Kakapo recovery plan renewed

Forest and Bird, Issue 282, 1 November 1996, Page 4

Kakapo recovery plan renewed

AN UPDATED recovery plan was launched in September to ensure that New Zealand’s unique owl-faced parrot fares better in the 21st century than it has in the 20th. In its initial six years, the Kakapo Recovery Plan saw a number of advances in the location of previously unknown birds and their transfer to safer offshore islands; in research techniques and understanding of kakapo behaviour; and in management structure — the Department of Conservation’s National Kakapo Team now integrates kakapo research, management and recovery throughout New Zealand. But dedication and good organisation line up against some pretty intractable problems. Only 50 kakapo survive — on Little Barrier Island, Codfish Island off Stewart Island, and Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds. Only 19 are females and, since 1989, only five have produced fertile eggs. To the problems of very small populations past their breeding peak and the imbalance between the sexes, are added those arising from the birds’ habits. Kakapo nest only every three to five years, and then on the ground, making them vulnerable to the kiore which still infest Little Barrier and Codfish Islands. But in the six years since the programme was initiated, three chicks have successfully hatched. The use of night-vision equipment and miniaturised cameras, previously developed to study mating behaviour, is being expanded to closely monitor any kiore activity near eggs and chicks. Supplementary feeding of females appears to have had some success in increasing breeding frequency, and hormonal enhancement techniques being applied experimentally at present to more common species, may prove helpful over the next decade. The aim of the new 19962005 recovery plan is "to

establish at least one viable, selfsustaining, unmanaged population of kakapo as a functional component of the ecosystem in a protected habitat, and two or more other populations which may require ongoing management." Assistance will come from Comalco’s agreement to provide more than $1 million funding over the next six years through the Threatened Species Trust (a partnership with DoC and Forest and Bird). In renewing the sponsorship, Kerry McDonald, Comalco’s managing director, emphasised the long-term nature of the commitment. "Our decision to reinvest in the kakapo programme," he said, "is a tribute to the capability and commitment of DoC staff, as much as it is to our determination to see the kakapo survive."