Effort to catch and preserve rare bird

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33985, 28 October 1975, Page 21

Effort to catch and preserve rare bird

j (Front Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON. 1 'Die kakapo. one of New Zealand's rarest and most unusual birds, faces certain extinction unless the Wildlife Serivice can catch and trans-, port sufficient numbers 1 ! (mainly females) from a few remote valleys in the Milford catchment ofj ! Fiordland to equally remote Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds. i The service has begun al (six-month project in the, Milford area to find morel birds, study them, determine’ whether they are “booming” | (breeding) this year, and’ (catch some for transfer. I I Early observers of the Ka-I ■ kapo ’last century reported that they did not breed: (every year. As this would' I have’ made them the" only ! (birds known to man with an: I irregular breeding cycle, I (these early reports were discounted, but recent studies! of the few birds still in! existence suggests that they! are as unique as the early! observers had said. The Kakapo in Fiordland ( “boomed" last year, and: they will be observed in! case they do so again this!

year. vlales ready for breeding • will dig bowl-like depressions in the ground and (utter “booms” every night for the next two months, 'according to the fauna con-j Iservation officer of the (Wildlife Service, Mr D. V. Merton. They give more! than 100 “booms" an hour: for 10 to 12 hours every! night for two months, eating and drinking very little and losing condition in the pro-( cess. ATTRACTION They start “booming” late: in November and early December, to attract the females, and if this summer does happen to be another “booming” season then this! will make it much easier to! capture females for Maud Island. The Wildlife Service ali ready has three Kakapo in Maud Island but, because so (little is known about the bird, there have been problems in sexing them. It is now known that two are. ■ males and it is hoped that 1 the third is female, but this! is still not clear and Mr; Merton said: “We do not propose to chase one Ka-! kapo all over Maud Island, to establish its sex. “This is an unique bird on the brink of extinction." he said. “It is doomed if left on its own because it is so scat-’ 'tered and is unable to fly toreach other birds. “The only hope for the, kakapo is for us to catch them and bring them together at a place where there are no alien, introduced enemies such as . cats, rats, deer, pigs, wea- ! seis, and stoats, such as are found everywhere on the , mainland.” Mr Merton said Maud Island had suitable flora, and was entirely free of pests or competing mammals, and the birds already there had thrived. A few kakapo were still scattered throughout Fiordland, but most of the known ones were in the Milford catchment, where they had been driven from the

.valleys into the high basins. ' It was not intended at this stage to use Maud Island tor any other endangered species, although the takahe might Im* released there eventually. “Our prime object is the conservation of this very unusual bird," he said. NOT REPORTED It comprised a sub-family of its own with no other similar species of bird, and of the 315 types of parrot known it was the only one that was flightless, the only one with a flat, owl-like face, the only with hair-like feathers on its face. It was one of the few nocturnal parrots. Its mating behaviour, including its “booming." its displaying in self-dug depressions. and its continuing use of special traditional {display grounds, had not (been reported in any other parrot anywhere, in any

{Other Neu Zealand bird or cm anc other flightless b’.id ‘ in the world. Mr Merton i said. Last summer the Wildlife Service took the first photographs and mad" the first ' recordings of kakapo. It is hoped to pla' these pre-re-corded ’'booms" this summer to attract the females for I capture if the males are not I “booming ” I He said the concept of (putting endangered species lon islands had been very (successful m New Zealand. ■ He quoted the case of the ; saddleback, which was now {extinct in its original habitat, but existed on Kaimohu and Stage Islands off Stewart Island to which it had been transferred and the eastern weka. which was thriving in its new home on I the Chatham Islands but which was long sine e cxtm< t • on the east coast of the South Island