Hauturu: living proof of N.Z. the way it was

Press, 15 August 1986, Page 17

Hauturu: living proof of N.Z. the way it was

Story and photographs by DR lAN G. McLEAN of the zoology department, University of Canterbury.

Did you know that New Zealand the way it was still exists? Just out there, a bit to the north and east of Auckland is Hauturu, meaning in descriptive style typical of Maori place names, "the resting place of the clouds.” Nobody should live and die a New Zealander without experiencing Hauturu.

Otherwise known as Little Barrier Island, Hauturu is the jewel of the Hauraki Gulf National Park. Here are several thousand hectares crammed with more birds per hectare of forest than can be found anywhere else in the country.

Included are several species that are ridiculously rare, and one which until recently occurred nowhere else. A little known item

is that Hauturu probably contains the largest tract of unbrowsed forest in the southern hemisphere — due to a fortunate absence of goats, deer, opossums, and pigs. To get ashore, contact the ranger as your boat approaches, and you will be met by a cheerful face in a small aluminium dinghy. You will have previously acquired a landing permit from the Park’s head office.

By isolating large boats from the shore (there is no wharf), the risk of noxious animals such as rats getting ashore is minimised; but as a consequence even a light swell makes the landing an experience for the better than faint hearted. You, food, and gear go from large to small boat, then are winched up

the ramp to safety, and paradise.

You have followed the route taken by brown kiwi earlier this century, and more recently by kakapo from Stewart Island, kokako from Rotorua, saddlebacks from Cuvier Island, and countless visitors who hope to catch a glimpse of these rare species. In reverse have gone stitchbird to Hen, Cuvier, and Kapiti Islands. These rare honeyeaters have occurred only on Little Barrier since the last century. The transfers are

part of a programme to establish alternative breeding populations in case disaster should strike in the form of a population crash. Once ashore you will be shown to comfortable quarters for use during the stay. Visitors are strictly controlled, but are welcome, and their facilities are basic but modern.

Little Barrier is at centre stage of the wildlife conservation effort in New Zealand. Through the late 19705, the Wildlife Service worked intensively to eradicate the wild cat population which was decimating populations of black petrel near the summit, and having severe effects on other bird species.

Mainstay for the cats was the kiore, or native rat These relatively harmless vegetarians were introduced at some unknown time by the Maori, but they cycle in numbers and are an unreliable food source. Cats needed the birds to supplement rats in times of famine.

“Cat eradication on Little Barrier is impossible,” cried the critics. But the Wildlife Service is accustomed to taking the impossible in its stride. Fifty kilometres of tracks were cut through impossible country. The mobilisation of volunteers was equivalent to 12 people working for a full year. After four years of intensive effort the cats were gone and the way was open for introductions of species known to be susceptible to cats. Just as important, the rare

species already present bounced back. Stitchbirds are now common. In a week’s visit in 1974 I sighted three; today three can be found within a short walk of the ranger’s house. Robins are increasing in numbers; saddlebacks and kokako have been introduced and are breeding well; kakapo had a bumper booming season this year. The black petrel responded with a rapid increase in breeding success.

Native birds normally considered common on the mainland, such as the fantail, pied tit, bellbird, tui, and pigeon, all abound. Noise levels are similar to those which bombarded Kupe when he first anchored off the coast; overwhelming.

In the trees can be found one of the world’s largest insects, the giant weta, which is practically extinct on the mainland. Peripatus, a queer cross between a worm and an insect, may be found under logs on the forest floor. A few adult whitebait are in the creeks.

In addition to its contribution to the conservation effort, and its importance as a place where people can experience original New Zealand, Hauturu is an important resource for Government and university researchers.

Recent studies have covered the feeding ecology of our three species of honeyeaters, the impact of kiore on mature forest, the breeding biology of the black petrel, the abilities of saddleback and kakapo to survive and breed in new habitats, and the relationship between whitehead and longtailed cuckoo. All studies have a conservation orientation, and are only con-

ducted on the island because they could' not’' Be done elsewhere. AU' are designed to assist the Wildlife Service in formulating long-term answers for pressing or potential problems. For example, whitehead are still reasonably abundant in the North Island. Before the present study nothing was known about their breeding and habitat needs because they have not become endangered enough for money to be given over to research on them. Little is known about their South Island relative, the yellowhead, for similar reasons.

Unfortunately, yellowhead have declined rapidly in the northern half of the South Island during the last ten years, and the trend may be spreading south. A study has begun in Fiordland, but it is too late for Nelson yellowheads. Current research on whitehead on Little Barrier should help to stem such a decline should it occur in

the North Island. There is a hidden cost to these real or possible declines. Yellowhead and whitehead are major hosts of the parasitic long-tailed cuckoo. If the hosts go, the cuckoo goes too. The Little Barrier story is not all of success. After three years, kakapo have not actually bred; tuatara recently went extinct, perhaps because they do not get on with kiore; stitchbirds transferred to other islands at considerable cost have taken, but not well; and the black petrels crashed after the initial positive response to the cat eradication, presumably indicating as yet unknown needs which are not being fulfilled at sea. Research identifies new problems as rapidly as it solves old ones. Funding must continue if the conservation drive is to be maintained — a difficult problem in the present economic climate. Little Barrier is much more than

a refuge~for rare birds and other strange creatures. Its complex forest structure includes extensive stands of kauri, rata and tawa, pohutukawa, beech, and a huge variety of mixed broadleaf canopy trees in glorious stands untouched by possum depredation. /? Rare plants include the white rata, a flax, and several orchids. The climate changes from subtropical at sea level to cold temperate on the 670-metre summit H At the bottom, over-mature kanuka forest (a legacy of burning of some lower regions by the Maori) is slowly giving way to kauri and the broadleafs. On the middle flanks are a variety of mature forest types depending on exposure, soil type, and ridge/ valley effects. On the tops is unsurpassed cloud forest dripping with wet mosses and dogged with an all-pervasive sense of the primeval. Hauturu lives up to its name. «