Mixed prospects for kagu

Forest and Bird, Issue 267, 1 February 1993, Page 7

Mixed prospects for kagu

THE FIRST extensive listening survey of the endangered New Caledonian kagu has thrown up some good — and bad — news. The good news is that there are more of the flightless

ground-nesting bird than were thought — an estimated 500. The worrying results, however, are that kagu habitat is very fragmented and only five percent of birds are in areas protected from mining and forestry. Kagu are most vulnerable when forests are opened up for these activities. Roads provide access to introduced predators such as cats, and also to hunters and their dogs. The kagu is allied to the cranes and rails but with no known close relatives. About the size of a domestic hen, it feeds on invertebrates on the forest floor. It has a unique nasal structure and blood com-

position (nine times the haemoglobin but a third of the red blood cells of other birds) making it an ornithological oddity. The survey was the first phase of a four-year Kagu Recovery Project which is supported by DoC and Massey University in New Zealand, and the RSPB in Britain. The next stage of the project involves a research and education campaign. Finally it is hoped to establish reserves in key kagu areas and to manage them to control introduced animals. In addition, a successful captive breeding programme in

the Riviére Bleue Park, southeast of Noumea, has provided birds for reintroduction to other areas.