Bunker (pictured), Ōtepoti, Taeatanga, Māhutonga and Tautahi are the only kākāpō currently living in Waikato. Photo / Jake Osborne
Bunker (pictured), Ōtepoti, Taeatanga, Māhutonga and Tautahi are the only kākāpō currently living in Waikato. Photo / Jake Osborne
Six months into a historic kākāpō trial, a key challenge has become very apparent: keeping the birds inside the fenced Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.
The curious nocturnal parrots have been keeping Department of Conservation and Sanctuary Mountain staff on their toes with numerous escape attempts, which meant that the team had to decrease the number of birds again.
The focus of the trial was to see if the birds could thrive in a fenced sanctuary because predator-free islands around the country were close to capacity.
Sanctuary Mountain, between Te Awamutu and Putāruru, comprises 3400ha which makes it the largest predator-fenced habitat in the country.
Kākāpō can’t fly, but they are good climbers and can use their wings to parachute off trees and other vegetation.
“Despite mammoth efforts to cut back trees ... [some] birds have [still] breached the fence, indicating that the rapid vegetation growth rate is likely to be the biggest challenge at this site,” an update shared by the Kākāpō recovery team on Facebook said.
“All the birds are doing well health-wise ... their weights are stable, but they are yet to settle into home ranges.”
There are now five kākāpō - Bunker, Ōtepoti, Taeatanga, Māhutonga and Tautahi - still residing in the Waikato.
Sanctuary Mountain has a two-strike policy for the kākāpō, meaning if a bird departs twice, they have to go.
Three of the birds, Motupōhue, Manawanui and Kanawera, were relocated back to southern predator-free islands in November, but now two more birds have booked themselves a ticket back home.
Department of Conservation Kākāpō operations manager Deidre Vercoe with Manawanui (pictured) when he was released at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in September. Manawanui has since moved back to a predator-free offshore island down south due to escape attempts. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
They are Manaaki, who had first breached the fence back in October but got out again, and Elwin, who recently made the news after being found outside the fence by a tanker driver.
Not long after the encounter, rangers detected Elwin outside the fence once more, and given the quick succession of his departures, Elwin was also removed from the trial.
Although the Waikato kākāpō population has been halved, DoC Kākāpō operations manager Deidre Vercoe said the team continued to learn a lot from the birds.
“We’ve always known them to be clever and agile; this real-world data is giving us great insight into their behaviour and capabilities that we might otherwise never have known.
“What we learn here will be so important for future management options.”
A key challenge was monitoring the birds at the sanctuary.
The kākāpō are wearing backpack-style transmitters, but staff need to use triangulation, a method for determining a position based on the distance from other points or objects that have known locations, to see where the birds are.
“We are investigating new technology such as live GPS tags that we hope to start trialing within the next week or so,” Vercoe said.
“Part of the challenge with technology is that many of the available options rely on solar power, which doesn’t work so well for our nocturnal manu [birds]. Size and weight of tags can also be an issue; for the safety and comfort of the kākāpō we need our tech to be as light and unobtrusive as possible.”
Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist and assistant news director at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.
