Trouble With Keas

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30497, 20 July 1964, Page 7

Trouble With Keas

(From Our Own Reporter)

DEEP COVE, July 19.

Razor-beaked native keas were creating havoc with costly equipment used by the work force on the £9 million Manapouri tail-race project and road over the Wilmot pass, said a top executive of the contracting company. The keas were devouring nitro-glycerine from sticks of gelignite, he said. “They seem to like the stuff.” Today, while standing outside the Deep Cove first aid post, I watched 15 keas ripping gaping holes in the tarpaulin roof of a work truck carrying dynamite. One of the workmen nearby said: “The keas walk inside this first aid hut out of curiosity. I have seen 30 eating crusts of bread outside the men’s mess hut at lunchtime.

“The keas are responsible for putting the telephone wires over Wilmot Pass out of action, thus cutting the Wanganella off from civilisation. They strip off the insulation with their beaks. Sometimes they eat the insulation. Stripping seems to be their favourite occupation.” The worker said keas had stripped insulation off 240volt electric wires in the Deep Cove area, causing the wires to short circuit. A company executive said the keas had forced his organisation to start a programme of replacing the canvas tarpaulin roofs on work trucks with sheet aluminium. One worker here said he had seen keas biting through the half-inch mesh wire netting on top of electric boxes with their beaks.