Ka¯ka¯ breeding in park
Four new ka¯ka¯ in Abel Tasman National Park have boosted hopes of reestablishing a wild population there.
It is not known when ka¯ka¯ last bred in the area. A survey in 2013 revealed that the population in the park consisted of only four male birds.
Project Janszoon director Bruce Vander Lee said four female ka¯ka¯ were released into the park in 2015, in the hope that they would breed with the males to establish a wild population. Over the next three years, another seven females were released.
In December, Vander Lee said, Department of Conservation (DOC) staff got an indication that a female ka¯ ka¯ had nested.
The birds have radio transmitters on them, and monitoring showed that a captive-bred female and a wild male had paired up. They went on to have four chicks.
Vander Lee said the chicks were vulnerable when they first left the nest, often ending up on the ground as they learned to fly.
‘‘They have been able to make it through that high-risk period. It tells us a lot about the pest control going on in the park and how safe we are making it for the native birds.’’
There is a stoat trapping network across nearly 95 per cent of the park. Vander Lee said the nest was found on the edge of an area where aerial 1080 had been used.
Additional measures were taken to protect the young chicks, he said, including a section of the tree being wrapped in heavy-duty plastic to make it harder for predators to climb.
‘‘It’s the first step to a ka¯ka¯ population recovery in the Abel Tasman.’’
DOC biodiversity ranger John Henderson said the four chicks also had radio transmitters attached to them, and since leaving the nest they had been seen flying around the park.
Project Janszoon plan to release up to 25 captive-bred ka¯ka¯ in the park this year. The birds were taken as week-old chicks or eggs from nests in Nelson Lakes and Kahurangi national parks over summer, with some raised at Natureland in Nelson.