Forest & Bird Magazine 333 August 2009 by Forest & Bird

FOREST&BIRD Number 333 â&#x20AC;¢ AUGUST 2009

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Help save our high country kea

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Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. General Manager: Mike Britton Communications Manager: Helen Bain Advocacy Manager: Kevin Hackwell Services Manager: Julie Watson North Island Conservation Manager: Mark Bellingham South Island Conservation Manager: Chris Todd Central Office: Level 1, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington. PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Tel: (04) 385-7374, Fax: (04) 385-7373 Email: office@forestandbird.org.nz Web: www.forestandbird.org.nz Auckland Office: 34A Charlotte Street, Eden Terrace, Auckland PO Box 108 055, Symonds St, Auckland 1150. Tel: (09) 302 0203, Fax: (09) 303 4548 Email: n.beveridge@forestandbird.org.nz Christchurch Office: 190-192 Hereford Street, Christchurch PO Box 2516, Christchurch 8140. Tel: (03) 366 4190 Fax: (03) 365 0788 Email: c.todd@forestandbird.org.nz KCC Coordinator: Ann Graeme 53 Princess Rd, Tauranga 3110. Tel: (07) 576-5593 Fax: (07) 576-5109 Email: a.graeme@forestandbird.org.nz Forest & Bird is a registered charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005. Registration No. CC26943.

FOREST&BIRD Number 333 • AUGUST 2009 www.forestandbird.org.nz

Features

Regulars

17 • Cover story: Caring for kea

2 • Comment

Corey Mosen shares his fascination with the world’s most intelligent bird

Meet the new president; 50 years ago in Forest & Bird

22 • The comeback kid

5 • Letters

Mandy Herrick reports on efforts to restore populations of the Chatham Island taiko

24 • Island life

Mak Bellingham says effective monitoring would help halt destruction of New Zealand’s biodiversity

27 • The search for the living dead?

7 • Conservation briefs

Helen Bain talks to people who are convinced the “extinct” South Island kokako is alive Marina Skinner investigates the disturbing numbers of seabirds being killed in New Zealand fisheries

Green TV, sub-Antarctic marine reserves, Places for Penguins, MacKenzie Basin, green burgers, shore plovers on Mana Island, dolphin protection in court, Lake Waikaremoana kiwi, kokako return to Auckland, Kaimanawa wild horses, Matakohe Island restoration, fairy terns,

34 • Feathered treasures

50 • Going places

Helen Bain meets some of the bumper crop of kakapo chicks born last season

Marina Skinner visits Tiritiri Matangi Island

30• New Zealand’s dirty little secret

Carolyn Smith explores a haven for rare plants and animals on Three Kings Islands

40 • The hunter who loves birds

Designer: Dave Kent/Idiom Studio dave@idiom.co.nz Prepress/Printing: Kalamazoo Wyatt & Wilson (NZ) Ltd Advertising: Vanessa Clegg, Tel: 0275 420 337 Email: vanclegg@xtra.co.nz Karen Condon Tel 0275-420 338 Email: mack.cons@xtra.co.nz Membership & Circulation Tel: 0800 200 064 Fax: (04) 385 7373 membership@forestandbird.org.nz w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

6 • Soapbox

Nanda MacLaren looks at an ambitious project to rid Motutapu and Rangitoto Islands of pests

36 • Island treasure

Editor: Helen Bain PO Box 631, Wellington. Tel: (04) 801-2763 Fax: (04) 385-7373 h.bain@forestandbird.org.nz Deputy editor: Marina Skinner Tel: (04) 801-2761 Fax: (04) 385-7373 m.skinner@forestandbird.org.nz

Backyard bonanza, Poor Earth, Consent carte blanche, Long-lining

Helen Bain meets a hunter who says pest control – including 1080 – is crucial for our birdlife

53 • Rangatahi Jenny Lynch meets a Wairarapa 17-year-old saving a rare mistletoe

54 • In the field Ann Graeme says we should all think like scientists

56 • Branching out

David Young finds conservation parallels between New Zealand and Hawaii

AGM, Flooring Xtra planting, Pestbusters, Old Blues, Tautuku Lodge, Manawatu rata, Para Swamp planting project, pestfree Paremoremo, Fieldays, Pauatahanui wetlands

45 • Pests in Paradise

63 • One of us

43 • A shared struggle

Helen Bain talks to a New Zealander leading the war on rats in the Pacific

48 • The boarfish return Jenny and Tony Enderby discover giant boarfish returning to northern marine reserves

Wanda Tate

63 • Book reviews Know Your NZ Insects and Spiders, Penguins of NZ, Poles Apart, Off the Beaten Track, Invaders, NZ Wildlife

COVER: Corey Mosen took this photo of a juvenile kea just above the campground on top of White Horse Hill in Mt Cook National Park. While many native birds can be frustratingly shy and elusive, kea are born show-offs – to the delight of photographers. “They often arrive early in the morning, when they seem to take great pleasure waking the campers, and in the early evening. One evening we were inundated by a mob of a dozen kea and I managed to get this shot when one was coming in to land.” To see more of Corey’s photos go to www.coreymosen.co.nz. FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Comment A challenge from our new president

’M often asked, “How long have you been with Forest & Bird?” While it seems like forever, my “pat” answer is “ever since I learned to appreciate and value of a clean, healthy river, a towering forest filled with birdsong and the magic of snowcovered mountains shrouded in mist.” I was fortunate to spend part of my childhood on a 19,000-hectare sheep and cattle station on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, home to one of one of the best fishing rivers in the country. My father impressed upon me the need to preserve and protect these places; he spent the first few years of station ownership removing thousands of goats and rabbits and understood the damage caused through poor stewardship and introduced pests. When you’re young, you tend to “use” such places for your own purposes rather than think much beyond that. I was definitely a user: the South Island high country was my personal playground. Having children, however, makes you understand that Forest & Bird’s mandate to preserve and protect our wild places, plants and pristine landscapes for future generations requires much more than personal enjoyment. I’m immensely proud of being part of Forest & Bird, proud of what it has achieved, and proud that, in some small way, I’m contributing to preserving and protecting a rich and diverse environmental heritage for my own children. Becoming Forest & Bird president is an honour and a challenge. While we agonise over the state of the economy, our forests, rivers, oceans and biodiversity urgently need our help. I’m inspired by past presidents Gerry McSweeney and Peter Maddison, and the achievements and philosophy of the late Kevin Smith, to build this organisation into

one to be reckoned with, to be a stronger voice for nature. I can’t do it alone. I need you, members and branches, to be those voices, to connect with your communities and to imbue environmental protection as a way of life. Be proud of this organisation. Let’s ensure we’re all a strong and loud voice for nature.

Barry Wards, Forest & Bird President

50 Years Ago in

Forest&Bird

HE Forest and Bird Protection Society has requested the Prime Minister to introduce legislation to bring under control all future milling of indigenous timber … In one short century the wholesale destruction of our native forests has proceeded almost without restraint of any sort. Whether the trees have been hacked down for timber or slashed down and burnt to clear the land for farming, the result has been the same: critical areas cleared which should never have been touched, a shocking loss … of millions of acres of lovely forests in this fair land … with all the consequences which can and will reach appalling proportions unless steps are taken to bring the situation under control. … As many as possible of the remaining stands of indigenous forest should be preserved for the enjoyment and inspiration of the children of tomorrow. From the Editorial, Forest & Bird, August 1959

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. (Founded 1923) Registered Office at Level One, 90 Ghuznee Street, Wellington. PATRON: His Excellency the Hon. Sir Anand Satyanand, Governor-General of New Zealand NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Barry Wards DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Craig Potton IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT: Peter Maddison NATIONAL TREASURER: Graham Bellamy EXECUTIVE COUNCILLORS: Andrew Cutler, Anne Fenn, Mark Fort, Alan Hemmings, Joan Leckie, Janet Ledingham, Peter Maddison, Jon Wenham. DISTINGUISHED LIFE MEMBERS: Bill Ballantine, Stan Butcher, Ken Catt, Audrey Eagle, Alan Edmonds, Gordon Ell, Philip Hart, Hon. Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Stewart Gray, Joan Leckie, Peter Maddison, Alan Mark, Gerry McSweeney, John Morton, Margaret Peace, Guy Salmon, Lesley Shand, Gordon Stephenson, David Underwood. Forest & Bird is published quarterly by the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society. Forest & Bird is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and is the New Zealand Partner of BirdLife International. Opinions expressed by contributors in the magazine are not necessarily those of Forest & Bird. Forest & Bird is printed on chlorine-free paper made from wood fibre sourced from sustainably managed forests. The magazine is bulk mailed in NatureFlex film, which is made from wood pulp sourced from managed plantations and is fully biodegradable and compostable. *Registered at PO Headquarters, Wellington, as a magazine. ISSN 0015-7384. Copyright. All rights reserved.

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Rod Morris

Bellbird feeding on yellow rata flowers

Join Sustain and help us help Nature Become a Forest & Bird Sustain Supporter and help secure the future of New Zealand’s unique wildlife. With so many of New Zealand’s unique native animals, plants and habitats still threatened or at risk we need your support to give them hope for the future. Through our Sustain regular giving programme your contribution will help fund conservation work to help protect our country’s flora and fauna for you and future generations to enjoy. Join our Sustain regular giving programme for as little as $20 a month (minimum) and you will receive complimentary membership of Forest & Bird including our acclaimed Forest & Bird quarterly magazine as well as many other benefits. Please will you help Forest & Bird Sustain our unique wildlife and habitats? As a Sustain Supporter you will receive: • Automatic complimentary membership of Forest & Bird • Forest & Bird quarterly magazine • A Sustain Supporter certificate • A regular newsletter and e-news • Discounted entry to Forest & Bird lodges • Entry to a yearly prize draw

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(b) In any event this Authority is subject to any arrangement now or hereafter existing between me/us and the Bank in relation to my/our account. (c) Any dispute as to the correctness or validity of an amount debited to my/our account shall not be the concern of the Bank except in so far as the direct debit has not been paid in accordance with this Authority. Any other disputes lie between me/us and the Initiator. (d) Where the Bank has used reasonable care and skill in acting in accordance with this authority, the Bank accepts no responsibility or liability in respect of: - The accuracy of information about Direct Debits on bank statements. - Any variations between notices given by the Initiator and the amounts of Direct Debits. (e) The Bank is not responsible for, or under any liability in respect of the Initiator’s failure to give written notice correctly nor for the non-receipt or late receipt of notice by me/us for any reason whatsoever. In any such situation the dispute lies between me/us and the Initiator. The Bank may: (a) In its absolute discretion conclusively determine the order of priority of payment by it of any monies pursuant to this or any other authority, cheque or draft properly executed by me/us and given to or drawn on the Bank. (b) At any time terminate this authority as to future payments by notice in writing to me/us. (c) Charge its current fees for this service in force from time-to-time.

letters to the editor

orest & Bird welcomes readers’ letters and photographs on conservation topics. Letters must be no longer than 200 words and must include the writer’s full name, residential address and daytime contact number (not for publication). Due to space limitations we are not able to publish all contributions. Letters may be edited and abridged. The best contribution to the letters page of the November issue of the magazine will win a copy of Poles Apart by Gareth Morgan and John McCrystal (Random House, $39.99). We especially welcome letters on the topic of water and rivers for the November issue. Please send contributions to: Editor, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington, or email to h.bain@forestandbird.org.nz. Deadline for contributions 1 October 2009.

Backyard bonanza

than it, and can destroy it to satisfy our ever-increasing needs. Perhaps we should all become Earth worshippers, as I believe is starting to happen, and put Nature as our number one concern, above man and his “progress,” which is killing everything else off, and probably us too eventually. Stephen Conn, Nelson

very much enjoyed reading Rod Morris and Erin Anson’s account of the wildlife in their own “neck of the woods” (Forest & Bird, May 2009). It goes to show that you don’t have to travel to the Serengeti or the Amazon or even far into New Zealand’s own “back country” to experience wonderful wildlife. The article is an inspiration and an example to all of us that we can reap tremendous reward by doing our own little bit, wherever we may be. Thank you, Rod and Erin, for looking after “your” bit of New Zealand and sharing it with us. S McDonald, Christchurch

Consent carte blanche

have been a champion of West Coast (particularly Buller) environmental issues for many years now. Our local councils have a cavalier attitude to our rich Gondwana heritage, where economic progress is overwhelmingly favoured over conservation. Not only are resource consents granted that ature is under a terrible ignore the actual significance onslaught from man. Poor of remnant forest on private Earth! What can we do to save it? land, but often the obligatory Probably if the Earth is saved, ecological assessment is done it won’t be up to us, but it will by unqualified ecologists who be due to the world economic know little about actual ecology. crunch becoming catastrophic, Then when these consents and driving us all back to the are granted, occasionally with Stone Age, where we will no reasonably good environmental longer present a threat to nature. considerations actual consent If this doesn’t happen though, compliance issues are comI believe mankind desperately pletely ignored by council. For needs another religion, which many landowners clearing forwill put the health of the enviest/wetland this is not an issue. ronment above that of man. Over the last ten years or so, Present religions put man’s as the dairy industry has boomed short-term success above that in my area, I have seen kereru, of the environment, particularly piwakawaka, ruru, weka, kareafor instance by advocating over- rea, tui, korimako (and other bird breeding. We depend on the species) populations collapse environment, and it is stupid to due to injudicious removal of forbelieve we are more important est remnants on private land.

Poor Earth

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Where (until recently) I would practically collide with kereru driving into my home town, there is hardly one now. Environmental practices of our local councils need to be scrutinized by experts, and proper values implemented, over and above having lip service paid to the issue. Only then will our extant indigenous fauna populations on lowland forest on the West Coast be protected in any way. Frida Inta, Seddonville

tastic article by Alan Tennyson entitled Seabirds in Strife where he calls for long-line fishers to institute changes which include: “Long-lines should be set at night as seabirds mainly feed by day”; “Offal or rubbish which attracts birds should not be thrown overboard”; and “ … streamers … [that] … frighten birds away … can reduce the number of baits taken by birds by up to 69 percent” (page 30). It seems the first of Forest & Bird’s stated plans for donations – “Investigating ways to reduce albatross deaths in fisheries” has been satisfied for going on two decades and the focus Q1: How long is a long-line? ought to be firmly on objective A: 100km. two – “Working with governQ2: How long is too long to wait ment and industry towards an for change? effective by-catch management A: 19 years. framework” which ensures The 2009 Forest & Bird that all vessels implement the Albatross Appeal notes “We best-practice measures Forest are finding ways to reduce the & Bird have been calling for number of albatross deaths with since 1990. measures such as fishing at Tim Sharp, Wellington night, stopping boats discharg(This letter is winner of Lost ing offal at sea and attaching in New Zealand by Craig bird-scaring flags to lines.” Potton.) These measures sounded rather familiar and indeed “old The winner of the prize draw news” regarding mitigating in the previous issue for the seabird mortalities. DVD of the documentary film Going through my old Forest Karearea is Neil Eagles of & Bird magazines I found in the Napier. November 1990 issue a fan-

How long is a long-line?

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FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

soapbox

Keeping watch Mark Bellingham says effective monitoring would help halt the destruction of New Zealand’s biodiversity

EW Zealand has an unenviable international record in biodiversity conservation. We are renowned for the miraculous rescues of species like the black robin and kakapo from the brink of extinction, but our biodiversity extinction record is appalling and it has not stopped. In fact we may be heading to a new wave of extinctions as rural land use intensifies. We have not heeded the lessons of intensive farming from Europe and the United States, so now intensive dairy farming is emptying our rivers of clean water and stripping our lowlands of their last few forest remnants. The lowlands of New Zealand are the key to arresting biodiversity decline and saving species, though most land managed by the Department of Conservation is at higher altitude and has lower biodiversity values. Apart from the South Island West Coast, most of our lowlands are privately owned and we rely on biodiversity protection through the Resource Management Act. Our report card on this front is not good – the 1997 State of the Environment Report identified habitat loss as New Zealand’s “most pervasive environmental issue”. Sadly the 2007 follow-up report showed that almost no progress had been made in the following decade in addressing biodiversity and habitat loss. Clearly RMA performance by local government and the Govern-ment’s Biodiversity Strategy are failing to protect our biodiversity. When it was introduced the RMA was hailed by conservationists as a major step forward in integrated environmental management and finally giving nature a chance against

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the onslaught of “progress and development.” But 18 years of the RMA has delivered minimal environmental progress and lots of disappointment. For today’s rapacious developers a large chequebook, a battery of lawyers and “independent” technical experts are the modern tools for getting approval in the resource management game. Frustrated, I decided to investigate whether the RMA had made any difference and why land use planning in New Zealand was still contributing to our appalling national biodiversity decline. I studied the performance to two progressive councils (Rodney District and Waitakere City) and their efforts to protect biodiversity over the past 25 years. Both councils had district plan measures from the early 1980s to protect biodiversity; Rodney planned to achieve it through mainly voluntary measures and Waitakere through plan rules. I measured the native vegetation cover in both districts and other biodiversity measures to see how the councils performed – especially as they shifted their biodiversity protection policies from the old Town and Country Planning Act to the new smart RMA. Changing over to the RMA didn’t make much difference: these councils had sound plans and able planners implementing consent conditions and these continued under the RMA. Unfortunately neither council was monitoring the effect of their plans in protecting biodiversity. In Rodney the loss of bush and wetlands slowed when the Muldoon Government’s bush and wetland clearance subsidies were removed, but the district continued to lose about 2 per cent of its native

vegetation cover every year, and in Waitakere it gained about 0.5 per cent in bush cover every year. That was the difference between Rodney’s voluntary measures and Waitakere’s rules. Rodney didn’t know its policies were failing; nor did Waitakere know it was succeeding. This is not surprising as few councils do any effective local “state of the environment” reporting or plan monitoring. Compounding this problem, the Ministry for the Environment have never promoted sound planning outcomes or effective environment or plan monitoring by district councils. Councils spend millions of dollars on RMA planning and almost nothing on RMA monitoring. I guess it’s far more exciting for planners to be writing new plans than seeing if the old ones ever worked! So will the latest round of RMA fiddling make any difference? The proposed changes to the RMA will do nothing to arrest our appalling biodiversity record on private land if councils ignore the outcomes of their planning. The problem will be aggravated if the Department of Conservation is further removed from advocating for conservation values. A positive note could be the Government’s proposal for an Environmental Protection Authority. This could make a difference if councils were required to properly monitor the state of biodiversity and the environment in their districts and regions, and monitor the effectiveness of their plans. Then we might start to see effective resource management. Mark Bellingham is Forest & Bird North Island Conservation Manager. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

conservationbriefs Green TV

ANS of Kiwi conservation will enjoy the new TV series Meet the Locals, exploring New Zealand’s natural treasures – and the people who look after them. Presenter Nic Vallance hosts the four-minute minidocumentaries, taking viewers to visit a live volcano, meet kiwi on Stewart Island, releasing captive-reared tuatara on an offshore island, just to name a few of the amazing experiences featured in the series. Meet the Locals screens between 4pm and 8.30pm on TVNZ 6. This latest series features stories from the Chatham Islands, West Coast, Hawke’s Bay, Fiordland, Cuvier Island and Little and Great Barrier Islands. During Conservation Week (September 13-20) Nic and the Meet the Locals team

Nic Vallance and “Van Morrison”.

hit the road again filming a halfhour special on people around New Zealand getting involved with conservation. To meet the locals online go to tvnz.co.nz/meet-the-locals.

Forest & Bird has a six-disk DVD set featuring all 152 episodes of Series 1 of Meet the Locals to give away to a reader – to go in the draw send your details on the back of an envelope to Meet the Locals Draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington by October 1, 2009. Nic Vallance will be speaking at a Forest & Bird North Shore event at Takapuna Senior Citizens Hall on 7 September at 7.30pm. For more information contact Karen Wealleans, 09 410 1996

NATURE’S TREASURES NEED YOUR HELP New Zealand’s breathtaking natural landscapes and beautiful native animal and plant life are precious treasures to us all. They are part of our identity as New Zealanders. But with so many of our natural treasures threatened with extinction, it is vital that we continue to protect them for future generations to experience and enjoy. The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated is the leading independent voice for conservation. Our vital conservation work couldn’t continue without the generous gifts we receive from supporters. By leaving a gift in your Will to Forest & Bird you will help ensure our vital conservation work continues to make a difference. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Photos: Steve Dawson, DOC, Don Geddes, Henk Haazen, Peter Morris, Rod Morris, Brent Stephenson, Kim Westerskov

Forest & Bird is not funded by the government. We rely on the generosity of Kiwis through donations, subscriptions and bequests. Bequests can be made to the “Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated”. For a copy of our bequest brochure or to discuss leaving a gift in your Will to Forest & Bird please contact Kerin Welford on Freephone 0800 200 064. Kerin Welford, Senior Fundraiser Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Email: k.welford@forestandbird.org.nz

www.forestandbird.org.nz

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

conservationbriefs

Bounty Islands Antipodes Islands Campbell Island

Rob Suisted/www.naturespic.com

region, covering about 900,000 square kilometres or about 23 per cent of New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone, is also a major fishery, with catches in recent years of up to 97,000 tonnes, including squid, southern blue whiting, hoi and ling, and export earnings of up to $163 million. However very A southern royal albatross overlooks the oceans surrounding Campbell Island. little fishing takes place inside This sub-Antarctic island, together with the Bounty and Antipodes island the boundaries of the proposed groups, will benefit from protection of its waters in marine reserves. marine reserves. Fishing methods used in the region, including trawling and long lining, can harm marine environments, and cause byEASURES have been tional conservation status. catch deaths of species includproposed to protect the The islands and their territoing NZ sea lions, albatrosses marine environment and marine rial seas are home to the most and other seabirds. life around New Zealand’s sub- diverse community of seabirds The forum was required to Antarctic islands. in the world, including seven The sub-Antarctic Marine albatross species, five of which put forward options for protection which comply with the Protection Planning Forum are found only in this region, government’s marine protected has put forward options for and the world’s largest populaareas policy, which directs that protection of the marine envitions of wandering albatrosses. a full range of marine ecosysronment around the Antipodes, They are also home to four tems and habitats, as well as Campbell and Bounty island species of penguin, including those which are rare, distinctive groups – New Zealand’s coldest the world’s rarest penguin, and nationally or internationally and southern-most territories. the yellow-eyed penguin; the important, must be protected. The forum, including repreworld’s rarest cormorant, the The MPA policy also directs sentatives from conservation, Bounty Island shag; 30% of fishing, Maori and scientific the world’s petrels; a significant that such protection will be groups, will make final recombreeding population of southern by means of marine reserves, mendations to the Ministers right whales, and at least seven which prohibit fishing and other of Fisheries and Conservation types of seaweed that are found activities which harm marine environments. A marine reserve once it has considered public nowhere else in the world. was established around another comments on its proposals. Many of these species are sub-Antarctic island group, the The sub-Antarctic islands formally recognised as “taonga Auckland Islands, in 2003, but and the territorial seas which species” by Ngai Tahu. the other sub-Antarctic islands’ surround them (12 nautical Habitats in and around waters remain unprotected. miles around the islands) are the islands include glaciallyTwo options for protection are recognised as having outstand- formed inlets, sandy and stony proposed for each of the island ing conservation and scientific beaches, boulder fields, rocky groups being considered by the significance. Their international reefs, mud flats and undersea forum: either the entire territosignificance is already reflected mountains, many of which rial sea (to 12 nautical miles in their listing by UNESCO in support feeding “hotspots” for 1998 as World Heritage sites seabirds and marine mammals. offshore) protected in marine reserves, or a considerably – the highest possible internaThe wider sub-Antarctic

Sub-Antarctic marine protection proposed

8 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

smaller part of the territorial sea of each island group protected in a marine reserve, with the rest of their territorial seas subject to restrictions which prohibit particular fishing methods. Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell says it is vital to protect the entire territorial seas of the island groups in marine reserves to adequately protect marine environments and marine life. “The sub-Antarctic islands and the waters around them are treasure troves of some of the world’s rarest, most threatened and unique species, and we urgently need to protect all of their territorial seas,” he says. Many marine mammals and seabirds return to the islands to breed, and also range out to sea to feed. There is also a high level of interactions between species and habitats on land and those in the marine environment. For example, run-off from seabird and seal droppings on land provides nutrients that feed algae in the surrounding ocean, which in turn feeds plankton, fish and other marine animals. “Protecting marine species and habitats in just a tiny area closest to land won’t protect them from threats posed by commercial fishing in the seas surrounding the islands,” Kevin Hackwell says. “We need to make sure that the measures we put in place provide realistic protection around our subAntarctic islands – only full marine reserves can do this.” w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Jenny Lynch

conservationbriefs

Little blues moving in

ITTLE blue penguins have taken up residence for the first time in nest boxes set up around Tarakena Bay as part of Wellington Forest & Bird’s Places for Penguins project. Places for Penguins aims to restore habitat for little blue penguins at Tarakena Bay, on the south coast of Wellington and just 15 minutes drive from the city centre. In the last two years 4500 penguin-friendly native plants have been planted and 25 nest boxes have been made by local schools and community volunteers. The nest boxes provide safer nesting sites at the bay, where penguins are at risk of dog attacks, and they are an alternative place to breed where natural burrows are not common due to coastal development and habitat loss. Car strike is a common cause of death for these tiny seabirds – the fact that they come ashore at dusk and leave again around dawn makes difficult for drivers to see them. The boxes help reduce the risk of this occurring at Tarakena Bay by encouraging little blues to nest on the seaward side of the road, instead of risking life and flipper by crossing the road to reach their burrows. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

This breeding season volunteers will check the breeding success of little blues at Tarakena Bay for the first time, a task made much easier with the use of nest boxes. Little blue penguins may look cute and cuddly, but they have sharp beaks and don’t take kindly to being pulled out of their burrows. Nest boxes have a removable lid so nest checks are a much less stressful – and painful – experience for both penguin and human. With increased knowledge about the numbers of penguins successfully breeding at the bay, Forest & Bird can be more certain about the success of the project, which has the potential to spread along the Wellington coastline. Following the initial success of these boxes Places for Penguins plans to build 20 more this year with the help of students at Strathmore Community School and Seatoun School as part of a wider community education plan.

