Kakapo rescue bid has caused some upsets

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 17

Kakapo rescue bid has caused some upsets

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

The fate of the rare and endangered flightless parrot, the kakapo, on Stewart Island, has been the subject of some recent excitement. The Wildlife Service is making plans to breed from kakapo on the warmer, drier, and more salubrious slopes of Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds; the first two kakapo chicks discovered within recorded history have been found; and the Wildlife Service has begun a campaign to poison wild cats on Stewart Island with 1080impregnated fish. Considerable debate has been occurring between several Government departments and agencies over the fate of kakapo. So far, the Wildlife Service has won each round of the fight, but in doing so has upset people in other agencies, who are every bit as keen as the Wildlife Service to preserve the kakapo, but who question the wisdom of some steps being taken. The argument is a philosophic one. For years, Government agency conservation has been dominated by the worry of how little knowledge has been gained about many of the rare and endangered native birds, despite

the vast amount of research that has been done. The emphasis on research was at the expense of learning how to manage the birds. This meant that their numbers, generally, continued to decline steadily even while more was being learned about them. Then, about two years ago, a change came over the Wildlife Service. Research was still important, but the crucial decisions about the rare and endangered species began to be taken by the managers rather than the researchers. This was not so much the result of a firm decision but more as a species by species realisation that if significant management steps. were not taken soon, then it would be too late. The most striking change was over the Chatham Island black robin. In spite of intensive studies and habitat replanting, its numbers had fallen to six — making it the world’s rarest bird. No species has recovered from such low numbers. So the managers went in, forced double nesting, switched eggs

front nest to nest, adopted some out, and did some extraordinarily bold things. This year four black robins fledged from the nests; the species has almost doubled in number, from only two breeding pairs. How many will survive the winter on Mangere Island, off the Chathams — a cold, wet, and inhospitable climate — remains to be seen. But drastic measures seem to have brought startling results. Similar things have been happening, if less boldly; with other species. Two orange-fronted parakeets have been taken into captivity, yet only six months ago' many thought the species was extinct. So when it became equally obvious that something drastic needed to be done about the Stewart Island kakapo, the Wildlife Service was confident and ready to act. A cat-killing programme has begun, organised quickly and confidently, and mounted in the teeth of the opposition from other conservationists. “In the last six months, one-quarter of all kakapo caught and banded during

pur research have Been killed by cats,” the director of the Wildlife Service. Mr Ralph Adams, says. “The cats are threatening the bird" with extinction. A remote and wild corner of Stewart Island remains the last stronghold of a small, viable population. It cannot remain viable for long if continually faced with a high mortality rate inflicted by cats.” The Wildlife Service is using the same method it has used virtually to exterminate cats on Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. It lays a concentrated and rapidlyacting (and painless) 1080impregnated fish. This method certainly kills cats. Does it kill ground-feeding birds, too? There are plenty of people who think that it might; even, in a few cases, .that it has done so. -They question how many birds have been killed on Little Barrier Island while the cats have been poisoned. They ask if 1080 might not be even more dangerous than cats on Stewart Island. They also ask what evi- • dence the Wildlife Service has that kakapo will thrive and breed on Maud Island; whether there is enough suitable habitat there.