KEAS AND SHEEP

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 9

KEAS AND SHEEP

"TREMENDOUS DAMAGE"

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS

Personal experiences of the wa,y keas attack sheep in the high country were related o-n Sunday by Mr. E. L. Wigley, managing director of the Mount Cook Tourist Company, when commenting on recent articles and correspondence about the habits of the kea, says the "Press." Mr. Wigley said it was quite true, as had been mentioned by one writer, that sheep at the Hermitage itself had never been attacked by keas, but his experience elsewhere had shown what - harm, the birds could do.

"Although the Hermitage has had its own sheep, they have never yet been known to be touched by keas, but the birds have done a great deal of damage on the adjoining country— Glentanner and Mount Cook stations," he said. "This shows that the kea does not shift much, otherwise sheep would be killed at the Hermitage as well as on the nearby stations.

"From my personal exxierience there is no doubt that keas do a tremendous amount of damage among the sheep," said Mr. Wigley. "Twenty halfbred rams were taken from Rutherfords, Parnassus, to the Huxley Gorge, at the head of Lake Ohau, and they were put out with the ewes. The keas killed eight of them in the first fortnight. They were all killed at sheep camps at night. ALL-NIGHT VIGIL. "One night I put all the sheep into a small paddock and sat up on a big rock until the moon went down in. the early hours of the morning, but did not see a kea, and the sheep were not disturbed. The following night I did not bring the sheep in, but sat up on a' rock in the middle of their camp all night until the moon went down about 4 p.m. I heard the keas chuckling, but saw no sign of them, and the sheep were not disturbed, but on going back agair. shortly after daylight in the morning found one ram killed. "The kea appears to kill only on certain spurs or sections of country, and usually there is only one killer, but all will eat and clean the carcass up. If you can get that killer you will stop the loss on that particular piece of country. "A shepherd came across a kea that had so frightened the sheep that one, in trying to protect itself, had jammed itself in between two rocks. The kea had torn a great hole in its back and was busy feeding away with the sheep still alive. Several other keas were waiting to get in and have a feed. He wounded the killer with a .22 rifle, and while it was hopping about and 'squarking' curiosity brought the others down to see what all the fun was about. The shepherd shot the lot. The killer kea had rough scaly patches on its legs, like those on the legs of a very old hen. It was evidently an old bird and had been at it for years. From that day on no more sheep were lost on that piece of country. BLOOD POISONING CAUSED. "The kea usually takes the biggest and best sheep and seems to go for those with the roughest wool," Mr. Wigley added. "Most of the damage is done through blood poisoning. Their beaks get poisoned through feeding on rank carcasses. Only a slight scratch from the kea's beak is necessary to set up blood poisoning, and the sheep dies in a few days. You often find a dead sheep without a sign of a mark on it until you skin it and find that a small scratch had set up blood poisoning under the skin. "Once I saw a sheep in the afternoon that was poisoned. It had reached the last stages, but was still standing up and gasping for breath. The next morning a mob of keas had eaten practically the whole of tho sheep, except the meat underneath on which the bones were hying. The keas that had been feeding had eaten so much that they were hardly able to fly and we shot many of them. "Keas on different spurs work in different ways. * On one spur a kea will tackle a sheep in the middle of the back and set up blood poisoning from there. On another spur they will scratch a sheep on the bare skin where the tail joins the body. "The idea that keas tackle a sheep for kidney fat is all wrong. You could put a kea in a cage and feed it on kidney fat, and you would starve it to death. The back of the sheep over the kidneys is the natural place for a kea to settle on a sheep, and this gives rise to the kidney fat idea. MANNER OF ATTACK. "The kea will pick out a sheep, get on his back, 'squark,' and flap his wings and frighten the sheep. He will keep on doing this, always keeping to the one sheep, until he has killed it by forcing it over the rocks, or forced to seek protection by jamming its head into anything there may be about. "In many places the death rate among sheep has been reduced from 15 per cent; or 20 per cent, to about 5 per cent, by getting rid of keas. The birds are not so difficult to ge* rid of if you set about it in the right way. We found the most successful way was to take the leg of a dead sheep with the wool still on, fill it up with strychnine by putting a knife in here and there and putting strychnine in the cut, and taking the leg out on to a high top and wiring it down on to a rock. Keas at the Huxley weie formerly doing a tremendous amount of damage, and wo have now pretty well cleaned them right out."