Andrew Walmsley/www.wildfocus.org

Students getting their hands dirty helping little blue penguins.

If you would like to be a volunteer with Places for Penguins contact Jenny Lynch at j.lynch@forestandbird.org.nz or 04 801 2766.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Forest & Bird

conservationbriefs

Don’t turn the Mackenzie Basin green

OREST & Bird has warned that irrigation proposed by farmers for the Mackenzie Basin will turn this iconic russet brown tussock landscape bright green. Thirty-four companies and individuals have lodged applications to take more than 164 million cubic metres of water from high country rivers and lakes to irrigate more than 27,000 hectares of public and private land in the Mackenzie Basin. This proposed irrigation to allow intensive farming of the area could turn its spectacular dry, sunburnt vistas into a replica of the highly developed

Canterbury Plains. Forest & Bird South Island Conservation Manager Chris Todd says the proposal puts at risk 56 species of threatened plants that rely on the naturally dry habitats of the Mackenzie Basin. Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki, Ohau and Benmore could also be affected by algal blooms caused by farm nutrient runoff, and the expansion of industrialscale dairy farming would lead to destruction of extensive wetlands and the natural habitats and flows of numerous high country rivers and streams. Irrigating this dryland

Tarakihi

Green burgers

ATIONWIDE gourmet burger chain Burger Wisconsin will switch to more sustainably harvested fish in its burgers to help restore the environmental health of our oceans. Forest & Bird is delighted that Burger Wisconsin has chosen to follow the advice of its Best Fish Guide and switch from deepwater oreo/dory to tarakihi in its burgers in its 24 outlets around New Zealand starting in July.

Deepwater oreo/dory is listed in the red section of the Best Fish Guide, which means the fishery is not sustainable, so consumers should avoid buying this fish. Tarakihi is in the amber zone, which means that it is a better choice in terms of environmental sustainability. Tarakihi is a well-known and tasty fish which many New Zealanders have caught and consumed on summer holiday fishing trips.

10 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Mackenzie Basin – under threat from expansion of dairy farming.

landscape would also destroy the grand entrance to the multibillion-dollar high country tourism industry, including scenery which is a major drawcard for international visitors, Chris Todd says. “High country tourism generates more than $4 billion each year – turning this landscape green and covering it with livestock and huge irrigators would put that tourism income at risk.” He says the Mackenzie Basin should be protected in a dryland conservation park as recommended by the Department

of Conservation and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Establishing a “Great Cycleway” from Geraldine to Mt Cook through the spectacular, wide brown landscapes of the Mackenzie Basin would be a much more appropriate and sustainable use of the landscape, Chris Todd says. “This is a wholesale water and land grab in one of the most environmentally sensitive regions in New Zealand. The Government needs to step in and prevent an environmental disaster.”

Forest & Bird marine advocate Kirstie Knowles says deepwater oreo/dory, together with mako and porbeagle shark and southern bluefin tuna, has the second worst ecological ranking of a commercial fishery in New Zealand. Like most deepwater fish species they are long-lived (86-153 years), slow-growing and slow breeders, which makes them vulnerable to overfishing and population depletion. They are also caught by bottom trawling, which damages fragile seafloor habitats and marine life. The fishery catches a range of non-target and by-catch species, including seabirds, marine mammals, deepwater sharks, sponges and corals – some more than 500 years old. Tarakihi is less vulnerable to pressure from fishing. Although

it still has some ecological impact through use of trawl nets, it is a much better choice for the marine environment than deepwater oreo/dory, Kirstie Knowles says. Burger Wisconsin Co-franchisor Steve Hanna says Burger Wisconsin is committed to creating the best burgers as sustainably as possible. “We are on a path to ensuring our restaurants tread lightly on the Earth. Changing our fish to tarakihi will ensure our customers are eating a great-tasting New Zealand fish, as well as making a positive environmental choice.” Burger Wisconsin will also make the Best Fish Guide available to its customers so they can make the best choice for our oceans every time they buy fish. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Friends of Mana Island

conservationbriefs

Shore plover

Plover lovers

GRANT from the BirdLife International Community Conservation Fund is helping establish a new population of endangered shore plover on Mana Island, off the west coast of Wellington. The project is showing early signs of success: a pair from among 41 young shore plover introduced to the island in 2007 hatched and fledged a chick during 2008, and five more young shore plovers have fledged in 2009. The first chick was unexpected because it was born to one-year-old parents – shore plovers normally breed after they are two years old. The only natural breeding

population of shore plovers is on Rangatira Island in the Chatham Islands. The species was once widespread around the coast of New Zealand’s South Island, but had been nearly wiped out by the 1870s and their global population is now estimated to be less than 250. The Mana Island translocation is the latest in a series of releases of shore plover (Thinornis novaeseelandiae) to establish new populations in predator-free havens. Ten pairs are held in captivity, mainly at the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in Wairarapa, and young birds produced by the captive flock are released on to predator-free islands as soon as

they are old enough to fly. Friends of Mana Island is funding and providing volunteers for the five-year translocation project, which includes intensive monitoring of the newly-introduced birds. The BirdLife grant, plus local support and the proceeds of an art auction held in London last year, has raised sufficient funding to complete the project. “It’s great for visitors to see one of the world’s rarest shorebirds as soon as they get off the boat,” Friends of Mana Island president Colin Ryder says. “It’s hard to believe that they are only 30-40 minutes from downtown Wellington.” Colin, who is also a member

of Forest & Bird’s Wellington branch committee, says Mana Island is being transformed by restoration work, which has been supported by Forest & Bird involvement in the project. Mice have been eradicated from the island, more than half a million native trees have been planted on the previously deforested island, a wetland has been restored, and threatened reptiles and invertebrates have been re-introduced. The island is now a scientific reserve, and the shore plovers join other successful introductions of New Zealand’s rare endemic birds, including takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) and brown teal (Anas chlorotis).

number fewer than 8000, down from 21,000-29,000 in the 1970s. Forest & Bird marine advocate Kirstie Knowles says the protection measures are critical to halting the decline of the endangered dolphins. “We would like to see the dolphins begin the slow path to population recovery. The measures are just the minimum to halt their decline.” The court had not announced its ruling at the time Forest & Bird went to print. In another legal development which may affect the plight of Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, a private member’s bill put forward by Green Party co-

leader Metiria Turei, the Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill, has been drawn from the parliamentary ballot. That means Parliament will debate and possibly enact the bill, which strengthens legal protection for marine mammals.

Legal battle over dolphin protection LEGAL challenge by the fishing industry opposing measures to protect endangered Hector’s dolphins was heard in the High Court in June. The Federation of Commercial Fishermen and three regional fishing groups took the Ministry of Fisheries and previous Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton to court over fishing restrictions introduced to protect endangered Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins. The protection measures introduced last year include regional bans on set netting and trawling in some coastal waters, better monitoring of commercial fishing boats, four new marine w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

mammal sanctuaries and the extension of the existing sanctuary off Banks Peninsula. The fishing companies were granted an interim injunction which put the measures on hold till the case could be heard. The fishing groups sought to have fishing restrictions overturned in certain areas, including some measures introduced to protect critically endangered Maui’s dolphins. Maui’s dolphins – found off the north-west coast of the North Island – are the rarest marine dolphin in the world with just 111 individuals remaining, and are a sub-species of Hector’s dolphins. Hector’s dolphins

Hector’s dolphin

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

DOC

conservationbriefs Counting kiwi

E’RE sitting high on a ridge in the dark and it’s very, very cold. It is drizzling steadily and the trees above us send down a steady stream of drips. We will sit here quietly for two hours, listening for kiwi. Our night-time watch is part of the kiwi count held each year on the Puketutu Peninsula at Lake Waikaremoana in Te Urewera National Park. Ours is one of a number of groups recording kiwi calls to help estimate the kiwi population here. Suddenly a series of high pitched calls pierce the night – a male North Island brown kiwi calling a female to his territory. Head torches are quickly switched on, watches consulted, a compass reading is taken and the time, direction and estimated distance of the call are recorded. The radio antenna is held up to determine whether the call comes from one of the 38 kiwi on the peninsula with leg band transmitters attached. Beeps indicate that the call comes from a kiwi called Ray. The sudden flurry of activity is a welcome respite from the stillness of our cold, dark and damp vigil. Finally our watch is up and we set off down to the lake shore. The rain has cleared and a lustrous moon casts a shimmer over the rippling lake. Now the distant sound of a motor signals the approach of the boat that will take us back to the waiting meal and warmth of the hut at Maraunui Bay which is the field headquarters of the Lake Waikaremoana Hapu Restoration Trust. The Kiwi Restoration Project has its origins in research conducted by John McLennan of Landcare Research, who began a 10-year study of the kiwi population around Lake Waikaremoana in 1992. He found that at least 90 per cent of young kiwi failed to reach adulthood in the wild, and that the main cause of death was predation by stoats. In 1996 the Department of Conservation began predator trapping on the peninsula, and in 2002 DOC and tangata

whenua formed a partnership as the Lake Waikaremoana Hapu Restoration Trust. The trust aimed to carry out a 10-year planned devised by Dr McLennan, including intensive predator control and construction of an “anti-dispersal” fence to prevent kiwi moving out of the area where predators were controlled. The next step is construction of a second anti-dispersal fence across the nearby Whareamu Peninsula – along with predator control this will provide another safe area for kiwi. Back on patrol in daylight, we’re tracking kiwi. The leg band transmitters on tagged kiwi hold tiny batteries with a life of 15 months, so each tagged kiwi must be tracked and the transmitters changed before the batteries fade. The day before we followed trust member Ray Tipu as he tracked a little kiwi called Moko to a pumicy burrow under a bank of fern. At 17 Moko is one of the original kiwis identified in John McLennan’s 1992 survey and he has proven to be a very good dad. Every year Moko’s mate Dreds has laid two huge eggs and Moko has incubated them for the 70-80 days they take to hatch. Male kiwi have a “brood patch” – an area of skin bare of feathers – which keeps the eggs warm while they are incubated. Once hatched the kiwi chicks live for about 10 days off their yolk sack but must eventually venture out of their burrow to feed. This is the time when they are extremely vulnerable to predation by stoats, and it takes 15-20 weeks for them to grow large enough to be able to defend themselves. We join Rob White with his muzzled kiwi tracking dog, Poko, and Kevin Lay and George Giannios of Sirtrack Wildlife Tracking Solutions, who design and make the tracking equipment, and have generously supported the kiwi project. In the buffer area outside the fence we are tracking a kiwi called Bedford – he is difficult to find, with the beeps from

12 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Rob White and George Giannios track down kiwi fitted with transmitters

Moko the kiwi

Success! Kiwi tracking dog Poko takes a close look at Bedford the kiwi, safe in the hands of Rob White. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

conservationbriefs

Sometimes kiwi can be good at hiding – Ray Tipu almost disappears into the bush as he retrieves a bird.

Poko the kiwi dog

his transmitter mysteriously coming and going. Bedford’s transmitter includes an “egg timer” which gives a distinctive beep when the bird is incubating eggs. That allows the kiwi team to determine when the chicks will hatch so that they can be transferred to the kiwi crèche for safety.

legs and soon has them taped together for safety. Tucking the kiwi’s head into the dark comfort of his jersey he cuts off the old transmitter and tapes on the new one. Bedford is weighed and his beak is measured, before his legs are freed and he is released back into his hole.

Several ridges and valleys later the signal strengthens and Poko indicates the kiwi’s position beneath the roots of a fallen tree. Reaching deep into the dark space, Rob gently extracts the kiwi from his burrow. Kiwi’s sharp claws can inflict serious wounds, so Rob keeps a firm hold of the strong

Next day with the kiwi count complete, volunteers leave manager Rob Waiwai and his team to continue the job of changing the leg band transmitters. It has been a privilege to be a part of the good work they are doing to keep Waikaremoana’s kiwi population safe. Mary Campbell

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society

Conservation Calendar 2010

neW Zealand Conservation diary 2010

New Zealand

Conservation Calendar R O YA L F O R E S T A N D B I R D P R O T E C T I O N S O C I E T Y | 2 0 1 0

JULY 2010

J U LY 2 0 10

A U G US T 2 0 10

M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

M T W T F S S 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

By purchasing this calendar you are contributing to conservation work in New Zealand New Zealand tomtit on megaherb, Auckland Islands (Mark Jones/Roving Tortoise)

Stunning photos of New Zealand’s native flora and fauna taken by some our leading nature photographers. Envelope supplied; weight less than 200 gms for economical posting.

includes post and packaging

This beautifully produced diary includes photographs of New Zealand landscapes, plants and wildlife. It includes ‘week to view’ pages and is spiral bound so it will lie flat when open.

includes post and packaging

Both calendar and diary are available now. Send orders with cheque and delivery details to: Craig Potton Publishing, PO Box 555, Nelson 7010, New Zealand PHONE +64 3 548 9009 Fax +64 3 548 9456 Email maree@cpp.co.nz WEb www.craigpotton.co.nz To order by credit card, refer to the Forest and Bird website: www.forestandbird.org.nz

w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Dominion Post

OKAKO calls will echo through the Waitakere Ranges for the first time in half a century this spring when about 20 of the endangered wattlebirds move to Ark in the Park. After a massive pest control operation carried out by volunteers, pest numbers are low enough in the unfenced reserve west of Auckland to bring back endangered kokako. The Ark has already proved itself able to look after the hihi introduced in 2007 and 2008. “Sound anchoring” – playing familiar kokako calls through the forest – will be used to help the migrants settle in from September. “The Ark’s habitat is good but you need to make them feel this is a home,” Forest & Bird’s Ark in the Park Project Manager, Maj de Poorter, says. Waikato University students

Kaimanawa muster

HE Department of Conservation removed about 200 wild horses from the North Island Central Plateau in a muster in June.

The muster was larger than in previous years as DOC aims to reduce the number of horses on Defence land near Waiouru from 500 to 300 to save money

14 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

John Staniland checks a trap at Ark in the Park.

control. Volunteer co-ordinator Karen Colgan keeps 133 regular volunteers in work at the Ark, some of whom have been lending a hand for six years. Overseas visitors come to stay at the park for up to six months and pitch in, too. Riki has lived in the area for 10 years, and has seen an explosion in bird numbers. “This forest used to be quite quiet but it’s covered in birds now.” Walking through the dense regenerating kauri forest we’re accosted on the track by impish robins. We spot some of the 2000 bait stations and 200 pest traps through the park, and head a little off the track to see the hihi feeder where volunteer Eric

Kauri at Ark in the Park

Wilson has rigged up a camera that photographs the birds when they hit a trigger in the feeder. Everyone involved with the Ark has grand plans. Karen Colgan has her eyes on the entire 17,000 hectares of public land in the Waitakere Ranges. Ark in the Park contractor Andy Warneford dreams of bringing back kiwi, kaka, petrels and more geckos. Kaka have been seen at the park and there’s even a chance that they bred here last summer. The Ark will remain firmly connected with its Waitakere neighbours, and will never become a fenced sanctuary. “It’s very expensive, and the minute you build a fence it will be too small,” John says.

herd could mean musters have to be held only once every two years. The Kaimanawa Wild Horse Advisory Group, which includes DOC, animal welfare groups and Forest & Bird, the army and other landowners, agreed to the reduction in herd size. Horse welfare groups expected to be able to find homes for about 90 of the horses, with the rest destined for the abattoir. Attempts to develop a contraceptive programme to control the herd size have so far Horses in this year’s muster been unsuccessful. Horses have roamed in the and reduce their impact on area since the 1800s but have native vegetation. been mustered for removal Annual musters to keep the since 1997 to protect rare and herd size under control cost vulnerable native plants and about $120,000 and a smaller ecosystems. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Marina Skinner

Kokako return to Auckland

have recorded the right kokako “dialect” – their calls vary between regions – and will monitor the translocation from Waipapa Forest and Rangitoto Station in Waikato. Te Kawerau a Maki iwi from Waitakere and Maniapoto iwi from Waikato are also working on the project. The Ark’s third fundraising concert on June 12 raised more than $5000, which will go towards transmitters to keep track of most of the new kokako. In June, 30 North Island robins joined their buddies introduced from Mokoia Island in 2005. Some of the robins and whiteheads returned to the Ark have spread their wings and are now seen beyond the park’s boundaries. Ark in the Park, run by Forest & Bird’s Waitakere branch and the Auckland Regional Council, started out at 250 hectares of public land in 2003 and has grown to 1200 hectares. “From Queen Street, you can be at the edge of a rainforest in half an hour,” Waitakere branch chairman John Staniland says. “There are not many big cities in the world like that.” Being close to a big city also brings its problems, says park ranger Riki Bennett, with people sometimes dumping cats in the park. The key to the Ark’s success has been the huge number of volunteers who work on pest

Marina Skinner

conservationbriefs

Petr and Kathy Mitchell

V A L D E R Reef herons on Matakohe/Limestone Island.

Island makeover

WENTY years ago a small fleet of tin boats, loaded to the gunwales with native trees, made its way across Whangarei Harbour to Matakohe/Limestone Island. Members of Forest & Bird’s Northern Branch were launching a green makeover of the 40-hectare island. The large chunk of limestone in the middle of the harbour is topped by a thin layer of clay and a covering of buffalo grass – it was a revegetation nightmare. Maori had occupied Matakohe – the name meaning dark bluff of kohekohe trees – for generations, and a fighting pa on top of the island had grand views up and down the harbour. Pakeha built the first brick kiln on the island in 1858, and for the next half century the limeworks and cement factory supported up to 200 people living on the island. In 1918 the factory moved across the water to Portland, leaving the island to grazing stock. With about 150,000 trees planted, Matakohe has been transformed from a bleak, scarred island into a scenic reserve and it has become a kiwi creche, raising kiwi for translocations to Whangarei Heads and other parts of Northland. The restoration project is now led by the Friends of Matakohe/ Limestone Island Trust, which

receives important sponsorship from Golden Bay Cement, Five years ago plans were hatched to move grey-faced petrel (oi) from Taranga/Hen Island to Matakohe. Chicks are now on the island, and it is hoped a new colony of petrels will be established in Whangarei Harbour. Less glamorous creatures, such as flax snails, giant weta, tuatara and several lizard species, are also being returned to the island. In 2007 shore skink were released, followed by ornate skink, and two species of gecko are due for collection later this year. Pests are an ongoing problem because the island is within swimming distance of other islands by stoats and rats, but pest control keeps numbers down. More than 20 years have passed since Forest & Bird enthusiasts embarked on what seemed like mission impossible. Now you can travel in comfort to Matakohe in a modern barge driven by a ranger, admire the man-made forest, listen to kiwi at night and see fernbird saved from local extinction. Gerry Brackenbury

CONSERVATION GRANTS

INANCIAL Grants in memory of Lilian Valder, who was a significant donor to the Waikato Branch of Forest & Bird, are awarded each year for conservation projects. Grants are usually $1000-$2000 and are awarded to individual or group projects. For more information and application forms contact the Secretary, Waikato Branch, Forest & Bird, P O Box 11092, Hillcrest, Hamilton 3216. Closing date for applications is 30 Sept 2009.

Wanted! Your binoculars

Got some old binoculars that are just gathering dust? Conservation projects around the Pacific could put them to good use. Many community-based projects supported by Forest & Bird’s BirdLife partners around the Pacific are carrying out vital conservation work to protect threatened bird species. An important part of that work is monitoring – and binoculars are an essential tool in monitoring bird populations. Often projects operate on very limited budgets, so your help in donating your second-hand binoculars is a valuable contribution to the success of their work.

To find out more go to: www.limestoneisland.org.nz

If you can help by donating binoculars to a Pacific conservation project please send them (carefully wrapped) to:

Banded rail and chicks.

