Seven singles seek a match on West Coast

A group of special bachelors and bachelorettes will search the backcountry of the West Coast for a mate following fruitless attempts in Christchurch.

Department of Conservation (DOC) rangers released seven whio (blue duck) onto the upper Styx and upper Arahura rivers near Hokitika after nearly a year of whio wooing on the other side of the Southern Alps.

The newly-released birds were the unsuccessful applicants from a programme establishing breeding pairs of South Island whio for what could be described as the whio Bachelor. There are fewer than 3000 whio left in New Zealand. The birds are considered threatened and nationally vulnerable by DOC.

The whio captive breed for release programme is setting up a South Island programme to try boost the population. Several North Island pairs have already been breeding for release for 17 years. Creating breeding pairs involves a sort of dating process inside a large aviary.

West Coast whio ranger Antje Wahlberg said the whio pairs had been reared by the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust at Peacock Springs in Christchurch.

‘‘This ensures wild eggs survive incubation and the duckling stage, because in the wild many are lost to predation by stoats. However, collecting wild eggs can be a time consuming and costly method, so establishing South Island captive breeding pairs will help the programme,’’ she said.

The birds released yesterday did not receive a figurative rose in the flock-mating game, but it was hoped they would find their partner in the wild.

Wahlberg said the four male and three female birds ‘‘basically started feeding straight away’’ after their release. ‘‘They will probably hang out together for now, but they are at the age where they will be wanting to pair,’’ she said.

DOC plans to release five more of the iconic species, which features on the New Zealand $10 note, in a different area on the West Coast in the coming weeks.