Pukeko “Can Look After Itself’

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29841, 6 June 1962, Page 14

Pukeko “Can Look After Itself’

(New Zealand Press Association)

. VUtTEDN. June 5. “As a game bird, the pukeko can well look after •itself; it has the finest assessment of when it is within or without gun range,” Mr L. Millar, secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society, said today. Mr Millar was commenting on a statement by Mr R. C Nelson, president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, that it was “just a little short of murder" to shoot the pukeko. “It appears to me that a man who made that statement has never done much pukeko shooting.” Mr Millar said “The bird will run along the ground for 100 yards before taking off just out of gun range: if there are two guns lined up. he knows just where to fly down the channel between them, out of range. “On the other hand he is a good game bird, but not so sought after as other water fowl. K's not a particularly good eating bird." said Mr Millar. Mr Millar recalled that in 1948 a freeze-up in the Maniototo valley. Central Otago, caused thousands of pukekos to die in the swamps. But within five years they had recovered to' the stage

where they again became a nuisance to farmers. Today, in many district, they were just bordering on being a nuisance.

There was strong evidence that the pukeko was destructive to other water fowl. One had been observed taking a duckling, putting a foot on it, and pulling its head off. Mr Millar said. “There is no doubt that in some areas where the pukeko was in strength, the duck population decreased,” he said.