Petr and Kathy Mitchell

Binoculars Project Forest & Bird PO Box 631 Wellington

w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Or drop them off to Forest & Bird National Office, 90 Ghuznee St, Wellington. And we’ll make sure they reach a Pacific project where they can help make a difference for conservation.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

60-metre wall of sandbags to protect the nest from a forecast spring tide. On Christmas Eve, just as holidaymakers poured into the usually quiet coastal spot, two chicks hatched. From then on Eliane spent her days shepherding people away from the nesting site. “People on the beach don’t know they are beside the rarest bird in New Zealand. When I explained to people that fairy tern chicks had just been born, people were very happy Fairy tern to move to another part of the beach. “I helped a man carry his fishing gear further down the OREST & Bird Mid North have fledged since the midbeach so he avoided the nest. branch member Eliane 1960s. Fairy terns historically He was happy because he Lagnaz is making a difference bred at Pakiri but abandoned came back later and told me he to the survival of our rarest bird, the site and only returned in had caught six snapper.” the New Zealand fairy tern. 2003. Eliane watched the fledglings’ Eliane has been a Department The fairy terns at Pakiri are of Conservation warden at fortunate to have Eliane watch- first efforts at flying above the sand and the parents’ diving Pakiri Beach, near Warkworth, ing out for them because birds lessons in the Pakiri River for the past two summers, and nesting further north at Waipu mouth. She also kept an eye is so devoted to the fairy terns, are on their own after DOC’s on the New Zealand dotterels or tara-iti, that she puts in her Northland conservancy ended and variable oystercatchers that own time to stop their journey funding for a warden next breed at Pakiri. towards extinction. summer. The only other fairy terns The odds are stacked against Last year Eliane was a that fledged last summer were the fairy terns, and fewer than DOC warden – funded by the 40 of the birds exist. Their Auckland conservancy – during further north at Mangawhai. Fairy tern recovery has suffered nests are shallow scrapes in the breeding season from midseveral setbacks, with another the sand – beachgoers step on October to early February. But or drive over the eggs, animal she began trapping around the chick at Mangawhai trampled predators eat the eggs and site in early September and put by humans, and adults nesting chicks, and storms sometimes in very long hours over summer. at Waipu probably eaten by a wash away the nests. The few “She put her heart and her soul cat. Gwenda Pulham is unhappy remaining pairs nest at just four into those birds,” says long-time that there will be no DOC coastal sites north of Auckland. fairy tern advocate Gwenda warden at the Waipu breeding With a lot of care and some Pulham. site this summer. “I’m appalled luck with the weather, two fairy Eliane fenced the breeding terns fledged at Pakiri last sum- area of the beach and, with DOC that recent budget cuts mean there are not the financial mer – the first time two chicks colleague David Wilson, built a

Fighting at the fairy tern front line

resources within the Northland conservancy of DOC to fully protect New Zealand’s rarest endemic bird.” She suggests DOC should seek sponsorship to help the fairy terns. “They shouldn’t be left to local communities to look after.” Despite the fairy tern’s perilous state, it has failed to capture the same public concern as, say, the kakapo. But are we happy to see it go beyond the brink of extinction? Eliane Lagnaz will be on Pakiri Beach next summer doing her best to make sure this doesn’t happen.

For more information or to support fairy terns by buying a fundraising calendar go to: www.fairytern.org.nz

Eliane Lagnaz

Marina Skinner

DOC

conservationbriefs

Marina Skinner

Pakiri Beach Inlet

16 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Caring for kea Corey Mosen explains his fascination with the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most intelligent bird.

Corey Mosen

As any camper knows, kea are highly curious about human activity – and equipment!

Corey Mosen

Kea may be smart but they were still fooled by this researcher’s decoy.

HEN I was 10 years old I watched a mob of kea meticulously dismantle my grandmother’s windscreen wipers. Ever since I have had an incredible fascination with this mountain parrot. “How can these birds not fear humans?” I wondered, “Let alone something the size of a car!” That day I made it a life goal to work with kea in some way. To get some background knowledge of animals and their natural environment I studied zoology at university. I then began volunteer work through the Kea Conservation Trust. Not only did I get to work with this animal that had captivated my interest, but I was also taken to some of the most beautiful places in New Zealand: Mt Aspiring National Park, Mt Cook National Park and Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes. Even the accommodation was interesting: a mountaineer’s hut, a farmer’s storage shed, a tent perched on the edge of a cliff – and sometimes simply under the stars. During my time volunteering I helped on many different kea projects: lead poisoning research, cognitive and behavioural experiments, and the kea population survey. I combined my interest in kea with another hobby, photography. And due to my hands-on experience working with kea, I gained a position with the Department of Conservation – another goal of mine. Kea are endemic to the South Island of New Zealand; they are one of a kind because they are the world’s only alpine parrot and spend a lot of their time above the snow line. Kea (Nestor notabilis), along with the kaka (Nestor meridionalis) and kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), are thought to together form the only members of a distinct parrot family, Nestoridae. It seems likely that the Nestoridae lineage diverged from that of other parrots some 80 million years ago, perhaps as a result of geographical isolation when the land

Corey Mosen Corey Mosen

Kea’s mischievous nature and sharp beaks have led to problems when they have ingested lead from buildings.

Kea in flight

Corey Mosen

mass that was to become New Zealand separated from the Gondwanaland supercontinent. Weighing one kilogram, kea are the second-heaviest parrot in New Zealand – only the 2kg kakapo is heftier (and, of course, can’t fly). The kea’s olive-green colouring, highlighted with iridescent blues and black, and the striking orange-red flash of the underside of their wings makes them a uniquely beautiful presence in our high country. The name kea was given by Maori to describe the sound of its call, and kea were considered guardians of the mountains for the Waitaha Maori during their search for pounamu (greenstone). Kea have a high level of intelligence – they have even been shown to surpass some primate species in cognitive tests, and are considered the world’s most intelligent bird. They use their advanced cognitive ability to learn new foraging techniques and can even adapt to different types of food, but this can also get them into some difficulties – they can be too smart for their own good. Despite – sometimes even because of – their natural curiosity and intelligence, kea have faced numerous threats to their survival. A bounty was placed on kea because of high country farmers’ claims that kea attacked sheep for a rich source of fat and protein. This bounty resulted in 150,000 kea being “culled” – and this officially sanctioned killing of this endemic species continued till the late 1970s. Kea were also susceptible to poisoning from the lead used for nails, drainage and flashings on back-country buildings like alpine huts. Lead tastes sweet and kea have been observed chewing on lead material. Lead poisoning inhibits brain development and causes behavioural abnormalities – making kea even bolder, which gets them into even more trouble than usual. Deforestation also put pressure on kea. Since the arrival of humans in New Zealand the amount of forested land has

Corey Mosen and kea friends

been considerably reduced as it was cleared for pasture and therefore reduced ideal habitats for kea. Although kea spend a lot of time in the mountains they also forage and nest below the tree line. Kea’s natural habitat extends from South Island beech forests to alpine meadows and mountain scree slopes. Climate change may pose a further threat through its possible impact on their highaltitude habitats. Kea’s natural curiosity impacts humans directly in many different ways – especially as we encroach more and more on their natural habitat. This proximity creates conflict: man-made objects, such as

buildings, shiny cars and household refuse, provide kea with endless opportunity to investigate whether each new and exciting thing can be eaten or destroyed! Kea are predominantly vegetarian opportunistic feeders (although they have also been seen feeding on seabird chicks, insects and lizards) but the variety of foodstuffs introduced into their environment by humans means they will take the opportunity to eat just about anything. In at least one case, scavenging of chocolate from rubbish bins has killed kea, as chocolate is toxic to kea (and many other animals).

Big groups of kea are often seen flying together and usually consist of juvenile birds – much like gangs of human teenage taggers, these groups of adolescent kea are the ones that tend to cause most damage to human property. Together they are learning to manipulate their environment: if artificial human property is in their territory it is considered worth investigating. We need to realise that this is the parrots’ natural behaviour – perhaps it is our behaviour, just as much as theirs that makes it a problem. Today kea numbers are still declining for reasons that are largely unknown and are now being investigated. Kea are listed as nationally endangered and the total kea population is thought to range between 1000-5000 individuals in the wild – this estimate is so imprecise because there hasn’t been an accurate way to count them in their alpine environment, which can be difficult to access. However, the Kea Conservation Trust is conducting a survey counting kea above the tree line at sites in the Southern Alps for three consecutive years. After data from the survey has been analysed it is hoped that it will give an accurate estimate of kea numbers throughout the South Island. I have had experience with many lowland flightless birds and have sometimes wondered why I never chose to focus on a bird that was flightless. Certainly a less mobile species would be easier to study – kea can ascend 1000 metres in a just few wing beats when you finally reach them after four hours of tracking! But New Zealand has no other bird with such a charismatic personality and I am thankful to have had so many exciting interactions with kea – and look forward to many more.

How you can help • Don’t use lead-based building materials if you live in an area where there are kea

• Store household items and equipment such as bicycles and tramping gear out of kea’s reach

• Park cars in garages, or use a car cover when you go skiing • Don’t feed wild kea • Contact the nearest DOC office if you see an injured kea or someone hurting kea

• Help with population monitoring by reporting kea sightings – you

can download kea reporting forms at the Kea Conservation Trust’s website: www.keaconservation.co.nz

20 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Corey Mosen

• Make sure household waste is contained in kea-proof receptacles

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FOREST & BIRD â&#x20AC;¢ AUGUST 2009

Graham Taylor/DOC

The comeback kid Mandy Herrick reports on efforts to restore populations of a bird once thought to be lost forever: the Chatham Island taiko.

22 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

south-east of the Chathams. Crockett made seven trips to the Chathams as he sought to track down the taiko – if it still existed. Oral histories spoke of breeding colonies in the south-west of the island, so Crockett’s team bush-bashed through hectares of rugged terrain searching for signs that the taiko must still be alive – a burrow or ultimately a live bird. Crockett knew from studying petrels that they were attracted to the light from the blubber pots that burned into the night on whaling ships, so he attempted to re-create them in the hope of luring the taiko. Davy Crockett

Mandy Herrick

IKE the takahe, the kakapo and the New Zealand storm petrel, a question mark lay over the existence of the seawandering Chatham Island taiko. Doubts that this elusive bird was still alive continued for more than a century, until this long-lost aviator was finally seen again, lit up in the beam of a spotlight in the night sky. Numbering just 150 individuals, the taiko still clings dangerously close to extinction as one of the world’s most endangered birds. The Chatham island taiko’s maiden flight begins like a slapstick comedy routine. After scrambling up a nearly vertical tree, young fledglings launch themselves into the Antarctic winds, fall to the ground and repeat the process. But these youngsters don’t give up. After crashing to the ground, they just waddle their way back to mount the tree for yet another attempt at flight. Once they do get airborne, young taiko are known to stay at sea for as much as eight years before they return to their breeding grounds. Where they venture is yet unknown, but selfdescribed “obsessive” Davy Crockett hopes that with advances in technology their journey will eventually be traced. Like the takahe, kakapo and the New Zealand storm petrel, the taiko was “lost” and thought to be possibly extinct. Once abundant, taiko had almost disappeared as introduced predators such as cats and rats took their toll on its burrow nests. Not seen for more than a century, it was all but forgotten – till a 15-year-old discovered an abundance of bird bones in Chatham Island Moriori middens (sites of ancient refuse heaps) in 1952. That 15-year-old was Davy Crockett. The bones failed to match any known specimens, till they were linked to a bird held in a Turin museum. The bird had been shot down by an Italian research ship 111 years earlier 800 kilometres

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HATHAM Island taiko (aka magenta petrel, Pterodroma magentae, Moriori name Tchaik) The Chatham Island taiko has black plumage with a white breast, weighs 500-600 grams and has a wingspan of about one metre. It is a member of the gadfly petrel group and is endemic to the Chatham Islands, but remains for much of the time at sea over the Pacific Ocean, returning to land only to breed. Its population is estimated at up to 150 individuals and it is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN (World Conservation Union) red list of species at risk extinction.

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Mandy Herrick

The predator-proof fence

Mandy Herrick

He and his volunteers pointed spotlights into the night sky in the hope of intersecting the flight path of taiko. After four years of searching, in 1973 they observed two dark-bodied, whitebreasted birds in the light beam, but they could not be confirmed as taiko. Finally on New Year’s Day in 1978 they “caught” birds in the beam and managed to guide them to the ground and Crockett finally laid hands on a real, live taiko. He has returned to the site 70 times since then to study the birds, and work towards their protection. “I don’t know whether it is a habit or an addiction,” Crockett, now aged in his seventies, says. Even once the taiko’s existence was proven, the hunt for their breeding ground was just beginning – and it took another 10 years. Researchers lured the birds with lights, captured them and fitted them with transmitters, before setting them free. The transmitters allowed researchers to track taiko to their burrows, and night-long vigils at the entrance of a burrow confirmed the presence of these elusive birds. Counts confirmed that the taiko population urgently needed help to boost its numbers, leading Crockett, with the help of locals Bruce and Liz Tuanui, to set up the Chatham Island Taiko Trust. Low numbers and widely scattered burrows meant these seabirds had few opportunities to mate, and they were at risk of predation by introduced pests. The trust, with funding from NZ Lotteries and the Biodiversity Condition Fund, built a predator proof-fence around a 2.5 hectare breeding ground at the southern end of Chatham Island. After a bumper breeding year in 2007 – 2008, Crockett’s team and Department of Conservation staff translocated 21 young taiko and 47 young Chatham Island petrels to the new breeding site. Before transferring the juveniles the teams made sure they took one important part of the furniture: their smell. “Petrels have a particularly musty smell, so when you move them you need to take their smell with them. When we set up the burrows we made sure that we took some of the old burrow’s dirt, so that they could smell themselves,” Crockett explains. The taiko chicks left their new breeding site 15 grams heavier than those reared in their natural burrows, which bodes well for their survival – and hopefully their return to the breeding site. To help guide them back, the deep, groaning mating call of the male taiko will be broadcast every night. “It’s almost like a snoring sound – and this is a mating call!” taiko translocation manager Elizabeth Bell exclaims. Since the taiko’s rediscovery in 1978, technology has moved on from spotlights and Crockett has high-tech telemetry equipment at the crest of the hill to alert the team to the taiko’s return. “It will be a first for taiko if these chicks return to the predatorproof area. Imagine in the future, if a webcam was set up in taiko burrows allowing the outside world a peek into the home life of a taiko chick. You’d be able to watch them from your own home,” Crockett says. Clearly for this taiko fan, that would be the ultimate in reality TV.

Trapping efforts are chalked up on a board.

They remain at risk from introduced predators. The Chatham Island taiko breeds on the Chatham Islands between September and May, laying a single large egg in a burrow that is 2-5m long. Taiko pairs use the same burrow each year and usually mate for life. Incubation of the egg lasts 55 days and after hatching both parents feed the chick for about 105 days until fledging. The fledged chicks climb trees to launch themselves into flight and out over the Pacific, where they remain for 7-8 years before returning to the Chathams to breed themselves.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Island life Nanda MacLaren looks at an ambitious project to protect Motutapu and Rangitoto Islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native wildlife from introduced pests.

RADLED in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, which sprawls on Aucklandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doorstep, are several pest-free islands and peninsulas, including the world-acclaimed open island sanctuary of Tiritiri Matangi, Motuora, Little Barrier, Motuihe and Tawharanui. Soon to join this list are Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands. At 3854 hectares these islands are larger than Little Barrier Island or Maungatautari, and 17 times the area of Tiritiri Matangi. Their size, and the existing and potential wetland areas of Motutapu, means they will become a very significant sanctuary for endangered New Zealand wildlife.

Rangitoto was formed by volcanic eruptions about 600 years ago. It now boasts a variety of landscapes, from bare volcanic lava to mature pohutukawa and rata forest. Purchased by the Crown in 1854, it was set aside as a scenic reserve in 1890, and has since been a major tourist destination. Motutapu, a much older island (Jurassic in origin) with a rich archaeological heritage, is joined to Rangitoto by mud flats and a bridge. It was occupied by Maori before and after the eruption of Rangitoto, which smothered Motutapu in a deep layer of volcanic ash, and there are more than 300 known sites of Maori interest dating back to the 12th Century there.

Bridget Winstone

Dotterels are among the many bird species on the islands.

Later European settlement on Motutapu established a population big enough to require its own school, and the land was farmed. The island was purchased by the Crown between 1935 and 1944 for defence purposes, and today both Rangitoto and Motutapu are managed by the Department of Conservation. Motutapu and Rangitoto are a 30-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland, and more than 100,000 people visit each year to walk, swim, fish, camp and explore. Before 1990 the pohutukawa forest on Rangitoto was on the brink of collapse due to browsing by wallabies and possums, and DOC began eradication of these introduced pests on both islands. An aerial drop of 1080 was followed up by ground operations and the forest rapidly recovered. A vision was formed of Motutapu and Rangitoto becoming a haven for self-sustaining populations of endangered species. Motutapu is big and has a unique range of habitats: interior wetlands, exposed coastal forests and inland bush and gullies. This will allow it to host not only the more popular species, such as kiwi, takahe and tuatara, but also plants like hard beech, tawa, mangeao and native mistletoe which are rare in the gulf islands. The Motutapu Restoration Project was conceived by a group of interested people, including iwi, DOC, biologists and archaeologists, to protect archaeological sites and provide habitat for threatened species. The w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Motutapu and Rangitoto – the most ambitious pest eradication project ever seen in New Zealand.

Motutapu Restoration Trust was formed in 1994 to sustain this project, and the trust is now implementing a 10-year plan to plant 180 hectares of pasture, protect existing wetland areas and remnant bush, and control invasive weeds. The trust has built a nursery to raise locally collected seed, and its volunteers have planted about 400,000 native seedlings. A survey by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand in 2008 (OSNZ) noted 40 bird species on the islands, including 27 native species, among them dotterels, kereru, grey warblers and Caspian terns. In June this year DOC began the most complex island pest eradication ever

attempted anywhere in the world. The $3 million operation will rid Rangitoto and Motutapu of animal pests that eat birds, reptiles and invertebrates, or compete with them for food. Helicopters using spreader buckets and GPS technology will cover both Rangitoto and Motutapu dispersing brodifacoum poison bait, and hand-laying of bait will be carried out in places not reached by the aerial drop. The operation is expected to eradicate rats and mice, and also knock back the islands’ rabbit population. Follow-up work, including trapping, shooting and the use of specially trained pest-tracking dogs, will

eliminate stoats, hedgehogs and feral cats. It is hoped the islands can be declared totally pest-free in July 2011. Challenges are presented by the difficulty of the terrain (for example Rangitoto’s caves and tunnels) buildings and farming activities. The islands will also have to be closed to visitors for 10 days during each of three bait-laying operations. After pest eradication is complete, there are plans to reintroduce native species to expand the islands’ bird, invertebrate and reptile populations. Birds in particular will require a wide variety of fruiting trees for year-round sustenance. Under the guidance of bio-geographer

Bridget Winstone

Volunteers have been the backbone of the islands’ restoration.

DOC

Workers take deivery of pest traps.

Shane Wright the island planting programme is changing to more open plantings of broadleaf pioneers like wharangi, ngaio and taupata, followed later by final stage species such as totara, pohutakawa, mangeo, kohekohe and puriri. It is hoped that this new approach will advance the growth of a diverse forest by several decades. Another huge implication of the pest eradication is the need for ongoing biosecurity protection. The constant movement of large numbers of people, farm animals and equipment provides opportunities for rats and mice to re-colonise the islands. Awareness among visitors will be crucial in helping prevent accidental re-invasions, and educational signs will be posted at key departure points and all landing points. Tracking tunnels and traps around access points will quickly alert the islands’ custodians if pests return.

How you can help The islands benefit from the efforts of 1400 volunteers, who plant 25,000 trees each year. The planting program depends on volunteers to collect and propagate seeds, plant seedlings and control weeds. Bridget Winstone

To find out more about how you can help go to: www.motutapu.org.nz

Volunteers Trevor Stones and Brenda Vernon with a mountain of moth plant seed heads removed from the islands.

MONG the six pest species being removed from Rangitoto and Motutapu islands is the hedgehog. Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are well known for their presence around gardens and their endearing snuffling, snorting and fossicking. Immortalised as prickly but cute characters like Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggywinkle, hedgehogs have an image as a sort of garden do-gooder. Brought to New Zealand from Europe in the late 1800s to rid gardens of slugs and insect pests, and as a charming reminder of the “home” country, hedgehogs found their niche here almost immediately. Soon hedgehogs could be found the length and breadth of the country. Scientists estimate there are now about three hedgehogs per hectare in many areas of New Zealand. While other pests such as stoats, weasels, rats and even cats are widely perceived as conservation

26 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

“baddies,” people are less aware that hedgehogs also pose a significant threat to New Zealand’s native wildlife. While hedgehogs are primarily insectivores, they are also ravenous opportunists and don’t hesitate to gobble down birds’ eggs, chicks and even the occasional native lizard. They also take a toll on native invertebrates such as weta. Nest “security cameras” in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island high country over a period of five years showed that hedgehogs were responsible for 20 per cent of predator attacks on nests of three species of braided river birds, including the endangered black stilt. The presence of eggshells and lizard remains in the stomachs of hedgehogs further confirm the threat the creatures pose to some native fauna. Female hedgehogs in particular tend to prey on native lizards (perhaps to help meet

DOC

Mrs Tiggywinkle the serial killer

Hedgehogs – rats with spines

high-energy requirements for breeding). Hedgehogs hunt at night, when cooler temperatures mean the cold-blooded lizards are slow-moving. So as the Department of Conservation embarks on an ambitious plan to clear the islands of Rangitoto and Motutapu in the Hauraki Gulf of all introduced pest species hedgehogs will definitely be on the hit list. Nic Vallance w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Paul Martinson/Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Registration number: 2006-0010-1/10

The search for the living dead?

Helen Bain investigates reports from people convinced that the “extinct” South Island kokako is alive and well.

SIGHTING of a blue-grey magpiesized bird in a South Island forest. Another sighting of a bird with orange wattles. Repeated reports of organ notes and goat-like birdcalls. What if, just maybe, the extinct South Island kokako isn’t extinct after all? The official view is that the South Island kokako is indeed extinct, but Alec Milne, an amateur ornithologist and outdoorsman from Golden Bay, is convinced it is still out there awaiting rediscovery. Others think it is about as likely as the Loch Ness Monster turning up in Lake Wanaka. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

The South Island kokako (Callaeas cinereus) was (is?) like its North Island counterpart, a large forest-dwelling bird of distinctive blue-grey colour with a black “face mask”. While the North Island kokako has blue wattles, the southern species had mostly orange wattles. Both are renowned for their haunting song. According to Alan Tennyson’s Extinct Birds of New Zealand, kokako were previously recorded throughout the South Island and fossils showed it was widespread before the arrival of humans. By the late 1800s it was disappearing

fast and the last “accepted” sighting was in Mt Aspiring National Park in 1967. Without positive evidence of its existence for many years, the Department of Conservation declared the South Island kokako extinct in 2004. But Alec Milne begs to differ. Milne’s involvement in protection of rock wren has frequently taken him into the back country of Kahurangi National Park. It was on one of these trips to a side-branch of the Cobb Valley in 2005 that he saw, reasonably close for about 10 seconds, what he is sure was a South Island kokako. FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

North Island kokako – could its southern cousin still be alive?

