Death at Christmas

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 5

Death at Christmas

Basil Graeme

THE CLOSE of 1995 was a disaster for Forest and Bird’s weka project, the programme, aiming to re-establish North Island weka on the mainland. Gary and Elaine Staples, the local members who have been overseeing the weka releases at Karangahake near Waihi over the past three summers, suddenly noticed the silence as weka whistles ceased. Investigating, they found dead and mauled weka in drain pipes and under vegetation. Gary put one dead weka back into x

a drain, setting fenn traps at either end of the pipe. Next morning a huge pregnant ferret was dead in the trap. A male ferret was trapped within the week by a neighbour. Eighteen months of successful weka breeding and release was brought to a standstill within a period of 10 days. Only four wild weka have been located since. Clearly weka are unlikely to re-establish from a small population base without an extensive trapping programme when ferrets are present. The tragedy gives even greater urgency to the need for DoC to manage the last vigorous mainland population of North Island weka of about 200 birds in the Toatoa and Whitikau valleys, between Matawai and Opotiki (see Forest & Bird May 1994). The formerly strong East

Coast population is now fragmented into small, declining populations. The bad news on ferrets is that they can be sold legitimately and are being advertised in many "pets for sale’, newspaper columns. Forest and Bird is now seeking a safer release site for the weka that our members are breeding and we are urging DoC to find an island site, free at least, of ferrets. The department’s Draft Recovery Plan for weka recommends establishing North Island birds on at least three safe islands. At the moment there is only one safe weka island in Rakitu (Arid Island) near Great Barrier, supporting about 200 birds. The importance of Kawau Island near Warkworth is highlighted by the collapse of weka on the mainland. Weka were released on Kawau in the 1970s and it now holds some 30 percent of the North Island weka gene pool. But the birds on this highly modified island are extremely vulnerable. A population established earlier this century died out in a drought year. Introduced wallabies exacerbate the drought problem as all native ground cover and moist litter in which weka search for insects is cleared by the hungry wallabies. The recovery plan recommends eradication of wallabies on Kawau to protect the weka. There are now probably fewer weka than kiwi in the North Island, a dubious distinction for

this endemic bird.