KEAS ATTACK SHEEP

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1934, Page 2

KEAS ATTACK SHEEP

“TREMENDOUS DAMAGE” “KILLERS” AMONGST THE BIRDS. OBSERVATIONS IN BACK COUNTRY Personal experiences of tthe way keas attack sheep in the high country were related by Mr. R. L. Wigley, managing director of the Mount Cook Tourist Company, when commenting on recent articles and the correspondence, in the Christchurch Press about the habits of the kea. Mr. Wigley said that it was quite true, as had been mentioned by one writer, that sheep at the Hermitage itself had never been attacked by keas, but his experience elsewhere had shown what harm the birds could do. “Although the Hermitage has had its own sheep, they have never yet been known to be touched by keas, but the birds have done a great deal of damage on the adjoining country—Glentanner and Mount Cook station,” he said. “This shows that the kea does not shift much, otherwise sheep would be killed at the Hermitage as well as on the nearby stations. “From my personal experience there is no doubt that keas do a tremendous amount of damage among the sheep,” said Mr. Wigley. “Twenty halfbred rams were taken from Rutherfords, Parnassus, to the Huxley Gorge, at the head of Lake Ohau, and they were put out with the ewes. The keas killed eight of them in the first fortnight. They were all killed at sheep camps Rt night. ALL-NIGHT VIGIL. “One night I put all the sheep into a small paddock and sat up on a big rock until the moon went down in the early hours of the morning, but did not see a kea, and the sheep were not disturbed. The following night I did not bring the sheep in, but sat on a rock in the middle of their camp all night until the moon went down about 4 p.m. I heard the keas chuckling, but saw no sign of them, and the sheep were not disturbed, but on going back again shortly after daylight in the morning I found one ram killed. “The kea appears to kill only on certain spurs oi’ sections of country and usually there is only one killer, but all will eat and clean the carcase up. If you can get that killer you will stop the loss on 'that particular piece of country. “A shepherd came across a kea tnat had so frightened the sheep that one, in trying to protect itself, had jammed itself in between two rocks. The kea had torn a great hole in its back and was busy feeding away with the sheep still alive. Several other keas were waiting to get in and have a feed. He wounded the killer with a .22 rifle, and while it was hopping about and squarking* curiosity brought the others down to see what all the fun was about. The shepherd shot the lot. The killer kea had rough scaly patches on its legs, like those on the legs of a very old hen. It was evidently an old bird and had been at it for years. From that day on no more sheep were lost on that piece of country. BLOOD-POISONING CAUSED. “The kea usually takes the biggest and best sheep and seems to go for those with the roughest wool,” Mr. Wigley added. “Most of the damage is done through blood poisoning. Theii’ beaks get poisoned through feeding on rank carcases. Only a . slight scratch from the .kea’s beak is necessary to set up blood poisoning, and the sheep dies in a few days. You often find a dead sheep without a sign of a mark on it until you-, skin it and find that a small scratch had set up blood poisoning under the skin. “Once I saw a sheep in the afternoon that was poisoned. It had reached the last stages, but was still standing up and gasping for breath. The next morning a mob of keas had eaten practically the whole of the sheep, except the meat underneath on which the bones were lying. The keas that had been feeding had eaten so much that they were hardly able to fly and we shot many of them. “Keas on different spurs work in different ways. On one spur a kea will tackle a sheep in the middle of the back and set up blood poisoning from there. On another spur they will scratch a sheep on the bare skin where the tail joins the body. “The idea that keas tackle a sheep for kidney fat is all wrong. You could put a kea in a cage and feed it on kidney fat, and you would starve it to death. The back of the sheep over the kidneys is the natural place for a kea to settle on a sheep, and this gives rise to the kidney fat idea. MANNER OF ATTACK. “The kea will pick out a sheep, get on his back, “squark’ and flay his wings and frighten the sheep. He will keep on doing this, always keeping to the one sheep, until he has killed it by forcing it over rocks, or forced it to seek protection by jamming its head into anything there may be about. “In many places the death rate among sheep has been reduced from 15 per cent, or 20-per cent, to about 5 per cent, by getting rid of keas. The birds are not so difficult to get rid of if you set about, it in the right way. We found the most successful way was to take the leg of a dead sheep with the wool still on, fill it up with strychnine by putting strychnine in the cut, and taking the leg out on to a high top and wiring it down on to a rock. Keas at the Huxley were formerly doing a tremendous amount of damage, and we have now pretty well cleaned them right out.”