Over the next couple of years he returned armed with a tape recorder. Last March, in response to played calls of North Island kokako, Milne heard what he says was the distinctive “organ” notes of a kokako. He followed up with more trips, but there was no further response. Then in January this year a Golden Bay tramper in the neighbouring Stanley River catchment saw what he described as a blue-grey magpie-sized bird – a description that fits no forest bird in New Zealand except the kokako. Milne played recordings of kokako in that area and in response he heard “some really weird calls, like a goat calling.” Milne mimicked the call and it was answered – by what he believes was a kokako. He says his experience is echoed by reports from trampers and hunters. The most promising was at Inangahua two years ago, when a man heard a bird call that sounded like a kokako and saw a bird he believed was a kokako land just 10-20 metres away. A hunter in Motueka who reported seeing a bird with orange-brown wattles,

of the top guys at DOC are. People are reluctant to report what they have seen and heard because they think they won’t be believed. Maybe it is because of a lack of resources at DOC – if a bird is extinct they don’t have to spend any money looking for it or looking after it.” Milne isn’t alone in believing the South Island kokako is still alive. Firsthand accounts from witnesses show they are convinced that what they saw or heard was a kokako. Nelson man Jim Greeks gives a convincing account of his “kokako” encounter. In 2007 Greeks was returning to his car following a fishing trip at the Nina River when he saw, just about two metres ahead of him on a track, what he is certain was a kokako. “I thought ‘My God! That is not a bird I have ever seen before.’” He describes the bird as “a bit smaller than a magpie but bigger than a blackbird” and “a lovely blue-grey colour” and it moved in a distinctive “long, low hop”. He didn’t see any wattles but says the bird was moving away from him so they might not have been visible from that angle. Greeks says that though the sighting was fleeting, it was “more than a glimpse” and he got a good look at it. He stopped to look in the manuka scrub but could not see the bird again. Back at his car he immediately referred to the bird identification book he kept there, and matched his sighting with the kokako pictured there. “I have a clear image in my mind of what I saw. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that what I saw was an allegedly extinct South Island kokako.” Greeks hesitated before reporting the sighting – “I didn’t want to be cast in the same mould as people who claim to be abducted by aliens” – but he was so certain that he had seen a kokako he contacted DOC a week later.

while others have heard loud organ-like sounds and guttural notes. “I am 100% certain, from what I have seen and heard, that they are kokako,” Milne says. If they aren’t seeing kokako then all these people would have to be bloody lying. They are disparate sightings by knowledgeable, reputable people who are not connected in any way, all describing the same thing.” The shy nature of the birds and the wide expanse of forest in which they may be living make it very difficult to produce indisputable evidence, Milne says. “You get glimpses, and snippets of calls, but it is extremely difficult to get clear photographs.” While Kahurangi National Park is fairly well-visited, not many people would recognise kokako if they encountered them, Milne says. Milne – a long-time member of the Ornithological Society and Forest & Bird – says the official “extinct” tag is a barrier to people coming forward with suspected sightings, lest they be dismissed as crazy. “I can’t believe how sceptical some

Alec Milne

South Island kokako country? Alec Milne is sure kokako exist in the Stanley headwaters.

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DOC

Alec Milne and family – on a mission to find South Island kokako.

Despite such reports DOC’s Kokako Recovery Group spokesman Ian Flux is unconvinced that the South Island kokako is still alive. “It would be just as likely to find the Loch Ness monster. I’d be absolutely delighted if one turned up, but it just isn’t going to happen.” Flux says kokako are conspicuous in both sound and appearance and don’t travel far – if they were present in the South Island, they wouldn’t be hard to find. If they were alive, more substantial evidence would have surfaced by now. Flux was involved in taking the last few North Island kokako out of Taranaki and Great Barrier Island forests for translocation and says they were fairly easy to track down. Nor is there any evidence that South Island kokako are more shy and retiring than the North Island kokako, Flux says – historic records relate that they were inquisitive and noisy; in one case they even ventured inside a miners’ camp kitchen to be fed titbits. Flux says stories about South Island kokako sightings have arisen repeatedly over the years. DOC has put considerable effort into searches but all have drawn a blank.

He says people may genuinely believe they have seen or heard South Island kokako but are simply mistaken. Another bird species carrying orange coprosma berries in its beak, the pinkish-orange wattles of a juvenile tui, or a red wattlebird blown over from Australia could all explain the sightings of “orange wattles.” The “kokako” calls could have been the very similar notes made by tui, kaka, bellbirds and even kea, Flux says. “I can see how different birdcalls could easily fool people.” Alan Tennyson agrees with Flux: the South Island kokako is almost certainly extinct. He puts sightings down to wishful thinking. “People see what they want to see – that’s human nature. I’d be delighted if they weren’t extinct but I am not convinced by the evidence to date. There has been no absolute proof like a photo, a sound recording or a feather that could be DNA tested. So I remain sceptical unless someone comes up with the goods.” Milne reckons pest control should be conducted in the areas where kokako have been “sighted”. If there are just a few kokako left alive, without protection from predators like stoats, they won’t be

there much longer. And if there aren’t any kokako there, other native species will benefit from the pest control anyway. Flux says DOC is better off targeting its limited pest control resources on protection of species it knows are alive. “We should focus on things that are not extinct but are going downhill sharply that we can still do something about.” Tennyson agrees, and suggests that the enthusiasm of kokako “believers” would be more usefully channelled into conservation efforts on behalf of other species known to be alive, thus preventing future extinctions. “I don’t think it would be legitimate for DOC to put funding towards looking for or protecting a bird that probably doesn’t exist. You can’t spend taxpayer money on wild goose chases – or wild kokako chases!” Milne would like to see a concerted effort made to undertake a thorough search for the kokako – if DOC won’t fund it, he hopes a privately-funded search might find evidence that the South Island kokako is more than just a stuffed museum specimen. In the face of official disinterest, Milne remains undaunted: “It’s definitely worth a shot.”

Back from the brink – “extinct” New Zealand birds that were rediscovered

Takahe – no takahe had been seen since 1900 and the species was declared extinct till 200 pairs were found in Fiordland in 1948.

Kakapo – By the early 1970s just one kakapo (a male) was known to exist. Searches found another 18, also all male, and the species was considered effectively extinct – till a population of 200, including females, was found on Stewart Island in 1977.

New Zealand storm petrel – declared extinct with no sightings for more than 150 years till it was sighted off Coromandel in 2003.

Chatham Island taiko. Thought to be extinct for more than a century till it was rediscovered in 1978.

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Campbell Island teal. Declared extinct till 20 were discovered in 1975.

Forest & Bird poll – is the South Island kokako extinct? Send your vote (yes or no) on the back of an envelope with your name, address and a daytime contact phone number to: Kokako poll, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington before September 30. Every vote cast goes into the draw to win a copy of NZ Journey by Georg and Verena Popp. We’ll report the poll result in the next issue of Forest & Bird.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Marina Skinner looks at the disturbing numbers of albatrosses and other seabirds being killed in New Zealand fisheries. 30

Graham Robertson

New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dirty little secret

Drowned albatross on long-line.

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Ministry of Fisheries

Warp capture: Albatross killed as by-catch

The spotlight is on New Zealand in international forums to conserve the world’s seabirds. That’s a tough ask, with about one-third of the world’s roughly 300 seabird species in New Zealand territory. New Zealand hosts more than 107 breeding seabird taxa, with 48 breeding only in New Zealand. Nearly one half of

breeding species are classed as threatened with extinction, and there is strong concern that by-catch in New Zealand fisheries may push the species closer to extinction. Many seabird populations are far less healthy than scientists expected – either because populations have dramatically declined or earlier studies were inaccurate.

Large numbers of seabirds are attracted by fishing boats and can get caught on their lines.

Ministry of Fisheries

F you can picture albatrosses and petrels soaring alongside fishing boats, peacefully co-existing on the high seas, you’re dreaming. In reality up to hundreds of thousands of seabirds die every year in New Zealand fishing nets and long-lines. You get an idea of the scale of the crisis from Ministry of Fisheries figures that show about 3300 birds are killed every year by long-line and trawl fishing boats. But that’s just part of the picture – just 5 per cent of long-line and trawl fishing trips have observers on board, so scientists use models to estimate total seabird deaths. Many fisheries are poorly monitored, and numbers of deaths from these fleets are not included in the totals reported each year. New Zealand fishers in local waters are bucking a worldwide trend of declining seabird by-catch. There has been an astonishing 2000 per cent leap in the number of albatrosses killed in New Zealand bottom long-line fisheries (which catch snapper and ling) in the most recent statistics. In 2005-06, 35 birds were caught in long-line fisheries and the following year the tally jumped to 791. Add up the albatrosses caught in all monitored fisheries – bottom and surface long-line and trawl fisheries – and albatross by-catch has doubled from 796 two years ago to 1634 in 2006-07. Bottom long-line fishing has shown an annual average increase of bird catch of 20 per cent over 5 years, though this fell by 9 per cent in the last year, from a high of 1230 birds a year in 2004-05. For surface long-line fisheries (which mainly catch tuna and billfish) annual average by-catch increases of 91 per cent have been recorded over the past five years, from 134 birds in 2002-03 to 713 in 2006-07. In the last year (2006-07) long-line fisheries contributed 1269 albatross deaths – or 77 per cent of the total captures of albatrosses for New Zealand. “The number of seabirds caught in domestic fisheries is our dirty little secret,” Susan Waugh, BirdLife’s Global Seabird Programme scientist working at Forest & Bird in New Zealand, says. “We are very good at promoting our achievements in reducing by-catch in global forums – and New Zealand fishers in international fisheries do a great job keeping their operations clean.” It seems that back home it’s a different story.

Numbers of dead birds in monitored fisheries

Albatrosses and petrels caught in New Zealand long-line and trawl fisheries 4000 3500 3000

Bottom longline

2500

Surface longline All trawl

2000 1500 1000 500 0

2002-3 2003-4 2004-5 2005-6 2006-7 Source: Ministry of Fisheries

Recent studies by NIWA and independent researchers show that only 25 per cent of the expected 100,000 pairs of white-chinned petrels (one of the most common birds caught in New Zealand fisheries) were found at the subAntarctic Antipodes Island. Just 10 per cent of expected numbers of flesh-footed shearwaters were found at their breeding colonies. A greater than expected number of another common by-catch species, the white-capped albatross, was found at their main breeding site in the Auckland Islands, with 80-110,000 breeding pairs present annually, compared with earlier estimates of 70,000. There is also some good news in the trawl fishery (which catches hoki, orange roughy and dories) which is working to avoid albatross captures on trawl cables. The number of albatrosses landed in trawl fisheries dropped from more than 1176 birds in 2004-05 to 365 in 2006-07. But the trawl fishery is not doing well with other seabirds. Seabird by-catch

figures have hovered at 1500-2000 birds for the past five years, with modest average decreases in total bird catch of only 4 per cent a year. For every bird counted in the reported figures, another 7600 petrels and 208 albatrosses strike trawl cables in a way that could harm them, according to a recent Ministry of Fisheries study. Even if half these birds escape uninjured from hitting cables, that still leaves 15,000 albatrosses and 2 million petrels damaged or killed by trawl fisheries this year – deaths that are unobserved and unreported. Ministry statistics released earlier this year show that reductions in seabird catches are achieved slowly. On average there have been declines of 15-20 per cent a year in seabird catch over the past few years, compared with up to 90 per cent reductions in several overseas fisheries using the same fishing methods. So why are New Zealand fishing boats working in local waters finding it so hard to reduce seabird by-catch when counterparts working in international waters are

Ministry of Fisheries

White-capped albatrosses

succeeding? Less scrutiny of their by-catch, poor regulations and poor enforcement, and less motivation to voluntarily change may explain the difference. But as European and American consumers learn more about seabird by-catch in New Zealand’s fisheries, our fish exports to those markets could fall – which may be the incentive fishing companies here need to do better. “It’s frustrating that the many techniques used for years in international waters have been ignored locally,” Waugh says. If fishing is done at night, birds are not feeding and stay away from fishing boats. Weighted lines drop quickly into the water, with the hooks submerging too quickly for birds to get caught. Streamer lines attached to boats scare away birds. These simple methods stop birds dying and don’t affect fish catches. “We should be enforcing use of best practice in our fisheries, which means using a combination of mitigation measures at any one time,” Waugh says. But the ministry allows fisheries to choose which methods they use. In Antarctic fisheries all these measures must be used at once, plus boats must not discharge offal (which attracts seabirds) and they must use techniques to stop birds being hooked when long-lines are hauled in, and some fishing areas where many birds feed are closed during summer. And in Antarctic waters, three seabird strikes and you’re out. Waugh believes fishers should not be penalised for catching seabirds because that would drive the problem underground. Instead, best practice should be enforced. Things are worse in trawl fishing because New Zealand regulations don’t even include the right measures to combat by-catch. The greatest threat to seabirds is warp strike, when birds fly into cables holding the nets to the boats. Streamer lines are the best way to scare birds away from cables, but trawl fishers can choose to use less effective devices. And stopping discharge of waste when fishing gear is being used would cut warp strike to zero. Fisheries monitoring is often unfathomable. Areas with a high risk of seabird interaction have gone unmonitored for years. High rates of by-catch on small domestic tuna fishing boats have been known about since the 1990s but less than 1 per cent of fishing effort in this fishery has an observer on board. Yet other areas where companies and captains have got on top of the problem, such as in the jointventure tuna fishery, are highly monitored. New Zealand is moving at a glacial pace toward a by-catch management framework. For some of our seabirds this could prove too slow to ensure their species’ survival.

Ministry of Fisheries

Salvins mollymawk

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Feathered treasures DOC

Helen Bain visits the world’s rarest – and most endearing – parrots. At 70 – 80 days old kakapo chicks have most of their adult plumage.

ISITING kakapo chicks at DOC’s quarantine centre in Invercargill impresses upon you just how precious these incredibly rare birds are. The hygiene procedures require us to first undergo interrogation about our potential disease risk. Have we handled pet birds or chickens recently? Suffered any infectious illnesses? Having answered in the negative we climb into white plastic suits that cover us from head to toe, and don disinfected plastic shoes, before stepping into the building that houses the hand-reared chicks. Then before we are allowed to step behind the plastic floor-to-ceiling curtain enclosing the chicks, we have to rinse our hands with anti-bacterial gel, switch to a

34 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

second pair of shoes, and pull a second plastic coverall over the first one. When there are only 124 birds left of a species, you don’t take any chances. The visit is well worth all this rigmarole: kakapo chicks are utterly endearing and we feel privileged to have this rare opportunity to see them up close. These six chicks are the last of a bumper crop hatched in one of the most successful breeding seasons ever: the 2009 breeding season kakapo on predator-free Whenua Hou/Codfish Island off the southern South Island produced 71 kakapo eggs. Of these 50 proved fertile, 36 hatched and 33 chicks survived. The resulting surge in the kakapo population took their numbers from just 90

to cross the magic 100 for the first time in decades, to reach a current total of 124 birds – a huge step forward in the chances of survival of the species. Twenty-six chicks were taken to Invercargill to be hand-reared as there was not enough natural food sources on Whenua Hou to support so many mother kakapo and chicks in the wild. But once they have reached an age and size at which they are deemed past the “danger period” the chicks are taken back to the island, where it is hope they will survive with the help of supplementary feeding. Kakapo Programme Manager Deidre Vercoe explains that without the intervention of the Kakapo Recovery Programme, the kakapo population would be extremely w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

DOC

unlikely to recover and the species would almost certainly become extinct. The programme is a partnership between the Department of Conservation, Forest & Bird and Rio Tinto Alcan, and aims to boost kakapo numbers to a level where this nocturnal parrot no longer hovers perilously close to extinction. The six kakapo chicks we visit in Invercargill are blissfully unaware that they represent nearly 5 per cent of the total world population of kakapo. At just 70-80 days old they are already quite big – about the size of large chooks - and their grey down has mostly been replaced by beautiful green feathers. Even on a typically cold Invercargill winter’s day, the air conditioner is still blowing cold air into the chicks’ enclosure to keep temperatures as low as they would normally experience in the wilds of southern New Zealand. They flop about and snooze on their recreated “forest floor” in the quarantine centre like a litter of puppies, and their total vulnerability to introduced predators, if unprotected, is obvious. Their ground-shuffling, whiskery, snuffling habits and fluffy appearance make them seem strangely more like mammals than birds – indeed kakapo evolved over millions of years in the absence of landdwelling mammals to fill the niche that mammals would normally occupy. Kakapo are goofy birds at the best of times, but these chicks seem to be going through an awkward adolescent stage. One, who we dub “Doofus,” bumbles about, flapping wings that will never enable him to take flight (kakapo have retained quite large wings, but not the musculature to allow flight), and waking up his napping nest-mates by walking on them. Vercoe explains that the hugely

Kakapo chicks – their vulnerability to predators is obvious as they sprawl about the “forest floor” of the hand-rearing facility.

successful breeding season meant a huge workload for programme staff and volunteers, as there were so many nests to monitor and so many parents and chicks that needed supplementary feeding and other support. The most intensive period of breeding, incubating, hatching and rearing is now over and workers can finally catch their breath long enough to reflect on their success – and plan for the next stages of the recovery programme. Vercoe says last season’s bumper year is extremely unlikely to be repeated in the coming season, as prolific breeding seasons are triggered by heavy rimu fruiting and this year that has not happened. Plus kakapo that produced chicks last year are unlikely to breed again in the next breeding season. However the recovery programme’s recent success means that Whenua Hou

is getting rather crowded, so the main focus of the programme over the coming year will be to establish a second breeding population on another offshore predatorfree haven, Anchor Island. Further work with artificial insemination, monitoring and tracking birds using transmitters and specially trained dogs, genetic research and fine-tuning of the birds’ supplementary diet will also help build a safer future for kakapo. Meanwhile Doofus is not in the slightest bit aware of the incredible amount of energy and effort that is going into securing the survival of his species. He uses his extraordinarily large feet to “climb” a branch that is about 15cm high, and still manages to fall even from this unimpressive height, and grunts gently in surprise at his unexpected crash-landing. I’m sure I’m not only imagining that I heard him exclaim “Doh!”

Hand-reared kakapo chick – nearly big enough to return to the wild.

How you can help

AKAPO Recovery Programme is a partnership between

Forest & Bird, DOC and Rio Tinto Alcan and works to save kakapo from extinction. For more information about kakapo and volunteer opportunities, or to donate to help Kakapo Recovery, go to DOC

www.kakaporecovery.org.nz

Island treasure Carolyn Smith explores a haven for rare plants and animals on Manawatawhi or Three Kings Islands off the northern-most tip of New Zealand’s mainland. The islands are home to numerous skinks and geckos.

STRUGGLE into my orange survival suit and climb, sweating from my padded encapsulation, into the awaiting helicopter. The noise is deafening as the machine winds up and makes its ascent, before crossing the 60 kilometres of ocean that separate the North Island mainland from our destination: Manawatawhi (Three Kings Islands). Before leaving we have undergone stringent biosecurity checks to protect the islands’ vulnerable inhabitants from incursions of weeds, pest animals and micro-organisms. Our food, clothes and equipment are all rigorously checked and quarantined till departure. The Three Kings come into view; a chain of islands and rocks piercing the surface of the ocean like an emerging sea serpent. At 407 hectares, Great Island is the largest and most abundant of the islands, supporting a rich variety of life, including many endemic species. The islands have been designated as a nature reserve since 1956, and the virtual absence of any introduced pests makes the Three Kings a haven for native species, most of them unique to this tiny archipelago. Tasman Bay camp, on the south-east edge of Great Island, is below us, and I hold my breath as the pilot lowers the machine down onto an impossibly small,

Manawatawhi/Three Kings Islands on a good day . . .

rocky outcrop next to the steep bluffs. I am relieved to put my feet onto the ground and finally remove my orange garb. Department of Conservation ecologist Andrew Townsend arrives on the next heli trip. He’s immediately taken with the fleshiness and size of the plants he’s seen from the air. Although the vegetation around the camp is similar to what is found on the mainland, he describes the plants as being like sumo wrestler versions of their mainland relations. We wander through the kanuka forest that surrounds the camp. After a fossick under a bit of wood, Andrew discovers two Pacific geckos, with intricately patterned, black velvety skin, as well as a huge, glossy, coppery skink (Oligosoma fallai), one of the largest skinks in New Zealand. Two are missing tails – perhaps a result of coming off second best to the fearsome centipede found on these islands. Although also found on mainland New Zealand and northern offshore islands, the centipede Cormocephalus rubriceps grows larger and more abundantly on the Three Kings. At 240 millimetres in length, with a poison-filled bite and razor-sharp pincers, this aggressive orange and black segmented creature prowls the undergrowth by night in search of prey. I will be keeping the zips of my tent firmly closed! Day one on Great Island dawns and we w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

. . . and a bad one

make our way up Bald Hill, armed with machetes to slash back the encroaching vegetation. Coprosma rhamnoides forms tight clusters of green, tangled balls and proves a challenge for my inexperienced hacking. Eminent botanist Thomas Frederick Cheeseman undertook a study of the Three Kings in the latter part of the 19th Century and recorded no Coprosma rhamnoides on Great Island at that time. Birds presumably carried the seed across from the mainland some time between 1889 and the early 1920s and today this spiky, springy bush grows in profusion across most of the island. It is nicknamed Coprosma tangleatus for its tendency to trip up unfocused trampers. The views from the top of Bald Hill make the effort and the steep hike worthwhile. Lush kanuka-clad hills curve and fold their way down to the sea. “See how the bush forms a Y shape? That’s where the original remaining Tecomanthe is,” DOC threatened plants ranger Janeen Collings points out. The tree vine Tecomanthe speciosa and Pennantia baylisiana, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s rarest tree, are both found only on Three Kings and were reduced to just a single plant of each species remaining in the wild. Years of fire and grazing by introduced animals almost wiped them out, but in 2005 a recovery w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

programme was begun. As we clear flax and toetoe from the Bald Hill heli-pad, we discover we are also causing the eviction of numerous lizards. In almost every bush, we find a skink or gecko. Now rid of the threat of cats and rodents, the islands’ vegetation is teeming with life. On day three our regular radio call to Kaitaia base brings warning of an approaching storm, but we continue on our planned mission along the Tasman track. We enter a small clearing amongst the kanuka to find the hub of the Tecomanthe and Pennantia recovery programme: a small bed of earth sustaining a handful of carefully tended cuttings. Taken from the single remaining wild plant from each of the two species, the cuttings are being nurtured for 18 months before being planted back out on the Island. Janeen says the recovery programme was driven by serious risk of extinction of these species. “A storm or a fire could have destroyed the remaining plants and then the wild population of the species would have been lost forever.” Both Pennantia and Tecomanthe are widely available in plant nurseries and are cultivated in many New Zealand gardens, but it is still considered vital to retain their wild population.

Last year Janeen planted out two Tecomanthe and one Pennantia. This trip we will be taking another two Pennantia and a Tecomanthe to new locations around the island. The goal is to eventually have more than 100 sexually Janeen Collings with the treasured Tecomanthe

Plants on Three Kings are “like sumo wrestler versions” of their mainland counterparts – the campsite can just be seen amid the vegetation.

