More kākāpō exiled from sanctuary
Six months into a historic kā kā pō trial, a key challenge has become very apparent: keeping the birds inside the fenced Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.
The Department of Conservation and Sanctuary Mountain trial aimed to see if the birds could thrive in mainland sanctuaries rather than their current island homes.
“Despite mammoth efforts to cut back trees ... [some] birds have [still] breached the fence, indicating that the rapid vegetation growth rate is likely to be the biggest challenge at this site,” an update shared by the recovery team on Facebook said.
There arē now five kākāpō Bunker, Otepoti, Taeatanga, Mā hutonga and Tautahi - still residing in the Waikato.
Sanctuary Mountain has a twostrike policy for the kākāpō, meaning if a bird departs twice, they have to go.
Three of the birds, Motupōhue, Manawanui and Kanawera, were relocated back to southern predatorfree islands in November, but now two more birds have booked themselves a ticket back home.
They are Manaaki, who had first breached the fence back in October but got out again, and Elwin, who recently made the news after being found outside the fence by a tanker driver.
Not long after the encounter, rangers detected Elwin outside the fence once more, and given the quick succession of his departures, Elwin was also removed from the trial.
Although the Waikato kākāpō population has been halved, DoC Kākāpō operations manager Deidre Vercoe said the team continued to learn a lot from the birds.
“We’ve always known them to be clever and agile; this real-world data is giving us great insight into their behaviour and capabilities.”