THE KEA NUISANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13519, 16 February 1906, Page 5

THE KEA NUISANCE.

INVASION OF NORTH CANTERBURY. COMPLAINTS BY LANDOWNERS. (Per United Pkess Association.) OHIIISTCIIURCH, February 15. A meeting of land-holders at Culverden to-day passed a resolution urging the Government to increase the bonns of 6d each paid for keas' heads, and asking the county council l ; of Canterbury affcctcd by tho keft nuisance to co-operate with them in petitioning the Government for assistance in reducing tho pest. The keas have been very numerous in the mountainous parts of Anitiri County during the Inst two years. They seem to have moved northward from Otago, where years ago tlioy were very numerous and are now seldom met with, up through Canterbury, and in still larger numbers along the western slopes of the dividing range. They have descended on the Amuri Highlands from the mountains, and several landowners stated that the losses from sheep, attributable to these birds, had increased from about and 8 per cent..' last year to 15 per cent, this year, Mustcrars' brought reports of having seen sheep killed bv keas; and sheep were found sometimes dead and sometimes only half wounded wbich bore marks of the kea's attack. One runholder had shot a kea in the act of killing a sheep, and others had attacked a mob of the animals while a man was driving them. Some landowners were stated to be paying 10s, others 5s and 2s Gd, for tho heads of keas. On one station 200 keas had been shot in 18 months, and on another 60 beaks had been collected in'a'year. It was agreed that the invasion was not serious till two years ago; that it wns becoming more numerous, and that the birds apparently bred on unoccupied Crown land behind the dividing range. One, man had'lost 500 s'heep out of 1500 on a block where tho snow was not deep, and, as some were found with keas' marks on them, ho eould only attribute ihe disappearance of the. rest to that cause. In South Canterbury the kens, which wero once numerous, are stated to be now scarce.