Tecomanthe and Pennentia cuttings in the island “nursery”.

reproducing plants positioned around Great Island. Tecomanthe is a canopy vine and obtaining cuttings is very difficult, Janeen explains. Climbing their supporting trees is next to impossible, and the most successful cuttings are of semi-ripe wood – generally located far from reach. Maintaining irrigation has also been challenging – as the island can be very dry and recovery efforts rely on an irrigation system to keep the cutting bed moist throughout summer. Andrew and I have been selected as bearers of the cuttings awaiting translocation. We load our precious cargo carefully in our backpacks, well aware of the responsibility bestowed upon us. 3 8 F O R E S T & B I R D • A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

We find two good spots near a stream and plant out our consignment, lavishing the plants with water, a sprinkling of fertiliser and words of encouragement. A short distance away we enter a thick, tangly, moist grove of kanuka, mangeao, pigeonwood, Coprosma macrocarpa and the endemic Strebulis smithii. The trees reverberate with the songs of a multitude of Three Kings bellbirds. Every tree is filled with darting, bobbing green and brown shapes, as they fluff out their feathers and call to each other. A short bush-bash later we enter what Andrew describes as “the botanist’s Holy Grail”: the site of the original remaining Tecomanthe speciosa. The ancient vines twist, twirl and spiral up the trunks and

branches of supporting kanuka. In the centre stands the largest cabbage tree I’ve ever seen (Cordyline obtecta). Tecomanthe tentacles stretch across 30 square metres of forest canopy. Its creamy flowers and buds are teeming with bellbirds, dipping their heads into the trumpet-shaped flowers. Unlike its mainland counterparts, this Tecomanthe is a modest bloomer, with relatively few flowers. Janeen notices flowers ripped apart by birds. She suspects the kakariki, who regularly dart through the forest like small green and red comets, are the culprits. Andrew spots a number of low hanging vines with the right sort of material for cuttings. He snips them off and carefully stows them into zip-lock bags, ready to be placed into the cutting bed. As we head back to camp we take a detour – a 20-minute battle though dense undergrowth that brings us to a lush gully shaded by a canopy of puka, kanuka and cabbage trees, with an understory of coprosma and mahoe. Among the corprosma we discover two small Three Kings titoki. There are only three sites of this rare, endemic tree recorded on the island. Janeen puts the coordinates into her GPS, and we trudge wearily back to camp. By morning the promised storm has arrived and the camp is buffeted by wind gusts and steady rain. I creep to the edge of the bluff and look out across the sea. The waves are pummelling the rocks below and white plumes spew out across the coastline. We flag work and huddle under a tarpaulin, grateful for a hot breakfast and a dry tent. The next day the wind has dropped and the rain has eased to a drizzle, so we head up the Bayliss track through the dripping foliage. We veer off the track and head down a steep bank. The ground is riddled with seabird burrows, so we carefully place each footstep – one wrong step could mean a burrow collapsing on a bird. After navigating a safe passage we arrive at a Three Kings titoki site. The trees’ black trunks reach up through the canopy in search of light. Some appear vibrant and well-clothed in light-green foliage, while others are little more than naked trunks and stems, with only a few leaves providing a tenuous grasp on life. Janeen and Lynda McGrory-Ward, a DOC threats ranger from Kaitaia, skirt around the bank looking for new saplings and tagged trees. The close proximity of the cliff edge and jagged rocks below hampers my enthusiasm, but I overcome my apprehension and join the search. We find a large number of saplings and seedlings, prompting Andrew to pronounce that the w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

species appears to be recovering nicely. As we scramble back up the bank, Lynda spots a small vine clinging to kanuka: the native cucumber, which is in serious decline. Its leaves resemble the vegetable shop variety, but this plant contains small spiky fruit that can cause serious discomfort if they end up in your clothing. On our seventh day on the island (the fourth day of rain) an odour of wet socks hangs over the camp. I’m down to my last dry pair. With one last Pennantia cutting to be planted, we squelch our way up the track and find an open “light well” in the kanuka. After digging only a half of a metre into the soil, we hit bed rock. Janeen, unperturbed, says the shallow soil may not be a problem for Pennantia – the original

remaining plant grows on rock scree. Later Janeen and Andrew make a search for seed from the original Pennantia. It has been several years since any viable seed has been collected, so the programme has had to rely on cuttings – not ideal in promoting genetic diversity. Today the news is good: Janeen and Andrew find four seeds. Half the size of my thumb nail, the small seed encased in its purple coloured coverlet is more valuable than gold. The next morning, our last on the island, the four precious seeds are placed carefully into the cutting bed. Six months later Janeen will return to see if these tiny vessels of life have sprouted.

The sniff test

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us by helicopter to

Three Kings Islands is fox terrier Occi and his handler Miriam Richie. DOC has enlisted the services of Occi, one of only two certified rodent dogs in New Zealand, as part of its ongoing rodent monitoring programme on the islands. Although inhabited at one time by goats and pigs, the Three Kings has had no mammalian pests since goats were eradicated in 1946. Occi’s mission is to search Great Island for any unwanted new arrivals that could cause severe damage to native plants and animals. Occi is keen to get going. His body trembles with excitement at the new smells wafting around him. Miriam explains that fox terriers were bred to hunt, so this work is in his blood. Occi is also particularly agile, and will even climb trees in his hunt for rodents. Although trained to avoid birds, no chances are to be taken as Great Island

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is home to a wide variety of nesting seabirds, so for this trip Occi is required to wear a muzzle. At the end of the day the little dog stetches out on the ground, exhausted. It’s been a busy day, but the good news is that no rodents have been detected

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by Occi’s expert nose.

w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Helen Bain

The hunter who loves birds

Paul Cutfield shows native seeds which are plentiful on the forest floor.

Helen Bain meets hunter and conservationist Paul Cutfield

AUL Cutfield has been a hunter all his life. But for Paul, watching a fantail flit through the forest branches and land briefly on his shoulder, before dancing away again, is as much part of the hunting experience as bringing home venison for the freezer. His steep hill farm, Homeburn, borders the Aorangi Forest Park in the south-eastern corner of Wairarapa. As well as being a Department of Conservation-managed forest park, it is also a recreational hunting area, an area established by DOC where recreational hunting is used (though not exclusively) to control wild animal numbers. Paul is an enthusiastic supporter of both hunting and conservation, and is spokesman for a group of Aorangi deerhunters who have developed a plan to “bring the birds back” to the forest park, largely through a pest control programme to reduce rodents and possums. Paul and fellow hunters, alongside the local

40 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

community and environmental groups, will carry out the pest control and monitor its success. The group proposes to focus initially on a 1000-hectare block of forest – a mix of lowland and upland forest, reaching from river flats up the steep slopes of the ranges behind. After trialling the project here, it is hoped that eventually the project could cover 17,000ha of forest. Forest & Bird Lower North Island Field Officer Aalbert Rebergen says he doesn’t know of any area of similar lowland forest anywhere else in Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay. Most of New Zealand’s lowland forests were cleared long ago to make way for grazing and development – most of our remaining forest is on our mountain ranges. But somehow this lowland block has been spared. The forest that Paul’s group hopes to protect includes rewarewa, hinau, black and white maire, mahoe, ngaio, kamahi, hoheria and titoki, with some karaka, rata

and totara. In places the forest understorey is dense, and masses of kawakawa and rewarewa seedlings have sprung up, and fungi and native orchids can be seen. When the kowhai is flowering here it is a mass of gold, Paul says. The diversity of native fruit and seedbearing trees feed a variety of native birdlife – as farmer Paul puts it “it has good stockcarrying capacity for birds”. During our visit we saw and heard tui, kereru,whiteheads, grey warblers, fantails and bellbirds. Paul says there are also karearea (native falcon), kaka, shining and long-tailed cuckoos, shags, herons and rifleman here. In the earth and leaf litter on the forest floor we saw masses of seeds and berries that had fallen from the mature trees, or been distributed by birds. Paul says the amount of fruit on the trees was noticeably greater following pest control operations. However in other places we saw signs of deer and pigs, and Aalbert suspects they may be hindering regeneration of some of w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Helen Bain

Lowland forest, Aorangi Forest Park

forest is just stunning.” Paul says he “started out anti-1080” but the more he experienced in the outdoors and learned about the science supporting its use, the more convinced he became that it was not the great evil its opponents claimed. He says hunters will trust someone like him, a fellow hunter, supporting the use of 1080 with deer repellent, much more than they will listen to an environmentalist or government “shiny-arse from Wellington” telling them what to do. Paul says 99% of deer are shot in just 10% of catchments. If deer repellent was used on 1080 baits in just those areas, most deerhunters would be happy to support 1080 operations everywhere else without repellent. Officially – in terms of national policy of the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association – deerhunters are opposed to the use of any poison, including 1080, to control “game animals,” but clearly not all deerhunters go along with this. A meeting of deerhunters from around the lower North Island earlier this year agreed to support 1080 in Aorangi Forest Park with the proviso that deer repellent is used in key hunting areas. Forest &

Bird doesn’t generally support use of deer repellent as it believes deer are also pests, but limited use of repellent is a compromise it could live with if it means forests benefit from effective pest control. Paul believes the project in the Aorangi Forest Park will help break down barriers between deerhunters and environmentalists. “When you do stuff together you break down barriers and form bonds. The only way to break down prejudices is to work together.” Where many conservationists and deerhunters differ is the very way in which they view the presence of deer in New Zealand forests: a pest to be exterminated, or a food and recreation resource. Yet Paul acknowledges that deer, especially in high numbers, are detrimental to forest health, browsing the more palatable species and therefore reducing the diversity of forests and changing their character. He says that’s where hunting, in combination with pest control operations (including 1080) can keep numbers of deer and other introduced species low, so they will do less harm. Finding that middle Young seedlings regenerating in Aorangi Forest Park.

Aalbert Rebergen

the more palatable plant species, such as hinau and titoki. Paul says deerhunters witnessed the birdlife return to the forest park following 1080 operations in 2006, so have an appreciation of how pest control is effective in protecting forest birds. “A lot of hunters commented on how many birds there were afterwards, it was amazing. You could see a big change. “The number of birds just exploded, especially tui and kereru. You used to hardly see any juvenile kereru but suddenly you started to see whole flocks of them. And there is heaps of noise,” Paul says, pausing as a tui calls so loudly it interrupts him. “It is so noticeable it is undeniable.” Paul has enjoyed the outdoors since he was a child, and has been both a recreational and commercial hunter of deer and possums. He has also visited offshore havens such as the Auckland and Campbell Islands, so he has seen forests as they might once have been on the mainland, before pests took their toll. “The vegetation on those islands is so dense and tight the canopy looks like a cauliflower. As soon as you have the possums here you don’t get that – the forest has much more open space, more gaps in it. You can just see the forest is not as healthy.” In the 30 years he has farmed at Homeburn, his appreciation of native birdlife has grown. He says with increasing age his mind is turning more and more to how he can help “put something back.” Paul has little patience with many deerhunters’ “phobia” about the use of 1080 to protect native species from introduced predators. He says hunters who oppose 1080 claim to be concerned about toxins in the environment, but their concerns are really about the by-kill of deer in 1080 operations (which Paul believes is minimal with deer repellent). “People will dream up anything against 1080 but they would admit that really it’s about the deer, if they are being honest. “The anti-1080 people will tell you it is some horrendous chemical that will sneak in and kill you in your bed at night, but it is simply not true. The whole anti-1080 argument is surrounded by ignorance, and it thrives on ignorance. “People say it builds up in the environment, that it kills everything – it is just a crock of s**t, simple as that. Yes, you have incidental bits of by-kill, but six months down the track the recovery of the

Helen Bain

Paul Cutfield debates forest restoration with Forest & Bird Field Officer Aalbert Rebergen.

ground is something that both groups will have to work on, he says. Conservationists and deer hunters aren’t a million miles apart – most deerhunters, inlcuding himself, are conservationists, he reckons. “Absolutely I’m a conservationist – the whole nine yards. I defy anyone who goes out in the New Zealand outdoors not to gravitate towards conservation. You go from being a 17-year-old who just wants to blow everything away to enjoying the things around you like the birds and the trees. I’d be bloody miserable without the birds!” “[Hunters and conservationists] have 10 times more things in common than we have dividing us. That’s got to be a good start.”

Poison puha? Researchers have found – almost by accident – that 1080 may be naturally present in puha.

HE Animal Health Board funded research by Lincoln University, Landcare Research, Tühoe and Ngäi Tahu to look at the uptake and persistence of 1080 in pühä and watercress. The pühä study was done at Lake Waikaremoana, and the watercress study in Kaikoura. At Lake Waikaremoana, a 1080 bait was laid at the base of eight pühä plants, and a non-toxic bait laid below two more plants to allow comparison. Before and after the baits were laid, a sample was taken from each plant, and sent for laboratory analysis of 1080 content. At Kaikoura, a 100-metre section of a spring-fed stream with abundant watercress was divided into 10 sections and a 1080 bait was placed in a wire-mesh cage in each section. Plant samples were taken and sent for 1080 analysis. The results showed that both pühä and watercress took up 1080 released from the bait. In pühä, the maximum concentration was 15 parts per billion (ppb), three days after the baits were laid. By the end of the sampling, at day 38, the 1080 concentration had decreased to below the laboratory method detection limit (MDL) of 3 ppb. However, on closer scrutiny of the data, 59 of the 60 pühä samples showed trace

42 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

levels of 1080 near the MDL. This included samples from plants taken before the bait was laid, and from the plants with nontoxic baits – this suggests that pühä could naturally contain trace amounts of 1080. Lincoln University Senior Lecturer Shaun Ogilvie says 1080 occurs naturally in other plant species around the world (including tea), but this is the first time it has been indicated in a plant species in New Zealand. Dr Ogilvie says the finding has important implications for Mäori and the scientific community. “Pühä has been used as a food source for a very long time. While the amount of 1080 in pühä is at extremely low concentrations, detecting 1080 in pühä has caused the Mäori researchers in the team to revisit thinking on 1080, and on 1080 use for possum control.” “For the wider scientific community, the indication of 1080 in a New Zealand plant is

an interesting discovery, worthy of further exploration into other plant species.” The maximum 1080 concentration measured in watercress was 63 ppb on day 7. No further 1080 was detected after this, indicating that the 1080 was quickly eliminated from watercress. There was no evidence that 1080 naturally occurs in watercress. At the maximum 1080 concentration of 15 ppb seen in pühä, a 70-kilogram person would need to eat 9.3 tonnes of the affected pühä in a single sitting to have a 50 per cent chance of dying of 1080 poisoning. For the maximum observed watercress concentration of 63 ppb, 2.2 tonnes would need to be eaten. This led the research team to conclude that there was negligible risk of humans being poisoned by 1080 through the consumption of pühä or watercress after an aerial 1080 pest control operation.

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A shared struggle – conservation in Hawaii and New Zealand

Aliscia Young

David Young finds conservation parallels with New Zealand on the other side of the Pacific.

ONSIDER a Pacific archipelago of moderately-sized and small islands, volcanic in origin and uninhabited until late in human history. The first wave of arrivals was of Polynesian settlers, who triggered forest loss and animal extinctions, followed by another wave, largely of Europeans, from the early 1800s. Today this country struggles to protect its unique indigenous flora and fauna from invasive exotic plants and predators. The undesirables include the usual array of suspects: rats, cats, deer, goats, pigs and wallabies. No indigenous terrestrial mammals lived here, save a native bat that originally flew in, as did nearly all progenitors of native bird and insect life. The endemic animals that evolved therefore had no adaptations that would provide a defence against mammalian predators – making them highly vulnerable when predators later arrived. The archipelago is also home to seals that were hunted to near-extinction early in the 19th Century. The trajectory of the humpbacked whale’s depletion and its recent, clawed-back recovery in this archipelago’s Exclusive Economic Zone w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Hawaii’s forest are threatened by invasions of introduced pests and plants.

follows a similar arc. If all this sounds terribly familiar to Forest & Bird readers, the surprise is that these particular islands are not, as you might expect, New Zealand, but are 7000 kilometres, or an eight-hour plane flight, from our shores. Hawaii, the 50th state of the Union, north of the equator, has so many conservation parallels with its southern Polynesian cousin it is difficult to fathom why mutual awareness of our shared problems – and possible solutions – is not greater. The most obvious introduced predator in Oahu (home to 70% of Hawaiians) is the mongoose. Known as the snake-charming character Rikitikitavi to readers of Rudyard Kipling, this species, rejoicing in the name of Herpestes javanicus, is a native of India. It is only a matter of luck that New Zealand avoided the scourge of the mongoose – they were introduced to Nelson in the late 19th Century but thankfully perished. However, the mongoose shares the the cunning, speed and tenacity of New Zealand’s introduced mustelids – ferrets, weasels and stoats – menacing ground birds, turtles and other creatures to

O’o (Moho nobilis)

similarly devastating effect. The history in which New Zealand got its mustelids and Hawaii its mongooses is startlingly similar. In Aotearoa mustelids were brought in against the express advice of naturalists in the hope that they would help farmers plagued with introduced rabbits. Sugar planters in Hawaii seeking to rid their crops of rat infestations also FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Aliscia Young

This gecko is common in Hawaii but originates in Madagascar.

imported the mongoose against advice to the contrary. In 1883, 72 mongooses were shipped to the island of Hawaii and later to Maui, Molokai and Oahu, where their numerous descendants remain. Simultaneously (in 1882) the New Zealand Government was importing its first batches of mustelids, and declaring them protected – thus ensuring a rapid diminution in populations of both rabbits (temporary) and the dawn chorus of our native birds (permanent). Our shared history goes much further back. Shore and land birds of both countries had already shown a marked impact when the Polynesian forebears of the Hawaiians arrived on their shores, originally about 400 AD, and in a later migration around 1250. To New Zealand conservationists, the levels of loss of indigenous wildlife suffered in Hawaii is all too familiar. Of Hawaii’s pre-human population of some 125 endemic bird species, about half were extinct by 1778. Since Europeans arrived another 25 birds have, as they say in Hawaii, “gone extinct”. New Zealand’s history of Polynesian and European settlement also brought massive ecological losses. By the time of Cook’s voyages from 1769 (the Yorkshireman also “discovered” Hawaii) scientists believe New Zealand had lost at least 30 land and freshwater birds from 132 known species, as well as one lizard, one bat and a number of invertebrates. Since European contact, another 21 birds are known to have become extinct. Apart from their rats and dogs, the voyaging Hawaiians succeeded where the colonizers of Aotearoa did not in importing the pig and chicken, and the taro, in which they invested considerable effort and clearance of land. In doing so they ensured the growth and prosperity of their people – but at an ecological cost. This history of loss leaves Hawaiian 44 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

conservation with a slew of endangered birds. One, the koloa, is often described in the same ornithological breath as the whio, New Zealand’s endangered blue duck. I saw a pair of koloa in an inlet behind big surf on Oahu’s north shore, a wetland that the Audubon Society has helped protect (both New Zealand and Hawaii have lost a massive proportion of their wetlands). The koloa were paired and territorial like whio – though, to my mind at least, not quite as beautiful. They are also groundnesting with similar brooding and rearing habits and habitats, with all the vulnerability of the whio to introduced predators. Being mountainous and therefore less at risk from farming, approximately one third of Hawaii’s pre-Polynesian forests remain – exactly the same proportion of pristine forest that is left in New Zealand. Hawaii is plagued with invasive plants on a scale that New Zealanders are fortunate to have at least mostly avoided. Some plants, like mango, ginger and guava, while often attractive, take over entire ecosystems, looking to an outsider like native forest. Where giant podocarps once grew in New Zealand, native understorey will regenerate, given half a chance. In Hawaii, too often the great hardwoods are replaced by bamboo and breadfruit. The usual tensions between preservationists and indigenous aspirations to manage the lands of their tupuna in culturally sustainable ways appear as sharply on these islands as in Aotearoa. From the 1970s Hawaiians became as exercised to assert their rights as were Maori. The difference has been that Maori had a treaty and – belatedly – a treaty system which has delivered some reparation for their losses. Hawaiians have not been as fortunate, having been duped out of their lands in ways that, at least till quite recently, have left most without either lands or rights.

I have noted the extensive loss of species that Polynesian settlement of both Hawaii and New Zealand contributed to. What is less understood is how birds that were highly prized and taken in considerable numbers by the indigenous people of both places nevertheless continued to flourish deep into the postcontact period. In Hawaii the o’o (Moho noblilis), a small yellow and black-feathered bird dwelling on Kaua’I, was last heard shortly before a hurricane in the 1980s, and the yellow akialoa was last sighted on Kaua’i in 1965. Both were harvested in large numbers by Hawaiians for use in highly prized feather cloaks. DNA scientist Jim Groombridge writes that the DNA extracted from o’o feathers in old cloaks contained less diversity, which it was believed reflected a lengthier demographic decline rather than more recent and rapid decline due to hunting pressure by feather collectors. Apart from the honey-eating, insectivorous akialoa’s distinctive long, thin, curving beak, its service to the chiefly class for ornamentation reminds a New Zealander of the huia, which, like the akialoa was also loved for its beautiful, tell-tale call. The huia was last heard about 50 years before the last cry of the akialoa. It too survived cultural harvest for many centuries before the second wave of colonizers reduced habitat and increased pressure on the bird. Such post-contact losses, I believe, are important considerations for the longrunning “Wai 262” Waitangi Tribunal claim, widely known as the “flora and fauna” claim, which asserts that the Crown has usurped the exercise of traditional Maori protection, use and management of indigenous flora and fauna through tino rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga. Many of the species recovery and restoration measures familiar to New Zealanders are also found in Hawaii. While New Zealand’s large-scale predator-prooffenced “mainland islands” have yet to be adopted in Hawaii, fenced “exclosures” of areas to keep out pigs, deer and sheep are quite common. Community restoration efforts are evident in many places, and as they develop people are beginning to find ways to work with tangata whenua, just as they are in New Zealand. So while New Zealand and Hawaii may share many unfortunate aspects of their conservation history, they also share many of the solutions. David Young was 2008 FulbrightCreative New Zealand writer in residence at the University of Hawaii, where he was researching freshwater traditions in the Pacific. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Pests in Paradise Helen Bain talks to a New Zealander who is leading the charge in the Pacific war on rats.

Norway rat

A Ship rat

Tim Galloway

Kiore (Pacific rat)

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SK BirdLife’s Steve Cranwell how many rats there are in the Pacific and he just gives a long whistle and shakes his head at the magnitude of the problem. In short, rats are everywhere. Where humans went, rats went; as human migration spread out across the Pacific over thousands of years, so too went rats. No one has made an estimate of how many billions of rats there are in the Pacific, but rats certainly outnumber humans, perhaps thousands-fold. Cranwell, who is Birdlife’s Seabird Programme Manager based in Fiji, says there would not be an island anywhere in the Pacific that has escaped the presence of rats. Their prevalence varies. In some places, such as Naqelelevu, in the Ringgold Islands to the north of Fiji, conservationists found more than 100 rats in an area measuring just 10 by 10 metres. “On some remote islands you would set rat traps and walk away to a chorus of traps snapping shut. In a village you could be sitting down eating a meal and just see rats running around,” Cranwell recalls. The main threat to many of the Pacific’s most rare and endangered birds is rats, and Cranwell has come to know his enemy well. Three main species of rat have invaded the Pacific. The most numerous, longestablished and widespread species is the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) which came with the earliest migration from Asia into the Pacific, and is about the size of a large mouse. Some believe the Pacific rat was deliberately brought with migrants as a food source but it is now more widely accepted that Pacific rats were more likely to have been accidental stowaways. FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Birdlife International

Rimatora lorikeet. Eradicating rats is crucial for the protection of island birds like these.

