HOW THE KEA KILLS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2322, 15 October 1908, Page 1

HOW THE KEA KILLS.

EXTENT OF ITS DEPREDATIONS.

Lecturing to the Manawatii Philosophical Society recently, Mr G. R. Marriner, Curator of tlio Wanganui Museum, gave an account of his recent visit to the Southern Alps to observe the habits of the kea —the sheepskilling bird. He discussed theories 'put forward to account for tlio birds having changed from their diet of insects and plants to one of flesh. He considered the natural curiosity of the bird bad led it .to settle on the sheep’s back just to see what an animal was, and it had then begun to pull the wool about, and had discovered, merely by chance, that beneath the wool was toothsome food. Tho methods adopted by these flesh-eat-ers of destroying prey were graphically described. The kea always landed on the rump of the sheep, because on that part it could get a. secure seat, and would then deliberately ride its victim to death. The terrified animal rushed wildly around, urged on by the agony of incessant stabbing from its remorseless rider. The sheep would dash blindly at rocks, and sometimes over precipices, what time the ke i would calmly trust to its wings and wait, till the animal was dashed lifeless in the ravine below, and then swoop down and gorgo on the shattered body. Another favorite way wus to attack half conscious animals when benumbed and halfburied by snow storms. The lecturer said the loss to sheep-owners had been put down at 50 per cent of the flocks, but wo could safely sa.v these stories were a gross exaggeration, and after careful investigation lie had come to tho conclusion that 't-lie losses of sheep-owners from the kea were not more than 5 per cent. Mr Marriner pointed out that tho preying proclivities of the kea had spread rapidly, and the bird had gradually worked north till it now attacked sheep along the whole length of the Southern Alps, from Central Otago right up to Marlborough and Nelson.