KAKAPOS AT TE ANAU

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 15

KAKAPOS AT TE ANAU

Mr P. H. Vickery's Recollection

Mr P. H. Vickery, of Christchurch, who is well known in deer-stalking circles, is convinced from his long interest and observation] of birdlife that stoats and weasels are the cause of toe decline in the kakapo population.

A plea for persons with good memories and experience in the bush to help to solve the mystery of thtkakapo’s disappearance from most of its previous haunts had been made by the Wildlife Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Mr Vickery said he came across a pair of kakapo in the bush in the Te Anau region near George Sound about 40 years ago. He is 90 now.

“They behave like true parrots,” he said, “and tuck their heads back into their feathers. I saw these two—obviously man and wife—about 20 yards away from me at a dead tree. They had a weta and they were having a great conversation about it. One picked the weta up and gave it to the other, and he put it down and had some sort of ceremony over it. They were dividing up their breakfast.”

Mr Vickery said he watched the parrots until he was tired, then walked back to the surveyors’ hut where he was camped. As he came out of the bush, thinking about the birds, another kakapo made a rush through the air from one bush to another. A young man who was with Mr Vickery threw his sweater over it. and they caught it. “There’s no doubt that the stoats and weasels have eaten the eggs and the young birds.” Mr Vickery said. Today the Milford Sound region is apparently the only place where the parrots survive.