The Pacific is also home to the black rat (Rattus rattus) and while less widespread it still causes the greatest ecological harm. Because black rats are excellent swimmers and climbers and voracious predators, they have a huge impact on birds and other native wildlife such as lizards and invertebrates. Then there is the biggest of the Pacific’s rats, the ship rat (Rattus norvegicus), also known as the Norwegian rat, that is found mainly in areas of intensive human habitation and measures about 25cm in length, not counting the tail. The Pacific’s wildlife has suffered from the predations of a range of introduced pests, including cats, dogs, mongooses, and pigs – and the brown tree snake, which has almost single-handedly (if snakes can be said to have a hand in 46 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

anything) brought about the complete collapse of Guam’s birdlife. But none, Cranwell reckons, have had as much impact on indigenous wildlife as the rat. “The thing with rats is they are everywhere. No other predator is as widespread as the rat.” Rats eat birds’ eggs and chicks, and in the case of smaller species, the adult birds too. Ground and burrownesting birds, among them many of the Pacific’s unique seabirds, are particularly vulnerable. Predation is the main threat, but rats also compete with native species for food sources such as fruit, berries and insects. It is hard to know the full extent of the toll rats have taken on Pacific birdlife over thousands of years, but research indicates that bird populations in the region today

are much, much smaller in range and numbers than they were when humans – and rats – first arrived. Rats have certainly contributed to the decline of birds such as a the Fiji petrel, now critically endangered with just a handful of birds still alive, or the related Becks petrel in Papua New Guinea, which was only recently rediscovered after not being seen for 30 years. Other species like the Polynesian storm petrel are much less numerous than in the past, while other species have become extinct, largely due to predation. And rat invasions, bringing renewed devastation, continue to this day. After a fishing boat from Asia ploughed into an island in Kiribati, rats on board the ship went ashore and immediately set to work annihilating white-bellied storm petrels – in the following decade their population fell from a colony of more than 100,000 to just tens of birds. Now Cranwell is tackling the Herculean task of turning back the Pacific’s tide of rats – well, at least some of them. BirdLife and its Pacific partners aim to eradicate rats from small islands to provide safe havens for vulnerable birds, such as brown and black noddies, tropicbirds, boobies, Fiji petrels, frigatebirds and several species of terns. In Fiji BirdLife is working to protect seabirds through rat eradication on a group of seven islands in the Ringgold group, about 200km north of Fiji’s main islands, and Mabualau Island, off the coast of Viti Levu. On some of the hundreds of islands within New Caledonia’s massive fringing reef BirdLife is conducting rat eradication to try to rebuild populations of species such as the Polynesian storm petrel and the fairy tern, which have undergone huge decline. So far, eradication has been carried out on more than a dozen islands, hopefully securing a safer future for many endemic species. Eradication involves laying poison baits, either distributed by hand if the area is relatively small and accessible, or by helicopter, accurately targeting areas with global positioning systems, if the terrain or location makes ground operations too difficult or expensive. Cranwell, a New Zealander, says the Kiwi experience in eradicating pests from offshore islands has been vital in establishing the most effective means of eradication on islands across the Pacific. Sometimes the pestbusters are dealing with specifically Pacific problems – like how to avoid the region’s many crabs from taking poison baits meant for rats – but essentially techniques are the same. Workers follow up with monitoring to w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Phil Bender/Birdlife International

Blue lorikeet (above) and Polynesian Ground dove (below) – vulnerable to predation by rats on Pacific islands.

partners and funding from donors in other parts of the world. Almost all the rat eradication has been funded at a cost of nearly $US1 million by the US-based David and Lucile Packard Foundation. “It has been a challenge but it is hugely achievable,” Cranwell says. The people involved are very enthusiastic and very skilled and we can pull it all together. The need for this work has been recognised in the Pacific for years and years but it failed to find traction because people found it was just too difficult and too big. So what we have managed to pull off is a huge achievement and will hopefully set a good foundation to do even more.”

Helen Bain

Birdlife International

detect any surviving rats – if things go according to plan they can declare an island rat-free within a year. So far one Fijian island, Vatu-i-ra, a three-hectare island that is home to thousands of seabirds, has been declared rat-free, following eradication operations in 2006. It is still too early to determine how effective rat eradication will be in restoring seabird populations, but Cranwell is optimistic. “We think bird populations may be recovering. For example, on Vatu-i-Ra there are nesting colonies of crested terns and black-naped terns that weren’t seen previously. We can’t say that is definitely due to the eradication but it looks promising. “Rat eradication is new for the tropics and it is a long way to go before I can put my hand on my heart and know what the consequences will be, other than that we can be certain that removing a major predator from these islands will have a benefit.” Cranwell works with communities to ensure that local people feel a sense of ownership of the programme. “We can’t just helicopter in, do the job and then bugger off. We need local communities to be involved, and support what we are doing long-term. You can’t just say ‘OK, we’ve eradicated rats, finished,’ because if you just leave it the rats will return.” Follow-up work, including monitoring, preparedness to deal with re-invasions, and education of local communities and tourists about avoiding accidental re-introduction of rats, is crucial to the ongoing success of eradications, Cranwell says. It is, he admits, a daunting task, targeting islands so far-flung that the eradication sites range from the easternmost to the western-most reaches of the Pacific. Remote locations reached only by sea and often limited infrastructure mean logistics can be extremely challenging. As government funding for conservation projects within the Pacific is virtually non-existent, BirdLife has been reliant on its non-government organisation

BirdLife International “Rat Man” Steve Cranwell – waging war on the Pacific’s rats.

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FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Jenny and Tony Enderby discover giant boarfish returning to our northern marine reserves – a sign that marine protection is working

ORAGING in the sand only five metres away is a very large fish. Its extended nose and the pattern on its flank make it easy to identify as a female giant boarfish (Paristiopterus labiosus). It virtually ignores me and continues to forage in the sand. A tiny trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex) swims alongside it and occasionally nips at the larger fish’s flanks as it removes small parasites. Giant boarfish are not uncommon but are usually seen on the sand near reefs at about 20 metres or deeper. What is different about this one is that it is in less than six metres of water. We first noticed giant boarfish in shallow water about five years ago with most sightings between March and June. Since then our encounters with them in the shallows have gradually increased, but only in the Cape Rodney – Okakari Point Marine Reserve (also known as Goat Island) north of Auckland, and to a lesser extent in the Tawharanui Marine Park. We began to question whether this appearance was due to the longestablished protection of both sites the Goat Island reserve is New Zealand’s oldest marine reserve. Possibly giant

48 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

boarfish were once common in the shallows but fishing pressures gradually saw a retreat to deeper water. There are stories of hapuku (Polyprion oxygeneios), now classed as a deep water fish, once being caught by fishermen around Leigh in comparatively shallow water. Maybe the return of giant boarfish is a prelude to fish like the hapuku returning to the marine reserve, albeit some 35 years after it was established. We’re not the only ones to notice their comeback. Over summer many of the school snorkel groups and passengers on the glass-bottom boat that takes tours in the marine reserve have enjoyed the sight of giant boarfish at Goat Island. Three species of boarfish are found in coastal New Zealand waters. The giant boarfish has the greatest range, from the Three Kings Islands 60km north off the northernmost tip of New Zealand’s mainland, to Foveaux Strait in the south. Its relation the long-finned boarfish (Zanclistius elevatus) is found from Cape Reinga to Cook Strait but is more common in the north around offshore islands. The striped boarfish (Evistias acutirostris) is best known in the remote,

jenny and Tony Enderby

The boarfish return

sub-tropical Kermadec Islands north of New Zealand, but in recent years it has been occasionally sighted around offshore islands as far south as White Island in the Bay of Plenty. I continue to follow the giant boarfish across the sand at Goat Island. Every so often it stops and digs in the sand with its extended snout. Giant boarfish eat a range of invertebrates including crabs, worms, bivalves, brittle stars and sea cucumbers. I accompany the giant boarfish for 20 minutes – all the while the small trevally still scurries along with it, riding the slipstream of the larger fish. When a school of parore (Girella tricuspidata) come close, the boarfish extends its pectoral fins and faces them in what seems to be a threat display and the parore quickly move away. This boarfish, at nearly a metre in length, is among the largest I have seen – and the most approachable. In the past, on some of Goat Island’s deep reefs and near Leigh Reef, divers have seen large schools of both male and female boarfish. The males are patterned with yellow dots on the darker upper body, while the female has two distinct rows of irregular w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

brown patterns against a silver body. The young fish have a much steeper head, which gradually elongates as the fish matures. Schools of 20 small boarfish have been seen on the sand near the south-east tip of Goat Island and near Tabletop Reef, which is also in the marine reserve. My encounter comes to an end as the boarfish becomes aware of the divers and snorkellers around us as we near the beach. It speeds up, the tiny trevally still accompanying it, and vanishes across the sand bottom. Given the success of other species in the marine reserve it’s not hard to imagine that the protection of the ban on fishing within the reserve will bring a further increase in giant boarfish numbers. Maybe a fish we never saw here when snorkelling and spearfishing more than 30 years ago will be around for snorkellers and divers to see 30 years into the future.

Cape Rodney – Okakari Point Marine Reserve

Goat Island (Motu Hawere)

Leigh Recreation Reserve

To Pakiri/ Wellsford

Marine Reserve

DOC Public Reserve

Leigh

1 kilometre

To S.H. 1/Warkworth/Whangarei/Auckland

Marine reserves • A marine reserve is an area of ocean and shore that is protected, just like some areas are protected in national parks on land. Inside a marine reserve people cannot fish or take living things, or disturb the marine habitat and marine life. They can still enjoy activities that don’t harm marine life, such as boating, kayaking, swimming and snorkelling.

• Marine reserves allow fish and other marine life to be replenished so their populations can recover.

• There are now more than 33 marine reserves protecting

• To find out more about Cape Rodney – Okakari Point Marine Reserve go to www.doc.govt.nz

• To find out more about Forest & Bird’s We Love Marine Reserves campaign (and how you can help) go to www.forestandbird.org.nz.

jenny and Tony Enderby

New Zealand waters. Together these reserves protect just 0.3% of our total marine environment and just

7.6% of New Zealand’s coastal waters (our two largest marine reserves surround offshore islands, Auckland and Kermadec Islands, and account for 99% of our protected sea-area.) Forest & Bird wants to see 10% of our waters protected in marine reserves by 2010 and 30% by 2020.

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FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Paul Schilov

goingplaces

Tiritiri Matangi Island – Conservation lifeboat Marina Skinner visits Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf and discovers an island treasure trove of wildlife.

JOIN the ferry to Tiritiri Matangi at Gulf Harbour, north of Auckland, and my journey to a conservation experiment begins. “In May 1984 two launch loads of Waiheke Forest & Bird members made a stormy crossing to Tiri,” Mike Lee recalls. Lee, who set up Forest & Bird’s Waiheke branch and is now Auckland Regional Council chairman, organised the first volunteer planting expedition to Tiritiri. “Despite high winds and torrential rain … the volunteers managed to plant 2000 trees,” he wrote in the November 1987 Forest & Bird magazine. Twenty-five years later, I’m a daytripper enjoying the results of those planting pioneers’ labours. It’s humbling to contemplate the daunting project they took on.

Takahe “potter around like pigeons at a city park” on Tiritiri Matangi.

“When I first set foot on Tiritiri it was mainly covered in rank grass,” Lee says. “There were a few copses in the damp valleys of pohutukawa, puriri and kohekohe – it was very limited. “I was naively optimistic about the planting project. I was still a ship’s officer and I’d go past Tiritiri and scan it anxiously to see how the trees had grown,” he says. And the trees did grow – 300,000 planted over 25 years by volunteers, including many from Forest & Bird’s North Shore branch. The island is now 60 per cent revegetated and the rest will be left as grassland for such species as takahe. Once the last pest – the kiore – was removed in 1993, invertebrate numbers exploded and plants began to self-seed. “That was the re-ignition of an ecological

Marina Skinner

Visitors can reach Tiritiri Matangi by ferry from Auckland.

50 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

process – everything slowly came to life,” Lee says. Volunteers are still the lifeblood of Tiritiri. Guide Kathryn Jones is one of many who show visitors around the island. She gathers a group at the jetty and we follow her along Hobbs Beach track, skirting the sand and ice-clear water. She stops to point out a little blue penguin at home in its nest box. From Hobbs Beach – where 50-60 boats can be moored during summer – we hear, then see our first saddleback of the day. As we turn on to the Kawerau Track a whitehead is poking around for insects in the grass and leaf litter beside the track. This is one of the island’s few patches of original forest, and the kohekohe’s perfect white blooms are just opening. Bellbirds and hihi are in a feeding frenzy at a sugar water station beside the track. Tui are reduced to observer status as the small birds flit in and out of the tight-fitting feeding station holes. The first birds returned to Tiritiri were red-crowned kakariki in 1974. Since then 11 more species have been introduced, with the first saddlebacks arriving in 1984 and kokako in 1997. The latest migrants are riflemen, with 31 arriving in February. Tuatara have been in residence since 2003. The island has pretty much all the bird species it can handle, though it may yet host some tomtits. Five years ago w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Marina Skinner

32 tomtits were translocated from the Hunua Ranges but promptly disappeared – at least one flew the 55 kilometres back home – but a second attempt may have better luck. Giant weta and other invertebrates are also on the translocation wish list, long-time Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi member Simon Fordham says. As we emerge from the tree cover on to Ridge Road, the island is not living up to its Maori name, which alludes to its wind-swept nature. To the north-east we can see Great Barrier Island and the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula. We follow Ridge Road towards the visitor centre, and a harrier hawk in the grass beside the road worries guide Kathryn – hawks prey on precious kokako. In front of the visitor centre and lighthouse the green slope is dotted with blue-feathered bodies of different sizes poking in the grass – pukeko and takahe. It’s an extraordinary spectacle to see takahe – a species thought extinct just 60 years ago – pottering about like pigeons at a city park. Sixteen-year-old takahe Greg has learnt that persistence can bring the reward of a visitor’s sandwich. My animal-loving friend, Pip, can’t resist dropping a few crumbs his way, and her punishment is full-scale harassment. When Pip and Greg are wrestling over a plastic bag, it’s time to finish lunch. Greg eventually turns to chasing Cheesecake in what a Tiritiri guide explains is pre-mating behaviour. My one request to Kathryn is that she finds me a kokako while I’m on Tiritiri, and I notice her frantic waving from beside the visitor centre birdbath. There’s a juvenile kokako – with lilac wattles instead of the adult blue – frolicking in the water. I’ve seen so many saddlebacks and hihi on Tiritiri that I’m becoming blase about birds that are never seen on my usual bush walks. As we return to the jetty along Wattle Track – where the Australian

The island’s lighthouse.

wattles already there 25 years ago were encouraged as a winter food for honeyeaters – we stop beside bellbirds splashing in a birdbath. We watch them from a park bench cocooned by growing manuka, cabbage trees, karo and mahoe. Before long growth of the canopy trees will block the view of Rangitoto we have now. Not one plant in this junior forest was here 25 years ago and it’s hard to picture the volunteers with their spades and bagged seedlings being buffeted by the wind on an exposed, grassy slope.

Paul Schilov

Native forest reaches right down to the shoreline.

Aerial photographs show how reforestation has cloaked the island in green over the last quarter century.

goingplaces Getting there:

IRITIRI Matangi Island is 30km north-east of Auckland city and 4km from the end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Maori lived on the island from the 14th Century and it was farmed from the 1850s to the 1970s. Human inhabitants removed 94% of the island’s native forest. It is now a scientific reserve and an open sanctuary managed by the Department of Conservation with the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi. The cheapest way to get there is by ferry from Gulf Harbour – $39 return for adults. You can also board the ferry at downtown Auckland. A walk guided by a volunteer costs $5. The ferry operates from Wed-Sun for most of the year. To book: www.360discovery.co.nz

Tiritiri Matangi Island

Army Bay Shakespear Park Whangaparaoa

Browns Bay Albany

Motutapu Island

Private boats are allowed to land. Accommodation: Visitors can stay at a bunkhouse near the visitor centre. Bookings are essential: http://booking.doc.govt.nz

North Shore

Rangitoto Island

Hot and cold drinks are available at the visitor centre but food is BYO. More information: www.tiritirimatangi.org.nz

Mike Lee – Tiritiri pioneer

ike Lee returns to his seafaring days when he talks about the island’s future. “Tiritiri still hasn’t fulfilled its destiny. It’s like a lifeboat with survivors. They need to be transferred again to repopulate other areas. Tiritiri is not meant to be a museum or a zoo.” He sees this lifeboat or Noah’s ark of endangered species charting a course to other Gulf islands Rangitoto and Motutapu. The first brodifacoum has been dropped on the islands the day we speak in the first step of a restoration project that’s even more ambitious than Tiritiri’s. “They are 20 times the size of Tiritiri and are much closer to Auckland city, and there’s an amazing diversity of habitat,” he says. “Rangitoto and Motutapu need to be repopulated with birds and lizards from Tiritiri.” Projects around New Zealand have learnt from the Tiritiri experience, and Lee thinks few mistakes were made – possibly some trees were planted too closely together; perhaps too many pohutukawa were planted. “A lot of people put in a lot of work – much more than me. For all the people that worked so hard they must have tremendous satisfaction at what they have achieved. Forest & Bird can take a lot of credit for that because its members were inspirational.”

52 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

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Young Forest&Bird

RANGATAHI

Kiwi: Dick Veich, Ruru: Ian Gill/DOC

Mistletoe rescue In the rural blocks of the Wairarapa hundreds of native tree seedlings sit in a disused pig pen waiting to be planted.

ACH seedling has been carefully nurtured by Luke Easton, 17, who has built on his interest in conservation that was first instilled in him by watching David Attenborough and the Crocodile Hunter as a child. It would be rare to find Luke sitting in front of a TV these days. Instead he is growing native plants for restoring a patch of native bush on a nearby farm, representing the Wairarapa College Enviro Club and investigating the secret life of the leafless mistletoe. Luke’s interest in conservation gained him a place this year at the Sir Peter Blake Trust Youth Environment Forum, where he found himself among a group of like-minded teenagers. The young participants had a wealth of ideas that helped Luke focus on his goals to do his part for conservation. With his newfound environmental knowledge and useful contacts he set about putting his conservation ideas into action. A chat at a Christmas party with local farmer Tim Loe was the catalyst for what Luke’s major conservation project, restoring a fenced-off patch of native bush on the Loe’s farm. The area is home to a small population of an unassuming leafless mistletoe, Korthalsella lindsayi, a tiny parasitic plant that grows only about five centimetres long, and relies on bigger trees to act as host plants. The project aims to provide more host trees for the mistletoe, which could potentially disappear from the area if the bush was not restored with a range of host plants, like kowhai and coprosma. Luke has set up a small native plant nursery at home in Featherston where he grows forest plants like titoki, totara, cabbage trees and kowhai. His project hasn’t been without its challenges, such w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Leafless mistletoe – in safe hands thanks to Luke Easton.

Luke Easton and his rat victims

as attacks by marauding sheep from neighbouring paddocks – a healthy crop of karaka plants fell victim when Luke’s dad left the gate open. Night raids by rats have also posed problems. Rats enjoy eating newly sown seeds and dug up young tree fuchsias – Luke has since become an expert at rat trapping. Luke has spent upwards of $500 on materials like potting mix and trays for the project. He also invested in a pop-up green house; unfortunately it blew down in a storm before it could be of much use. Despite such setbacks his first lot of plants

are set to go in the ground at the Loe’s farm this winter. Luke is keen to pursue his interest in conservation and the environment by studying zoology and ecology at Otago University. Jenny Lynch Interested in going to the Youth Environment Forum next year? To find out more go to: www.sirpeterblaketrust.org/programmes

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

in the field

The Scientific Method Ann Graeme suggests we should all think like scientists Illustrations by Tim Galloway

T underpins our lives. Science – and its companion, technology – keeps us well-fed and healthy and lies behind the design of our houses, the cars we drive and the planes we fly in. We couldn’t enjoy our comfortable lives

without science. So it seems amazing that science and scientists are not universally admired. Far from being lauded as benefactors, scientists are sometimes viewed with suspicion, while science is seen as a malignant force. Usually this is because the essence of science is not well understood, but sometimes it is because the “science” is bad. The essence of “good” science is quite simple. It’s a method of seeking answers that can be proven. But not so long ago, most people simply accepted explanations based on guesswork or superstition, without any proof. Here’s an example, a story from the Middle Ages that involves gooseneck barnacles and barnacle geese. The barnacles grow on driftwood and the geese breed in summer in the Arctic Circle, spending their winters on northern European coasts.

Honk. The geese are back.

Where from? We’ve never found a nest...

Wooah, look at these weird things on this driftwood...

...maybe they don’t HAVE nests!

Hmmm. Good imagination!

...they’ve got a NECK... and a BEAK!

OOh, just like a GOOSE! THIS is where they come from!

It’s Friday!

Eek!

Seeking answers that can be proven is supremely rational, yet this scientific way of thinking has only been widely adopted in the last few hundred years. First you shape the question in your mind. Then you think about how it might be answered – in other words, you guess. Then you devise an experiment that will test your guess. It must be an experiment that others can replicate. Here’s another example from the Middle Ages which could have easily been disproved by simple experiments.

54 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

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The horses are always dropping their hair into the trough. These skinny worms must be horsehair that’s come alive!

Hundreds of years ago, people noticed that there were long, thin worms living in the water troughs where their animals drank.

Do horse hairs turn into WORMS? Hmm... I’ll have to do an EXPERIMENT. DAY 2

DAY 7

No.

OW! DAY 15

Still horsehair.

The real answer, proven by careful observation and experiment, is even more bizarre than the folk story. Adult “horsehair” or gordian worms – seen in puddles and troughs – are long and thin. But their larvae live as parasites inside a beetle, cockroach or grasshopper. They invade their host, consuming its internal organs as they grow into a worm. This makes their host thirsty. When it goes to drink, the unfortunate insect splits and out bursts the adult horsehair worm, into the water. This explains how horsehair worms suddenly appear in troughs and puddles. If these water bodies dry up, eggs from the adult worm blow about and are accidentally eaten by the next generation of insect hosts. Even now some people will accept stories and guesswork rather than scientific analysis. Sometimes it’s because of ignorance and sometimes it’s just self-interest. The discussion about climate change provides a good example. The evidence for climate change comes from a patchwork of studies involving thousands of scientists worldwide. They are studying the gases in the atmosphere, patterns of weather, movement of glaciers, the climate history revealed in ice cores and

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That’s a GUESS that nobody TESTED... ... is it RIGHT?

I’ll put horse hair into a bucket of water to see what happens. I’ll keep the horse away from the trough and watch for worms there too.

DAY 1

No.

Horses’ hairins to Nope. The horse hair is DON’T turn... still in here but there are worms DAY 60

NO WORMS! Lots of worms have turned up in the trough though.

