Peckish pukeko harm crops

The same week the pukeko was announced New Zealand's Bird of the Year by Forest and Bird, the season to shoot it in Hawke's Bay was extended by Fish and Game.

Fish and Game Hawke's Bay manager Peter McIntosh said it was responding to widespread grower complaints about crop damage.

"This time of year especially, when the new crops are emerging and the pukeko take them out of the ground," he said.

Growing operations assistant of J M Bostock, one of the largest growers in Hawke's Bay with an extensive organic operation, Ben Simmons, said he was horrified to hear of the bird's award. His company had just finished resowing 15ha of maize because of extensive bird damage in two locations.

He said the birds' appetite seemed to know no bounds.

"They seem to be evolving all the time. They'll try new crop varieties," McIntosh said.

"With maize they pull the shoot out and access the seed underneath.

"With squash, they have taken to eating the leaves and leaving only the stem.

"They seem to be developing a taste for these things. They are even pulling onions out, which was unheard of."

He said his company would now place an employee on the resown sites to scare the birds away three times a day; a tricky task on all their sites, he said.

"There are so many waterways and canals in the Bay. They follow them up and have a feed in the field and go back into them," Mr McIntosh said.

Director John Bostock said the damage was difficult to quantify because pukeko damaged crops throughout the year, pecking holes in squash and pumpkins and feeding on maize.

"We love those birds but they have got to epidemic proportions," he said.

Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said the pukeko was adapting to its changing environment. "Unfortunately, 90 per cent of our swamplands have been drained to make way for farms and other developments, so our pukeko have taken up the role as scavengers, sometimes picking on crops and foraging alongside motorways."

The damage wrought is not just for food.

The curious birds have been known to systematically remove rubber bands in nurseries that hold newly budded apple trees in place.

Three years ago, Crown Research Institute Plant and Food in Havelock North were forced to engage a pukeko shooter.

A trial to find an alternative to ozone-depleting gas for soil fumigation was under threat of being compromised due to the birds forcing their way into strawberry enclosures.

The strawberries were protected by two layers of netting, but they were not enough to protect them from the pecking pest, which even nested inside the strawberry patch.

The shooter reported 80 pukeko sightings in just one 4ha Plant and Food orchard block.

On open ground, the birds are difficult to shoot, staying out of shotgun range once wary. The noise of the gun is the main deterrent.

Mr McIntosh said Fish and Game had experienced an increase in requests for out-of-season permits to shoot pukeko, which required consultation with the Department of Conservation.

The pukeko shooting season has been extended by six weeks, opening on May 5 and closing on September 30.