THE KEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22422, 17 November 1934, Page 19

THE KEA

TO THE EDITOR Sir," —Might-1 again crave your indulgence to reply to Messrs S. M. and S.-D, Taylor, who have so readily given me an account of the misdeeds of the kea so far ,as their experience has found him. Let ’ffio assure Mr S. 1 D. Taylor that T assumed a nom de plunie purely for private reasons only, and that I have no aXe to grind on behalf of any person or society.I propose, with that gentleman’s permission, to .correspond with him privately, if he will, so far honour me. I take it that he may be in a position to' show my letter to-Mr S. M. Taylor, who' is,' presumably, a relative. - > . . To convince Mr S. D. Taylor that my knowledge of keas is. not limited, as. he suggested, I may. state that my experience of the bird was gained in such country as Te Anau Downs, Burwood, Mount Earnslaw, Walter Peak, Halfway Bay, Kawarau, 1 and the dividing range country between Westland and Canter-, bury, and extends over -a period of unwards of 40 years. On none of these places did I ever hear of, or see, such damage as he claims has been done by these birds. I should like to point out to these gentlemen that their plea for the birds’ total extermination is too drastic. We nave murderers'in society, but we do not exterminate it. We have egg-eaters and feather-pullers in poultry;, but we do not annihilate ‘our strains, and we have worriers in sheep dogs, but we do not wipe them out of existence. I shall not elaborate on the “instinct to kill,” but Mr Taylor, with his experience, of breeding, must know that, so far from being worthless, it is a factor that any breeder has to take into consideration in certain circumstances. Let me further say. that all creatures are dear to me and that extermination is not a [ prerogative of man. .My questions still remain unanswered, hut I hope to get further information privately as I before intimated. With regard to Mr Taylor’s statement that the heaviest losses occur during the winter months, is it not the usual procedure on a high-country run for the runholder to remove his sheep from those levels in order to avoid loss and also to make provision for his breeding flocks, say, about the month of May? As a consequence of the winter snows, the sheep cannot return to those levels till well on in the year, say, October or thereabouts. This, at least, is done by most of my runholder friends, and I have been given to understand that this practice is fairly general. Will niy oppon- : ents tender any explanation of the following incident;—A small flock' of sheep was imprisoned in, a drift. Nearby was a colony, of some 26 keas, yet, though the sheep were in this helpless position, and reduced to eating the wool off each other’s backs, no attack was made by the birds. Through the efforts of myself and a friend the sheep were eventually extricated and most of them recovered in time; Mr S. M. Taylor’s experience seems to me to be. conclusive, hut may it not be wliat I have long suspected and have already asked these gentlemen, that it is only in certain very restricted areas that the keas are killed, and that after we have dealt with these culprits by the process of extermination, if necessary, others might well be left unmolested. It is fairly well established that keas are rather conservative in their habits, and. like the wise little mouse in the fable, '“Never go very far from home,” and most usually the members of one particular colony keep company for life. That the kea is a savage by Nature I cannot admit, for, like al] the parrot family, he is companionable and sociable, but it is easily possible that the killing instinct, once aroused and practised, can be transmitted and become inherent. Mr Taylor, to the contrary notwithstanding, this has been proved in too many instances of breeding in bird, beast, or man to be doubted. ■

In conclusion, may. I say that my defence of the kea hag been genuinely founded on the conviction that all keas are not killers, and that, therefore, measures for suppression should be discriminating, not exterminative. To the Messrs Taylor and Gloag, who have interested themselves in the controversy, I tender my thanks. —I am. etc., Ruuc. TO THE EDITOR Sib, —In 1881 three of us prospected the Eyre Mounts, Southland, from the head of the Mataura River to New River, and camped well above winter snow level. One morning, as daylight came in, I asked my partners if a rat was trying to make a hole on the ridge pole of the tent. “No,” one replied, "take a gun; you will find a kca trying to get at the fat hindquarter of the mutton on the ridge pole.” I asked how the bird knew it was fat, as it was here thousands of years before sheep, and was told keas developed the ta.ste when they wore pots at homesteads down below and that when fat sheep were killed for food and hung up to cool, the birds learned to eat the kidney fat.

A few days later two of us were shooting rabbits,' when fog and snow came on. We sheltered.by a big rock for a time.' As the fog lifted my partner said, “ Look, i I am told by shepherds they never saw a kea kill a, sheep.” Below us within shot was one of, the few unmustered sheep in a snowdrift. A kea Was on his back and had taken off some wool and was well into the kidney fat. My partner fired and killed the kea. The sheep, still alivej was killed by the writer. Some: will say that the kea did not kill that sheep. What chance of life had the sheep? We also prospected for two seasons from Waiau River down the Southern Alps to Riverton—this is the home of the kea. In. 1926, your paper published some truthful evidence from Canterbury, by Mr Murray and Mr. Milliken. No, evidence is of any value except from men who have lived and worked above winter snow level, where the kea lives.—l am, etc., Fred Daw. Oamaru, November 16.