...they must be coming from somewhere else.

much more. From these myriad pieces of information, a picture is being put together by an international panel of scientists. It’s not a neat, cut-and-dried picture. A few results seem to buck the trend, but that is the nature of the dynamic system that is our world. Some people prefer not to look at the evidence at all so that they can deny the problem exists. Others, more Machiavellian, cherry-pick the anomalies, using them to discredit the overwhelming evidence of the bulk of the science. It’s the same with the debate about the use of 1080. Those who profit from having pests in native forests spread inaccuracies – or downright lies – to discredit 1080. Credulous people choose to believe them rather than examine the vast amount of research which puts forward both the pros and the cons, and looks at the whole picture. We are facing more and more complex issues like this, which require us to make difficult decisions. We have a responsibility to think like scientists, looking at all the evidence – making sure it is based on good science – and coming to rational conclusions.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

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AGM round-up

PROTOTYPE for a fresh, new Forest & Bird logo was unveiled at Forest & Bird’s 86th annual general meeting in Wellington in late June. Paul Irwin from Ogilvy marketing company showed delegates the initial design of a new Forest & Bird logo, which revolves around giving nature a voice and encapsulates the many creatures, plants and wild places Forest & Bird works to protect, on land and at sea. Kiwibank chief executive Sam Knowles spoke about the need for organisations to respect and honour the past but not to live in it. “Change is hard, but important,” he said. Environment Minister Nick Smith told delegates that good environmental and economic management were intertwined, and New Zealand’s economic

Fund. Living Earth founder Rob Fenwick talked about the importance of protecting ecology on private land in the Sanderson Memorial Address, and shared his experiences protecting his property in the Hauraki Gulf. Peter Maddison launched workshops to discuss constitutional review, asking whether changes to the structure of branches, the executive or the overall organisation were needed to ensure Forest & Bird continued as a healthy society. Flooring Xtra chief executive success depended on its clean, Don Barry introduced the partgreen brand. He said the nership between Forest & Bird Government wanted to develop and Flooring Xtra’s 54 local, greater collaboration in enviindependent flooring retailers to ronmental protection, bringing plant 15,000 trees every year. together key groups including Executive member Jon Forest & Bird. Wenham showed plans for a Labour Party spokesperson new Ruapehu lodge. While on climate change issues insurance will not cover the Charles Chauvel observed that whole cost of rebuilding the New Zealand was trailing other lodge, which was burned down, Western countries in reducing Forest & Bird will be seeking carbon emissions, and needed to fund the shortfall from other to do better. sources. Associate Conservation Many staff made presentaMinister Kate Wilkinson – a last- tions about their work and minute stand-in for Conservation campaigns during the past year, Minister Tim Groser – said and Kiri Kiwi and Penny Pukeko New Zealand could build on its reported on the new-look natural capital for tourism. KCC website and Wild Things Awards were presented magazine. on Saturday night, and Barry Wards was elected Distinguished Life Member president, with Craig Potton David Underwood launched becoming deputy president. the Forest & Bird Endowment Retiring president Peter

Rob Fenwick

Kate Wilkinson

Maddison – who was made a Distinguished Life Member – thanked outgoing members of the executive, especially Gerry McSweeney, who has made a significant contribution to Forest & Bird over many years. The new executive includes Treasurer Graham Bellamy, Peter Maddison, Anne Fenn, Mark Fort, Alan Hemmings, Joan Leckie, Janet Ledingham, Jon Wenham and new member Andrew Cutler.

Jeff McEwan

Forest & Bird Executive

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branchingout Rolling out the green carpet

FIVE-degree frost didn’t put off South Waikato Forest & Bird members turning up for a planting morning at Jim Barnett Reserve. And it didn’t send their planting partners back to bed, either, because Van Dyks Flooring Xtra staff in Putaruru are just as tough. The planting day in June was one of the first in a nationwide team effort by Forest & Bird and Flooring Xtra stores to plant 15,000 trees every year. Each of the 54 local, independent flooring retailers from Kaitaia to Invercargill has committed to planting trees with Forest & Bird. So far Warkworth, Motueka and Nelson stores have joined Putaruru’s planting efforts. The store owners are generous with their money as well as time since each store donates $100 a month to Forest & Bird. That adds up to very generous support in a year. The Flooring Xtra network is just a year old, and the retailers have set out to run environmentally sustainable businesses,Chief Executive Don Barry told Forest & Bird’s AGM in June. They are recycling floor coverings as much as possible to avoid sending them to landfills, he said. “And we all

decided that every day we will plant a tree.” Forest & Bird Distinguished Life Member Gordon Stephenson briefed staff at Putaruru’s Flooring Xtra, which is owned by Flooring Xtra Chairman Henry Van Dyk, before the planting day at Jim Barnett Reserve. They joined Anne and Jack Groos from Forest & Bird’s South Waikato branch on a walk through the forest, which includes an impressive 1000-year-old totara, and finished with a sausage sizzle.

“Our local partnership has provided a rare opportunity for some to experience the bush, bird life and conservation efforts up close,” Van Dyks Flooring Xtra Contracts Manager Nick Foster says. At Flooring Xtra plantings there’s no shortage of recycled carpet squares to use as weed mat. “The partnership has helped us shore up recycling using carpet that would previously have been dumped,” Nick says. Forest & Bird General Manager Mike Britton is

grateful for the support from Flooring Xtra. “This is a great example of grassroots corporate responsibility for restoring New Zealand’s distinctive natural heritage. Flooring Xtra owners and staff can be proud of their planting and financial commitment to Forest & Bird.” Forest & Bird branches that don’t grow their own native plants can apply to a fund to cover the cost of trees being planted with Flooring Xtra. For more information go to: www.flooringxtra.co.nz

OREST & Bird has awarded its annual Pestbuster prize to Don Sullivan and his team of trappers in Nelson. Don and his team trapped 530 pests in the past year in four forest areas near Nelson and are already hearing the benefits of their work with increased birdsong. The team’s tally for the year was 234 possums, 204 rats, 69 mice, 14 hedgehogs, six stoats and three weasels. Don has also spent time and money building 750 traps, some of which he has given to other pest control groups. Don and the other 30 team members maintain traps in the Upper Marsden Valley, w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

Barnicoat Ridge, Enner Glynn Bush and Kelly farm areas south of Nelson. Don has been a Forest & Bird member for 40 years, and he realised the need for pest control when he noticed a decline in birdlife while tramping. As the areas in which he works have been more intensively trapped, Don has seen a rise in numbers of bellbirds, tomtits, fantails, kakariki and weka. A kaka was heard recently in Upper Marsden Valley for the first time in 20 years. “We are trying to get the birdlife back so the children can see them,” he says. “Rats and possums are the main problem.”

Control of introduced pests is critical to the protection of native birds and other wildlife, as many of our native species evolved over many million of years in the absence of landbased mammalian predators, so have no natural defences against them. Introduced pests such as possums, rats and stoats prey on birds and other native wildlife, cause serious harm to forest and other native habitats, and compete with native species for food. Most of Forest & Bird’s 50 branches around New Zealand conduct pest control operations to protect wildlife in their area, using both poison baits and trapping, and Forest & Bird

Jeff McEwan

Winning Pestbusters

supports increased government funding of pest control on conservation land.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

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Forest & Bird Old Blues 2009

ACH year Forest & Bird awards Old Blue Awards to those who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to conservation. Recipients this year have made a tremendous contribution to conservation, from recording our native birdsong to protecting dotterels from predation by hedgehogs.

Craig Carson Craig Carson is as active behind a pen as a spade in his conservation efforts. The longstanding chairperson of the Southland Branch has written many RMA submissions on issues across the region, spending many hours crafting well-researched and persuasive arguments and presenting submissions at hearings, and has completed a resource management qualification. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty, either, and has helped at Te Rere penguin colony working days during the past 16 years. His old Landrover is legendary in the penguin reserve for pulling other fourwheel drives out of the mud. Craig has also put in regular hours helping at Southland branch’s Tautuku Lodge. Craig cycles to work every day – even on the coldest Southland day – and is passionate about living sustainably.

Dorothy Mutton Te Puke Branch member Dorothy Mutton has spent nearly a lifetime committed to conservation after joining Forest & Bird 58 years ago. Dorothy was part of the team that formed the Te Puke Section three decades ago, which became a branch 24 years ago. She has served as chair, committee member and patron.

Conservation battles in which Dorothy has played an active part include the Kaimai Mamaku protection movement of the 1980s, the campaign to protect kokako habitat in Rotoehu Forest and an Environment Court challenge to mining in Te Puke hills where Hochstetter’s frogs are found. The keen botanist has led field trips around the Bay of Plenty, sharing her passion for nature and the outdoors with others. She takes part in kiwi listening surveys and works on pest control at Otanewainuku forest.

Peter and Queenie Ballance Peter and Queenie Ballance, of Nelson, have individually and as a team made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird and conservation generally. The couple have been active in Forest & Bird for more than 40 years, first in the Central Auckland branch and then in Nelson from late 2000 after Peter retired as Associate Professor of Geology at Auckland University. While Peter was Nelson branch chair for seven years he initiated the branch’s Enner Glynn Bush restoration project, inspiring volunteers to rid the area of weeds, launching pest control and planting programmes, and gaining funding. He has represented the branch at council hearings and, as a retired geologist, has been an expert witness for Forest & Bird on several occasions. Peter was a popular leader of Forest & Bird walks until this year. Queenie has devoted many volunteer hours to Forest & Bird, and has been a long-term

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advocate for conservation through her work as a Nelson representative for the National Council of Women, both in Auckland and Nelson. Queenie was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal in 1999 for her services to conservation. She has actively promoted better protection for the Waimea Inlet, an estuary of international importance.

Jim McKinlay New Zealand dotterels would no longer be found at Omaha Beach, north of Auckland, if it wasn’t for Jim McKinlay. When Jim and his late wife, Laura, moved to Omaha Beach in the early 1990s they saw that the number of dotterels at the beach was declining. In 1993 they began trapping the pests that were wiping out the dotterels, at first getting rid of feral cats before finding the greatest culprit in the decimation of the dotterel population: hedgehogs. Once they stopped hedgehogs from eating dotterel eggs, the dotterel population recovered. The McKinlays checked the traps every day for almost seven years, and enlisted other community volunteers to help. Today Omaha Beach hosts about 80 New Zealand dotterels in the non-breeding season, and about 40 breed there. Jim also chaired the Mid North branch for six years until 2005, and launched an annual series of winter talks on environmental issues.

John Kendrick Anyone who listens to the bird calls on Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report will appreciate John Kendrick’s work. As a

Wildlife Service audio-visual officer for 20 years he travelled to remote parts of New Zealand to record bird songs, many of which are still broadcast today. Among his more memorable expeditions was recording what is presumed to be South Island kokako calls in several areas during the early 1980s. John was a photographer and made many nature films during his career with the Wildlife Service from the early 1960s. He helped film New Zealand segments for a David Attenborough series about extinction in 1974. He inspired thousands of school children with his presentations on wildlife and conservation, and he shared his enthusiasm for nature when he was a Kiwi Conservation Club co-ordinator when he lived at Whangaparaoa. John, who now lives in Waipu, has been a member of Forest & Bird for more than 50 years, and is still involved with conservation projects in Northland.

Tina Morgan Tina Morgan has been a driving force in the Upper Coromandel branch, which this year celebrates its 21st year. Tina has organised a programme of monthly events and a film history of the branch to mark the branch milestone. She has spent many hours over many years working on Forest & Bird restoration projects for bush areas and streams, and controlling animal and plant pests, and has recently joined the Environment Waikato pest management committee. Tina is also very active in her local Moehou Environmental Group, and writes a monthly newspaper column. Tina’s friendly, gentle demeanour has helped diffuse local argument about 1080 and other contentious issues but it does not conceal her staunch advocacy for conservation. ww w w . f .of roersetsatna dn bd ibr idr .do. rogr .gn. zn z

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OREST & Bird’s Southland Branch is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Tautuku Lodge in September. The land – 540 hectares of bush and swampland behind Tautuku beach which would become the Lenz Reserve – was bought for 3200 pounds in 1963 with a bequest from Opoho woman Ivy Lenz. From 1966-68 funds were raised by Otago and Southland members to build the Tautuku Lodge at the reserve, and it

was opened by Forest & Bird President Roy Nelson on 20 September 1969. Subsequent work created the three-hour Long Track, and a one-hour nature walk loop track. A bequest from Francis Coutts paid for a four-person cabin to be built, and trainees from Otago Polytechnic added further accommodation in an A-frame cabin. Today the lodge and the reserve are enjoyed by many visitors as an ideal – and idyl-

Helen Bain

Tautuku Lodge 40th anniversary

lic – base to experience the diverse wildlife of Southland and the Catlins. The Southland Branch will hold a an afternoon tea to celebrate the 40th anniversary of

the lodge following its working bee on September 26. If you would like to attend please contact marymiller@kinect.co.nz or phone 03 418 1798.

OREST & Bird is helping put Manawatu Gorge Scenic Reserve back in the red. Volunteers planted 21 northern rata (Metrosideros robusta) on the face of the western entrance to Manawatu Gorge. The seven-year-old plants were grown by 2008 Conservation Award winner Chris Thomasen in her Feilding backyard with the assistance of Project Crimson, a charitable trust that supports conservation of pohutakawa and rata. Chris is raising hundreds of rata plants for community groups to plant out in the area. Before introduced possums took their toll on the native vegetation, Manawatu Gorge was a blaze of red rata blooms during summer months, and it is hoped that Forest & Bird

planting will help restore it to its full crimson glory. DOC biodiversity programme manager Vivienne McGlynn says northern rata can grow up to 30 metres in height with a trunk two metres in diameter. Northern rata can grow from the ground up, but more often their seed germinates in the crown of another tree, and the rata grows downwards to eventually enclose its host tree. Department of Conservation area manager Jason Roxburgh says he is impressed by the long-term commitment of Forest & Bird to the project. “The Manawatu Gorge is an excellent example where huge conservation gains can be made through the co-operation of many partners and supporters.”

Wellington City Council

Seeing red in Manawatu

Thanks to Forest & Bird Manawatu Gorge may one day again be ablaze with rata blossoms.

Swampy schoolroom

OREST & Bird’s Marlborough branch has begun the first planting in a joint habitat recovery project with Fish & Game and Queen Charlotte College at Para Swamp, near Picton. The branch has been working with students to grow native plants from locally sourced seed as part of the students’ science and environment curriculum. Branch chair Andrew John says the partnership is bringing benefits for everyone involved. “The students get real handson experience, the environment is being enhanced and the community benefits from better game bird hunting.” Fish & Game has a long-term w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

goal of removing willow that has infested Para Swamp and revegetating with native species to restore the natural habitat and wildlife of the area, and joining forces with Forest & Bird and the college will help achieve that aim. Andrew says the students gain a longer-term perspective on the environment through working on the project. “The plants that went in this week started the journey from seed two years ago. This is an ongoing work and the students have many more flax, cabbage and kahikatea trees at various stages to be planted out in years to come.” FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

branchingout

Marina Skinner

responsibility for pests in their neighbourhood,” he says. “Lucas Creek provides a good stepping stone in the North-West Wildlink that we’re creating to join up the biodiversity powerhouses of the Waitakere Ranges in the west with the Hauraki Gulf Islands to the east. I’m sure the pest control will help revive this area’s ecological health.” Landscape designer Mark Read joined the project this year because he’d like to see more native birds on his long block of regenerating bush that

tumbles down to the estuarine Lucas Creek. He’s put in steps and a boardwalk that run under tanekaha, miro, kanuka, kowhai and nikau palms to the water’s edge, and allow him to easily check his traps. Mark is not content with the tui, grey warblers, shining cuckoos, red-crowned kakariki and fantails he sees now. He hopes that more birds will move back to the neighbourhood as pest numbers drop. “The kaka is the main bird I want to see here.”

Project leader Derry McLachlan

Neighbourhood watch on pests

roperty owners just north of Auckland city are taking pest control into their own hands. More than 50 residents have signed up to the Pest-Free Paremoremo Project, supported by Forest & Bird. Lucas Creek property owners in the semi-rural neighbourhood beside the Upper Waitemata Harbour are setting traps and putting bait stations in their backyards in an effort to restore the native biodiversity in the area. Project leader Derry McLachlan caught eight possums and two rats in the last year in the Timms and DOC 200 traps he’s got on his one acre of garden and regenerating native bush. He also has four bait stations. “We are now hearing female morepork calls at night for the first time,” he says. “I think it’d be the ultimate to

have kiwi in the area.” A spin-off from the pest control is that locals are getting to pick fruit from their trees, rather than seeing the possums beat them to it. Forest & Bird Auckland/ Northland Field Officer Nick Beveridge last year joined forces with the newly formed Pest-Free Paremoremo Project, which is supported by North Shore City Council. Nick advises property owners and gives them bait stations funded by the Biodiversity Condition Fund, while Auckland Regional Council supplies the bait. “I’ve found the property owners have been very receptive to putting traps and bait stations on their properties because they can see that pest control is the only way to get native birds back in the area. It’s exciting to see individuals taking

PHILPROOF PEST CONTROL PRODUCTS WIPEOUT: Possums, Rodents, Mustelids, Rabbits Standard & Mini Philproof Bait Stations & Timms Traps Rodent Bait Stations and Block Baits. Rodent Snap Traps Fenn Traps (MK4 & 6), Trap Covers – Double or Single Also available: Monitoring Tunnels & Bird Nesting Chambers Phone/Fax 07 859 2943 Mobile 021 270 5896 PO Box 4385, Hamilton 3247 Website: www.philproof.co.nz Email: philproof.feeders@clear.net.nz

Fielding questions: Forest & Bird Communications Officer Mandy Herrick (disguised as a kokako) helps spread the Forest & Bird message at Fieldays.

In the field

orest & Bird braved wintry weather to bring its message to thousands of visitors at the Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek in June.For the control The Forest & Bird team signed up 80 new members and raised awareness of Forest & Bird’s conservation campaigns among the100,000-plus visitors at Feildays. The display included a tank

of native fish, a pest-busting game, information about Forest & Bird’s freshwater and Kaimai-Mamaku campaigns, of Possums Rats and give-aways ofand Forest & Bird magazines and stickers. North Island Field Officer Al Fleming says the event was a great opportunity to bring Forest & Bird’s message to heartland New Zealand, especially among rural communities.

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branchingout

Pauatahanui celebrates 25 years of change

T is amazing how much progress can be made in 25 years. More than a quarter of a century ago, when Forest & Bird submitted a plan to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to manage the wetland north of Wellington at Pauatahanui, it was a recreation domain that had been used for sports, BMX, go-karting, and grazing. However Forest & Bird took on the management of the wetland in 1983 under the Wildlife and Reserve Act and it took on a new lease of life. In the first two years saltwater and freshwater ponds were excavated and walking tracks built, followed by construction of bird viewing hides and a roost for the wetland’s resident shags. Forest & Bird bought the land next to the reserve in 1984 and re-vegetation and track building also began there. Later further low-lying land next to the reserve was purchased by Forest & Bird through a Forest Heritage Trust grant and donations and was added to the wetland reserve. There were setbacks along the way – such as the local extinction of the spotless crake after a shell-fishers’ cooking fire caught fire to the raupo, and an invasion of escapees from ferret farms. Extensive trapping of stoats, ferrets and the removal of feral cats was started – and continues as necessary protection against the ever-present threat to the area’s birdlife. The appearance of weasels in

traps for the first time in 2008 showed that even “new” pests can make incursions if vigilance is not kept up. In 1987 the newly formed Department of Conservation became responsible for the overall management of the reserve, with Forest & Bird managing day-to-day maintenance and habitat restoration – the first reserve managed by volunteers on DOC’s behalf. A cottage donated by the Stout Trust was established in 1990 to serve as tool storage, meeting room and visitor display area. Specific wetland plants were required for the re-vegetation of the wetland area and a nursery with an irrigation system was set up, enabling the propagation of seeds from the Pauatahanui catchment to supply the planting programme. Forest & Bird volunteers, with the help of corporate volunteer groups, have planted 5000 seedlings each year, extended the tracks and maintained the wetland’s salt and fresh water drainage. In the early 1990s run-off from urban development in the Pauatahanui Inlet catchment caused accelerated siltation in the wetland, which blocked streams and drains and choked ponds. Lobbying by Forest & Bird and other groups led to improved enforcement of siltation control by territorial authorities and reduction in siltation in the wetland. All this effort has seen the

area transformed from paddock and go-kart track to a healthy, natural wetland that supports diverse plant and animal life. In wetter areas vegetation is recovering the land naturally, while weed control in drier areas is essential to establish seedlings transferred from the nursery. The number of bird species found at the reserve has increased from 37 in 1980 to 53 in 2002. Pied stilt raise their young on the ponds’ shell islands each year. A new challenge is the arrival of Canada

Getting stuck in – Forest & Bird volunteers at Pauatahanui.

The former paddock and go-kart track has been transformed into a flourishing wetland.

BIORESEARCHES

RON GREENWOOD ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST

CONSULTING BIOLOGISTS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS

The trust provides financial support for projects advancing the conservation and protection of New Zealand's natural resources, particularly flora and fauna, marine life, geology, atmosphere & waters. More information is available from the Trust, at: PO Box 10-359, Wellington

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geese, which have been attracted to the ponds and are now threatening to displace the stilts. The Pauatahanui reserve has become a community asset, supported by local people and many visitors. For many urban dwellers this wetland treasure on the doorstep of our capital city is their first close experience of a wetland. About 95% of New Zealand’s wetlands have been destroyed, making the preservation of those that remain even more important.

ESTABLISHED 1972

Environmental Impact Studies Surveys of Marine, Freshwater & Terrestrial Habitats Pollution Investigations Resource Consent procedures Archaeological; Historic Places Appraisal

bioresearches@bioresearches.co.nz www.bioresearches.co.nz P.O Box 2828 Auckland PH: AUCKLAND 379 9417 Fax (09) 307 6409

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

OKARITO COTTAGE Well appointed cottage. Sleeps 3 but room for more in the attic. Close to West Coast beach, bush walks and lagoon. Southern Alps form a backdrop and Franz Josef approx. 30 kilometres on tarsealed road. Cost $70 PER FAMILY Extra Adults $10 per night

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Peru

Further enquiries contact Elspeth Scott, 19 Ngamotu Rd, Taupo 07-378-9390 email: ElspethScott@xtra.co.nz

Unique Small Group Tour 22 Amazing Days Departs May 2010 Free dossier call 0800 874748 www.southernexposuretours.co.nz

CHATHAM ISLANDS Fully inclusive 8 day group tours Departing Jan/Feb/March 2010 From Auckland/New Plymouth/ Wellington/Christchurch Special Botanical trip 11/18 November 09 Special Nelson departure 18/25 November 09 Cost from $2879 share twin per person Or single from $2779 Phone 0800 273 366 Email barbaralloyd@seymourtours.co.nz SEYMOUR TOURS www.seymourtours.co.nz

Waikaremoana Guided Walks

Proud supporters of the Kiwi Recovery Project

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Antique maps of NZ and the rest of the World Bird and botanical prints Hand coloured antique prints WE SHIP WORLDWIDE

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Ecotours

7 & 8 day guided tours Alpine flowers, birding, photography, high country scenery & history Hakatere Conservation Park, Aoraki-Mt Cook & Arthurs Pass National Parks, Banks Peninsula, Small groups, excellent food, great accommodation and good company. ecotour@nature.net.nz

www.nature.net.nz O3 303 0880

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Come with us, RAINFOREST, NATURE and JETBOATING TOURS, all year round. Viewing of nesting colony from October to March. Ph. 0800 52 34 56

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The Original Kahurangi Guides From Comfortable Lodge stay to Off track wilderness backpacking. Including: Heaphy and Cobb Valley and much more! Conservation values PO Box 376, Motueka 7143 T/F: 03 528 9054 E: info@bushandbeyond.co.nz

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To advertise in Forest & Bird please contact : Vanessa Clegg:0275 420 337 or Karen Condon: 0275 420 338.

