Richard Henry, early conservationist

Forest and Bird, Volume 17, Issue 4, 1 November 1986, Page 12

Richard Henry, early conservationist

The person most often associated with Kakapo ts that remarkable early conservationist, Richard Henry, whose biography Richard Henry of Resolution Island is to be published in the near future (authors Susanne and John Hill, Publisher John McIndoe). With the kind permission of the publishers and author, Forest and Bird here reprints an edited version of the book’s Epilogue, written by Don Merton of the Wildlife Service.

§] Biss can be no doubt that Richard Henry was a remarkable and talented field naturalist, although perhaps only recently has the real significance of his work become apparent. New Zealand's present success and international leadership in the management of threatened species might not have been achieved without Henry’s foresight and commitment in conceiving and carrying out his innovatory work. It was a pioneering effort and established a solid foundation for what has later become a most successful means employed by the New Zealand Wildlife Service and others of rehabilitating critically endangered species. The technique, which has been developed and refined over the years, has been the mainstay of our endangered species management, especially for the higher endemics many of which are incapable of co-existence with predatory mammals. Because effective long-term control of predators is not feasible on the mainland of New Zealand, predator-free islands offer

such species their only hope of survival in the wild. Since Henry's time, at least sixty transfers of birds to islands have been made for conservation purposes, involving sixteen bird taxa. Over two-thirds of these transfers have been successful. The technique has also been employed in the conservation of indigenous reptiles and invertebrates. Without these measures, at least a further four New Zealand bird taxa would now be extinct.

Hard work

Henry's record of capturing and transferring birds in Dusky Sound is quite remarkable, given that kakapo are solitary creatures and that each bird ranges over thirty to fifty hectares. Even in Henry's day, when they were locally plentiful, kakapo were widely spaced on the ground, and the capture of each one involved much time and hard work. During the period April 1895 to December 1897, Henry transferred to Dusky's islands 474 kakapo, little grey kiwi, and ‘roa’, an average of

more than fourteen birds a month — a remarkable feat, especially when one considers the very difficult field conditions he had to endure. Not only did Henry pioneer the translocation of endangered species, but even now he has probably transferred more rare wild birds than has any other person. Henry cannot be blamed for the failure of kakapo to survive on Resolution Island. Had the sanctuary been a little farther from the mainland, out of swimming range of stoats, the outcome might well have been quite different. With modern technology on our side, and at this eleventh hour in the bid to save the kakapo, some important advances have been made. For instance, in 1974 the first high-quality tape recordings were obtained, and playing these at night has been a useful aid in locating kakapo. Light-inten-sifying ‘scopes, with which one can actually see in the dark, were used in 1975 to observe for the first time kakapo at night, booming and displaying at their track and bowl systems. The knowledge thus acquired has an uncanny similarity to conclusions reached by Henry almost a century before. He once wrote that if he could come back at night with the eyes of a cat to a hilltop where kakapo tracks and bowls were to be found, what a

wonderful sight it would be — he likened it to a ballroom.

Odd creature

Modern research on the kakapo has confirmed many of Henry's contentions, some of which were and still are. unusual, for the kakapo is indeed an odd creature. For instance, only in the last five years has it been possible to verify Henry's conclusion that breeding occurred only in those years when booming occurred, and that booming did not occur every year. This view, more than any other, was challenged or rejected outright by many authorities of the day (and even up to the present), and the disagreement raised doubts in many circles as to the validity of Henry's other observations. Henry was a skilful field naturalist and a meticulous observer, and he was well acquainted with the kakapo’s unusual behaviour, which he had carefully studied over many seasons. He anticipated rejection of his views when he said ‘this is one of the true stories that will not be believed in the future — can’t understand it, won't believe it’. The doubts were not resolved in Henry's lifetime. However, his conclusions have been confirmed by the ra-dio-tagging of females on Stewart Island during the last five years. It is indeed the case that females do not

breed every year and that their nesting coincides only with those years when males boom intensely for two to three months. Intense booming occurs at one- to four-year intervals. Henry speculated that booming and breeding were related to the availability of food, though he was hard-pressed to justify his view for he found that the males’ air sacs started to develop several months before the seasonal abundance of food. Recent research does in fact indicate that booming and breeding are linked to the sporadic heavy cropping of certain food species.

Gay Lothario

Further evidence of Henry's reliability as an observer has resulted from our recent studies, using light-intensifiers, of females at nests. Henry contended that the female alone attended the nest (the male ‘knew nothing’ of it, he said, and was a ‘gay Lothario’). The conclusion was disputed by a number of the old naturalist’s contemporaries, and ours! However, our studies in 1981 and 1985 — the only times nesting has occurred recently — show that incubation and care of the young are in fact undertaken solely by the female. Other observations noted by Henry have also proved to be equally accurate, and his reports and records have been invaluable to current con-

servation efforts. For instance, his descriptions of female kakapo enabled us confidently to identify the first female that we encountered on Stewart Island — probably the first seen since Henry’s time. Similarly, his descriptions of nests, nestlings, and juveniles, have all been totally accurate and thus of immense help to us in the field. We have also found Henry's technique of hunting kakapo using a muzzled dog wearing a bell to be the only safe and effective method, and it has been successfully employed by Wildlife Service field staff. Similarly, his techniques for holding birds temporarily in captivity and of feeding captive birds have all been adopted by those involved in recent capture-and-transfer programmes. Henry’s writings, more than any other, have been indispensable in our field work. During the 1970s, while searching for kakapo in Fiordland, I would always take copies of Henry's reports with me; and on those rather frequent occasions known as ‘pit days’, when field work was impossible due to heavy fog, torrential rain, or snow, we would remain in our sleeping bags and study what he had to say. We never ceased to be impressed by the breadth and accuracy of his observations and the depth of perception of his interpretations. ye