Keas Not Favoured

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31986, 13 May 1969, Page 1

Keas Not Favoured

Once regarded with favour as a tourist attraction, a colony of keas at the Hermitage, Mount Cook, has outworn its welcome—not to mention a bedspread, sections of carpet and underlay, windscreen wiper blades and other rubberwork from the cars of the staff and guests. Appealing to the Mount Cook National Park Board for help, the manager of the Hermitage, Mr A. Withington, said that although two or three keas round the hotel could be tolerated, there were now 20 or so. The birds, he said, were “quite a menace,” and apart from being noisy and rowdy were entering staff houses and damaging the property of the hotel and contractors. He asked if they could be trapped and taken elsewhere —the further the better. The board decided to take no action until it knew more about the reason for the increase in numbers, as the increase might be temporary and the problem might solve itself.

Apart from being, protected under the National Parks Act, 1952, the birds were considered “a natural and attractive feature of the region.” The board chairman, Mr N. S. Coad, said he had been awakened at 1 a.m. that day by a pair of keas screeching outside his window.