62 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Small Groups + Independent travellers CALL NOW FOR FREE 2009 BROCHURE Latin Link Adventure The South American Specialists 0800 528 465 / info@latinlink.co.nz

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Pohatu Penguins & Marine Reserve Banks Peninsula Scenic nature tours with local volunteers conserving Banks Peninsula’s biodiversity. • Coastal Retreat • Sea Kayaking www.pohatu.co.nz email: tours@pohatu.co.nz phone: 03 304 8600

BirdArt I nte r na ti on al Ashworth NZ BirdMiles Art

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bringing artists & bird lovers together

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ECOBASE Accomodation Coromandel

For rates, availability and bookings call Terry and Dawn on 07 866 6903 or go to: www.holidayhouses.co.nz/properties/13409.asp All proceeds go to Moehau Environment Groups habitat protection work – See www.meg.org.nz

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oneofus

This woman’s work is never done W

ANDA Tate retired from teaching 15 years ago but she still averages more than 17 hours every week of the year working at Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve, near Wellington. Her new “job” doesn’t pay but the satisfaction she gets from helping to rejuvenate a wasteland more than compensates. During the 920 hours Wanda put in at the reserve in the year to May she single-handedly planted 2400 native plants, which won her Forest & Bird’s inaugural Golden Spade award. The Kapiti-Mana branch member keeps a log book of plants and the volunteer hours she puts in at the reserve. She started the log to prove to her children that she didn’t spend very much time at the reserve – but it proved her children’s suspicions were right. “I don’t play golf, I don’t play croquet, I don’t play bridge. All I do is go out and poke around in the reserve,” Wanda says. Her volunteer conservation work was also recognised with a Queen’s Service Medal in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Other Forest & Bird members and locals push the tally of natives planted at the 50-hectare reserve each year to 6000.

Since 1984 they have been transforming what was once a dump and go-kart track into a wetland reserve. Half the reserve is a saltmarsh – the most significant saltmarsh in the lower North Island. Locals are realising that the reserve’s wetland contributes to the health of their harbour. “The reserve is very important to the ecology of the [Pauatahanui] Inlet. Big culverts from Whitby [suburb] bring lots of stormwater to the reserve, and the wetland filters out pollutants and silt,” Wanda says. Many birds have returned to Pauatahanui Inlet as habitat has improved at the reserve, and several pairs of pied stilts regularly nest there. Whitefaced herons, kingfishers, New Zealand shovellers, banded dotterels and many other birds are common. Wanda sees the reserve with a teacher’s eye, and she helps when school or Kiwi Conservation Club groups visit on field trips, showing them lizards and explaining the coastal wetland ecosystem. Wanda has learned much in her years of planting and raising plants in the nursery by experimenting with plants

Wanda at work in the Pauatahanui reserve and (inset) with her Golden Spade trophy.

in different sites, and picking the brains of other plant lovers. “It’s great being part of the environmental and ecological movement – you meet so many people who are so interesting

and knowledgeable.” It’s a sanctuary for Wanda as much as the birds. “I like the fact that it is a very quiet, relaxing area in the middle of an urban environment.”

bookreviews Know your New Zealand Insects & Spiders By John Early, Photographs by Don Horne, New Holland, $34.99 HIS is a “popular” book by John Early, Curator of Entomology at Auckland War Memorial Museum, with excellent photos by Hamilton photographer Don Horne. As the author states “this book deals with a minuscule proportion of the invertebrate fauna of New Zealand, so it can only serve as an introduction to some of the

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more interesting and readily encountered species”. He tells readers that “even for many common and abundant native species very little is known about their biology, life cycles and ecology apart from basic observations”. This handsome little book, part of a relatively new series of nature guides, provides some interesting information about species. It starts with 10 species of (mostly) native spiders, including the whitetailed spider and the katipo, which is disappearing from many coastal areas, due to habitat destruction, weeds and human disturbance. The remaining 70 or so species’ descriptions in the book are

devoted to insects. I often find that the different popular guides list the same species and only provide a small amount of new information to the reader. This guide does raise the reader’s awareness, interest and maybe a need for more information. And that’s where the problem starts, because there are few current easy-to-use books about New Zealand invertebrates for the more interested amateur entomologist. It may be a good idea for a publisher/author to update and modernize some of the excellent 196080s publications about specific groups of insects, such as dragonflies, grasshoppers, butterflies and moths. Aalbert Rebergen FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

bookreviews Penguins of New Zealand

by Lloyd Spencer Davis, photographs by Rod Morris, New Holland, $24.95 OST people hear the word penguin and immediately think of Antarctica, with groups of penguins huddled en masse or belly sliding along the ice. However, New Zealand could rightfully claim the title of penguin capital of the world from the icy continent, with nine of the 16 species in the world breeding in New Zealand or one of its territories. Most New Zealanders could probably only name two of those species, hoiho and little blue, which is where Lloyd Spencer Davis’ Penguins of New Zealand comes into its own as an accessible introduction to the penguins found on New Zealand shores. The book covers all aspects of penguin feeding and breeding and the conservation issues they face, along with factsheet-style accounts of different penguin species. It also looks into the history of penguins in New Zealand, something that is particularly interesting considering New Zealand is home to the oldest known fossil penguin, Waimanu manneringi, thought to be 60-62 million years old. Illustrated with descriptive photographs by renowned nature photographer Rod Morris, each section is separated into bitesize chunks, which makes it easy to dip into. The comprehensive index makes it easy to use as a reference tool. Lloyd Spencer Davis is one of New Zealand’s leading penguin researchers, but just as importantly he writes in a comprehensive, concise and entertaining style that makes Penguins of New Zealand a book that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Jenny Lynch

We have three copies of Penguins of New Zealand to give away. Send your contact details to j.lynch@ forestandbird.org.nz and answer the question “which is the world’s smallest penguin?” to go in the draw to win this book. Draw closes on September 15.

New Zealand Wildlife

by Julian Fitter, Bradt Travel Guides, $45

HIS guide would be the ideal introduction to travellers wishing to experience New Zealand’s native plants, animals and wilderness.

64 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Poles Apart: Beyond the Shouting, Who’s Right About Climate Change? by Gareth Morgan and John McCrystal, Random House, $39.99

ARETH Morgan and John McCrystal’s new book Poles Apart is serious (yet still humorous) and incredibly thorough, leaving no stone unturned in its search for the truth about climate change. The climate change debate is broken down to its simplest form, clearly defined, arguments rationalised and justified. Poles Apart masters transferring complicated information into simple language without the loss of vital information. The authors have been ultimately successful in producing a

straightforward, no nonsense, wellstructured and simple, readable book. For this reason this book is a valuable reference when the debate elsewhere gets mashed, hashed and overly complex. The book succeeds in giving a clear view of both sides of the debate but stands free from sensationalism, focusing on the heart of the issue, and setting aside emotion and ego. If only all media coverage provided such impartial balance. No harm is done from trying to work smarter and reducing our impact on increasing CO2 in the atmosphere; while serious harm and irreversible damage comes from doing nothing and reluctance to change. It would be nice to think that now the argument is settled, we can get on with making the necessary improvement for our short and long-term future and we can quit wasting, time and money. Here’s hoping … Donna Sherlock

Off the Beaten Track

Invaders

Fitter is himself of foreign origin, but is now resident here and an enthusiastic and knowledgeable observer of New Zealand wildlife, so is well-placed to introduce visitors to New Zealand’s natural attractions. The book is liberally illustrated with colour photographs by renowned wildlife photographer Tui De Roy that will both inspire and let visitors know which bit of flora and fauna it is they are looking at. There is plenty of information for both

travellers totally new to New Zealand, and for locals wanting to explore nature in their own “backyard”. The compact format would be handy for travellers to carry in backpack or glove box, and index, glossary and conservationrelated contacts list are also helpful. The maps (a small map of the North Island and South Island) show the basics but travellers would probably want to take a road map as well. Helen Bain

by Colin Moore (Craig Potton Publishing, $39.99) FF the Beaten Track is a guide to 20 multi-day walks around New Zealand. The walks featured range from 2-5 days, and the variety includes coastline, forests and farmland. They range from those easily tackled by more leisurely walkers and families to routes better suited to the serious hiker, but all share the common thread of being relatively affordable excursions. The practical and informative text is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs, and full-page “birdseye” maps clearly show routes in three-dimensions, which makes visualising your planned journey much easier. Sadly author Colin Moore, who was travel editor of Wilderness magazine and a long-time travel writer, died earlier this year. This book is fine testament to his talent as one of New Zealand’s best writers on our wonderful outdoors. Helen Bain

by Nic Vallance and Rod Morris, New Holland, $19.99 IC Vallance is a selfconfessed “nature nerd” with a talent for taking conservation messages to the mainstream. Her book Invaders looks at the onslaught of introduced pests in New Zealand and their impact on our native wildlife. Though its approachable format, straightforward text and quirky fonts are aimed at a 9-14-year-old audience, but the information here would be just as educational for adults in bringing home the message that introduced pests are not cute and cuddly but a serious threat to our most special native species. Rod Morris’s photographs of both “baddies” and “goodies” handsomely support Vallance’s words. Helen Bain

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FOREST&BIRD n u m b e r 3 3 2 • M AY 2 0 0 9

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The hunter becomes the hunted – native falcons under threat

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Bank:______________________________ Branch:__________________________ Town/City:____________________________ Your full name (block capitals) Address Daytime telephone number I/We authorise you, until further notice, to debit my/our account with all amounts which ROYAL FOREST AND BIRD PROTECTION SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND INC. (hereinafter refered to as the Initiator) the registered Initiator of the above Authorisation Code, may initiate by Direct Debit. I/We acknowledge and accept that the bank accepts this authority only upon the conditions listed below. Information to appear on my/our bank statement Payer Particulars

Payer Code

Payer Reference

Your Signature/s

Approved 1035

Date

For bank use only Original – Retain at Branch Date received:

Recorded by:

Checked by:

Bank Stamp

02 1999 Conditions of this authority The Initiator: (a) Has agreed to give written advance notice of the net amount of each direct debit and the due date of debiting at least four business days before the date when the direct debit will be initiated. The advance notice will include the following message:- “The amount of $...... will be direct debited to your bank account on (initiating date)”. (b) May, upon the relationship which gave rise to this Authority being terminated, give notice to the bank that no further Direct Debits are to be initiated under the Authority. Upon receipt of such notice the Bank may terminate this Authority as to future payments by notice in writing to me/us.

- The accuracy of information about Direct Debits on bank statements. - Any variations between notices given by the Initiator and the amounts of Direct Debits.

The Customer may: (a) At any time, terminate this Authority as to future payments by giving written notice of termination to the Bank and to the Initiator.

(e) The Bank is not responsible for, or under any liability in respect of the Initiator’s failure to give written notice correctly nor for the non-receipt or late receipt of notice by me/us for any reason whatsoever. In any such situation the dispute lies between me/us and the Initiator.

(b) Stop payment of any direct debit to be initiated under this authority by the Initiator by giving written notice to the Bank prior to the direct debit being paid by the Bank.

The Bank may: (a) In its absolute discretion conclusively determine the order of priority of payment by it of any monies pursuant to this or any other authority, cheque or draft properly executed by me/us and given to or drawn on the Bank.

The Customer acknowledges that: (a) This Authority will remain in full force and effect in respect of all direct debits made from my/ our account in good faith notwithstanding my/our death, bankruptcy or other revocation of this Authority until actual notice of such event is received by the bank.

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(b) At any time terminate this authority as to future payments by notice in writing to me/us. (c) Charge its current fees for this service in force from time-to-time.

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

Run Wild! Join the Kiwi Conservation Club Kiwi kids learning about and exploring New Zealand’s environment

Explore our wild places with your local Kiwi Conservation Club.

Learn about New Zealand’s plants, animals and environment with the Kiwi Conservation Club magazine, Wild Things.

Join us at www.kcc.org.nz 68 FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009

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branchdirectory

Upper North Island Central Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Anne Fenn; Secretary, Isabel Still, PO Box 1118, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140. Tel: (09) 528-3986. Far North Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Michael Winch, 119D Skudders Beach Road, RD 1, Kerikeri 0294. Tel: (09) 401-7401. Franklin Branch: Chairperson, Keith Gardner; Secretary, Michelle Leman, 8 Second Avenue, RD 1, Waiuku 2681. Tel: (09) 235-3512. Hauraki Islands Branch: Chairperson, Brian Griffiths; Secretary, Sue Fitchett, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island 1081. Tel: (09) 372-7600. Hibiscus Coast Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Derek Lamb, PO Box 310, Orewa 0946. Tel: (09) 427-8911. Kaipara Branch: Chairperson, Suzi Phillips; Secretary, Suzi Phillips, PO Box 187, Helensville 0840. Tel: 021 271 2527. Mercury Bay Branch: Chairperson, Eve McCarthy; Secretaries, Sharon Barnes Tel: (07) 866-5583 or Vanessa Ford Tel: (07) 866-4355. PO Box 205, Whitianga 3542. Mid North Branch: Chairperson, Warwick Massey; Secretary, Raewyn Morrison, PO Box 552, Warkworth 0941. Tel: (09) 422-9123. North Shore Branch: Chairperson, Alan Emmerson; Secretary, Jocelyn Sanders, PO Box 33873, Takapuna, North Shore City 0740. Tel: (09) 479-2107. Northern Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Beverly Woods, PO Box 1375, Whangarei 0140. Tel: (09) 432-7122. South Auckland Branch: Chairperson, Dene Andre; Secretary, Brian Gidley, PO Box 23602, Hunters Corner, Manukau 2155. Tel: (09) 278-0185. Thames-Hauraki Branch: Chairperson, Marcia Sowman; Secretary, Hazel Genner, PO Box 312, Thames 3540. Tel: (07) 868-9057. Upper Coromandel Branch: Chairperson, Tina Morgan; Secretary, Vacant, PO Box 108, Coromandel 3543. Tel. (07) 866-6720. Waitakere Branch: Chairperson, John Staniland; Secretary, Janie Vaughan, PO Box 60655, Titirangi, Waitakere 0642. Tel: (09) 817-9262. Central North Island Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch: Chairperson, Mark Fort; Secretary, Sue Greenwood, Forest & Bird, PO Box 582, Whakatane 3158. Tel: (07) 307-1435. Gisborne Branch: Chairperson, Grant Vincent; Secretary, Wendy McLean, 1 Dominey Street, Inner Kaiti, Gisborne 4010. Tel: (06) 868-8236. Rotorua Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretaries,

Margaret Dick, Tel: (07) 357-2024 or Delight Gartlein Tel: (07) 357-2575. PO Box 1489, Rotorua 3040. South Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Anne Groos; Secretary, Jack Groos, 37 Waianawa Place, Tokoroa 3420. Tel: (07) 886-7456. Taupo Branch: Chairperson, Ann Gallagher; Secretary, Trevor Hunt, PO Box 1105, Taupo 3351. Tel: (07) 378-5975. Tauranga Branch: Chairperson, Vacant; Secretary, Liz Cole, PO Box 487, Seventh Avenue, Tauranga 3140. Tel: (07) 577-6412. Te Puke Branch: Chairperson Cathy Reid; Secretary, Bev Nairn, PO Box 237, Te Puke 3153. Tel: (07) 5334247 Waihi Section: Chairperson, Ian Bradshaw; Secretary, Krishna Buckman, 17 Reservoir Road, Waihi 3610. Tel: (07) 863-8455. Waikato Branch: Chairperson, Philip Hart; Secretary, Jim Macdiarmid, PO Box 11092, Hillcrest, Hamilton 3251. Tel: (07) 849-3438.

South Island Ashburton Branch: Chairperson, Edith Smith; Secretary, Val Clemens, PO Box 460, Ashburton 7740. Tel: (03) 308-5620. Central Otago-Lakes Branch: Chairperson, John Turnbull; Secretary, Denise Bruns, 4 Stonebrook Drive, Wanaka 9305. Tel: (03) 443-5462. Lower North Island Dunedin Branch: Chairperson, Janet Ledingham; Central Hawkes Bay Branch: Chairperson, Max Secretary, Mark Hanger, PO Box 5793, Moray Place, Chatfield; Secretary, Barrie & Judith Bayliss, Dunedin 9058. Tel: (03) 489-3233. PO Box 189, Waipukurau 4242. Tel: (06) 858-8765. Golden Bay Branch: Chairperson, Jenny Treloar; Hastings-Havelock North Branch: Chairperson, Ian Secretary, Jo-Anne Vaughan, Puponga Road, RD 1, Noble; Secretary, Lorna Templeton, 11/15 Devonshire Collingwood 7073. Tel: (03) 524-8072. Place, Taradale, Napier 4112 . Tel: (06) 845-4155. Kaikoura Branch: Chairperson, Ailsa Howard; Horowhenua Branch: Chairperson, Robert Secretary, Barry Dunnett, Pooles Road, RD 1, Hirschberg; Secretary, Belinda McLean, 47 Te Manuao Kaikoura 7371. Tel: (03) 319-5086. Road, Otaki 5512. Tel: (06) 364-5573. Marlborough Branch: Chairperson, Andrew John; Kapiti-Mana Branch: Chairperson, Tony Ward; Secretary, Lynda Neame, PO Box 896, Blenheim 7240. Secretary, John McLachlan, 78 Langdale Avenue, Tel: (03) 578-2013. Paraparaumu 5032. Tel: (04) 904-0027. Nelson-Tasman Branch: Chairperson, Helen Lower Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Kevin Bateman; Campbell; Secretary, Jocelyn Bieleski, PO Box 7126, Secretary, Stan Butcher, PO Box 31194, Lower Hutt Nelson Mail Centre, Nelson 7042. Tel: (03) 548-6803. 5040. Tel: (04) 567-7271. North Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Bruce Manawatu Branch: Chairperson, Brent Barrett; Coleman; Secretary, Andrew Simpson, PO Box 2389, Secretary, Anthea McClelland, PO Box 961, Palmerston Christchurch Mail Centre, Christchurch 8140. North Central, Palmerston North 4440. Tel: (03) 338-9343. Tel: (06) 353-6758. South Canterbury Branch: Chairperson, Marijke Napier Branch: Chairperson, Neil Eagles; Secretary, Bakker-Gelsing; Secretary, Margaret McPherson, 29 Margaret Gwynn, 23 Clyde Road, Bluff Hill, Napier Mountain View Road, Glenwood, Timaru 7910. 4110. Tel: (06) 835-2122. Tel: (03) 686-1494. North Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Carolyn South Otago Branch: Chairperson, Roy Johnstone; Brough; Secretary, Murray Duke, PO Box 1029, Secretary, Suzanne Schofield, 64 Frances Street, Taranaki Mail Centre, New Plymouth 4340. Balclutha 9230. Tel: (03) 418-4415. Tel: (06) 751-2759. Southland Branch: Chairperson, Craig Carson; Rangitikei Branch: Chairperson,Diana Stewart; Secretary, Jenny Campbell, PO Box 1155, Invercargill Secretary, Betty Graham, 41 Tutaenui Road, Marton 9840. Tel: (03) 248-6398. 4710. Tel: (06) 327-7008. West Coast Branch: Chairperson, Kathy Gilbert; South Taranaki Branch: Chairperson, Dave Digby; Secretary, Carolyn Cox, 168 Romilly Street, Westport Secretary, Lynda Sutherland, 39 High Street, Eltham 7825. Tel: (03) 789-5334.

lodgeaccommodation Arethusa Cottage An ideal place from which to explore the Far North. Near Pukenui in wet-land reserve. 6 bunks, fully equipped kitchen, separate bathroom outside. For information and bookings, contact: John Dawn, Doves Bay Road, RD1, Kerikeri. Tel: (09) 407-8658, Fax: (09) 407-1401. Email: johnfd@xnet.co.nz.

4322. Tel: (06) 764-7479. Upper Hutt Branch: Chairperson, Barry Wards; Secretary, Fred Fowler, PO Box 40875, Upper Hutt 5140. Tel: (04) 528-3127. Wairarapa Branch: Chairperson, Geoff Doring; Secretary, Roger Greenslade, 18 Johnstone Street, Masterton 5810. Tel: (06) 377-5255. Wanganui Branch: Chairperson, Esther Williams; Secretary, Ray Hutchison, PO Box 4229, Wanganui 4541. Tel: (06) 345-2651. Wellington Branch: Chairperson, Peter Hunt; Secretary, Janet Coburn, PO Box 4183, Wellington 6140. Tel: (04) 971-8200.

Ferries 35 minutes from Auckland. Enquiries with stamped addressed envelope to: Robin Griffiths, 125 The Strand, Onetangi, Waiheke Island. Tel: (09) 372-7662.

William Hartree Memorial Lodge, Hawkes Bay Situated 48km from Napier, 8km past Patoka on the Puketitiri Rd (sealed). The lodge is set amid a 14ha scenic reserve and close to many walks, Tai Haruru Lodge, Piha, West Auckland A seaside haven set in a large sheltered garden on eg: Kaweka Range, Balls Clearing, hot springs the rugged West Coast, 38km on sealed roads from and museum. The lodge accommodates up to 15 people. It has a fully equipped kitchen including central Auckland. Close to store, bush reserves stove, refrigerator and microwave plus tile fire, and tracks in the beautiful Waitakere Ranges. hot showers. Supply your own linen, sleeping bags Double bedroom and 3 singles, plus large lounge etc. For information and bookings please send a with wood burner, dining area and kitchen. Selfcontained unit has 4 single beds. Bring food, linen stamped addressed envelope to Mike and Linda Hay, 172 Guppy Road, Taradale, Napier 4112. Tel: and fuel for fire and BBQ. Off peak rates apply. Booking: Jean and Peter King, 10 La Trobe Track, (06) 8444651. Email: hayhouse@clear.net.nz. Karekare, Waitakere City. Tel: (09) 812 8064. Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington Harbour Email: hop0018@slingshot.co.nz Joint venture accommodation by Lower Hutt

and bedding and a torch. Smoking is banned everywhere on the island, including the house. For information sheet, send stamped addressed envelope to: Accomodation Officer, PO Box 31-194, Lower Hutt. Tel: (04) 934-0559 or (04) 569 2542. Mangarakau Swamp Field Centre, North West Nelson Borders Kahurangi National Park and Te Tai Tapu Marine Reserve. New, 10 bed lodge with two bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen. Sleeping bags, towels and food required. Contact Jo-Anne Vaughan – Golden Bay Branch Secretary for details: javn@xtra.co.nz or phone (03) 5248072.

Tautuku Lodge, Otago State Highway 92, Southeast Otago. Situated on Forest and Bird's 550ha Lenz Reserve 32km south of Owaka. A bush setting, and many lovely beaches nearby provide a wonderful base for exploring the Catlins. The lodge, the Coutts cabin and an Forest and Bird with DOC. A modern family A-frame sleep 10, 4 and 2 respectively. No Animals. Waiheke Island Cottage Located next to our 49ha Wildlife Reserve, 10 mins home with kitchen, 3 bedrooms, large lounge and For information and rates please send a stamped addressed envelope to the caretaker: walk to Onetangi Beach, general stores etc. Sleeps dining room, just 20 mins sailing by ferry from the centre of Wellington or 10 mins from Days Diana Noonan, Mirren St, Papatowai, Owaka, up to 8 in two bedrooms. Lounge, well-equipped Bay. Ideal place to relax in beautiful surroundings, RD2. Tel: (03) 415-8024, fax (03) 415-8244. kitchen, separate toilet, bathroom, shower, with accommodation for 8. Bring your own food Email: diana.keith@ruralinzone.net laundry. Pillows, blankets provided. No pets. w w w. f o re s t a n d b i rd . o r g . n z

FOREST & BIRD • AUGUST 2009