are saying the kea should be our national bird because they so much epitomise what it is to be a New Zealander: adventurous and up for a challenge and maybe a bit misunderstood,” she said.
“I think New Zealanders are starting to realise how special kea are; they are interactive birds and seek out humans, which is very unusual. The fact they are declining from our mountains is alarming.”
Tourists arriving by plane at Christchurch see posters and murals proclaiming in no uncertain terms that the city is the gateway to kea country. It’s a message as potent as the art installation in the arrivals hall at Hobart airport which depicts a family of Tasmanian devils cavorting over a luggage trolley.