KEAS FOR ZOOS OVERSEAS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 6

KEAS FOR ZOOS OVERSEAS

17 CAUGHT AT LEWIS PASS

DISPATCH BY AIR TO AUCKLAND

Seventeen of the 25 keas sought in the Souths Island by the Auckland Zoo for sending to overseas zoos have now been caught in the Lewis Pass area. Five keas were sent to Auckland by air from Harewood recently, and nine more will be dispatched this morning. The keas were caught by Mr J. Morris, of “The Poplars” station, Hanmer Springs, who has corresponded from time to time on the habits of keas with the curator of the Auckland Zoo (Colonel E. R. Sawer). He has. three birds at “The Poplars” in cages, and expects to catch eight more by the end < of this montlf. * The nine keas brought to Christchurch yesterday were caught in the Hope Valley, where they and other birds had killed 14 sheep in the last four weeks. Mr Morris said last evening that he had several photographs showing how the sheep had been attacked by the birds. He intended to catch the remaining birds for the zoo above the Public Works Department camp on the Lewis Pass road where five sheep had also been killed by keas.

Mr Morris catches the keas in a very Weak-springed rabbit trap with the teeth filed off. It is covered with three coatings of wool, and is baited with a piece of butter, and a scrap of red rag to s rouse the bird’s curiosity. Mr Morris sets his trap early in the evening, and sits beside it and whistles to the keas. When one is trapped he places a small leather cap over its head ana beak so it cannot peck, and attaches a fine dog chain to its leg. The kea is tethered, given a carrot to eat, and Mr Morris waits for the next one to approach the trap. When catching the keas last week. Mr Morris found a keas’ nest. He saw the hen bird enter a hole, and when he examined the nest he found two eggs and two young birds in it. Keas’ nests are usually difficult to nnd.

The Auckland Zoo will hold the keas it receives for about a month and then they will be sent to the zoos in San Diego. Salt Lake City, and Sydney. Later in the year paradise ducks and pukekos will be sent to these zoos. Export of paradise ducks is normally forbidden, but those to be sent wese bred at the zoo. In return for kens the Salt Lake City Zoo will send ducks and swans, and the San Diego zoo sea lions, a spider monkey, and puma cubs.