Conservation efforts soaring
Two female falcon chicks released into their new home
ANew Zealand falcon/ kārearea conservation project in the shadows of Tauhara is soaring to new heights, thanks to the introduction of its first female chicks.
In a ceremony at the end of October, the two chicks were brought to their new home, a specially fitted nest box in the foothills of Mount Tauhara.
Under the watchful eyes of the Wingspan Bird of Prey Centre team, as well as students of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Whakarewa i Te Reo Ki Tuwharetoa and other local figures, the kārearea were settled into the space they would call home for a few weeks.
Taupō artist and conservationist Tāne Lawless will be the chicks’ guardians, seeing to their daily food and care needs with some help from his partner and two sons.
He’s a practised hand at falcon raising, having already reared five male chicks at the site.
This is the third year of a planned five-year programme, with a special milestone being that these are the first females to be translocated from Wingspan in Rotorua.
The centre has two pairs of adult kā rearea who cannot be rehabilitated into the wild.
However, they still produce healthy offspring, making an important contribution to the falcon population, even if they don’t know it. The chicks are then banded and given health checks by the Wingspan team, before being taken to wild sites like Tauhara to begin their new lives.
To keep them as wild as possible, the new female chicks will be fed and checked once a day, which is the same frequency they will eat as adults until they grow big enough to start making their first flights.
This should happen any day now, once the chicks’ flight feathers are fully developed.
Human contact is kept to a minimum, although Lawless will still give them supplementary food and keep watch over them to give them the best chance of survival.
Once grown, the birds will either move on or stick around- but this will be their choice.
There are hopes that a bond may form between either of the females and the resident male kārearea, who is one of the five chicks to already be raised on Tauhara and the only one to have stayed in the area.
The others have moved off to find their own territory.
Lawless has gifted the chicks names to help them on their journey, but only once he got to know their personalities. “You’ve got to meet them beforehand.”
Their names suggest that neither will be a pushover; Te Riri o te Hau / The Fierce One of the Winds and Te Aio i Mua o te Ā wha / The Calm Before the Storm.
Lawless said watching the birds grow and develop their own personalities was a joy.
“I’m really enjoying looking after them and they’re doing really well.”
Wingspan’s executive director, Debbie Stewart, said the translocation programme was a vital part of their work.
“This is a really special one for us today. This [programme] is the first ever on iwi land and embraces mātauranga.
“We’re honoured to be able to bring these birds on site.”
The efforts to bring back the kārearea — which, at 10,000 birds, is rarer than the kiwi — couldn’t happen without the hard work of individuals like Lawless, she said.
His work was so valued that he received the 2023 Wingspan Raptor Award.
“We’re just incredibly proud. A programme like this works because of the volunteers, people and whānau. The mahi he’s put in is incredible.”