Tiny pōpokotea being banded before release into Bushy Park Tarapuruhi. Photo / Alina Huff
Tiny pōpokotea being banded before release into Bushy Park Tarapuruhi. Photo / Alina Huff
Whanganui's Bushy Park Tarapuruhi sanctuary will be home once again to a flock of long-lost residents, the treasured pōpokotea whitehead.
The small birds are being moved in small groups over the next fortnight from Waitahinga Reserve and released into their new home at Bushy Park Tarapuruhi.
They are being moved because they will only move through forest and, as their surroundings get de-forested, they are unlikely to make it to Bushy Park Tarapuruhi on their own.
The sanctuary is a partnership between local iwi members of Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi, Forest and Bird, and Bushy Park Trust.
They will welcome up to 60 pōpokotea whiteheads, an ancient species only found in New Zealand.
Bushy Park sanctuary manager Mandy Brooke said this number was important to ensure a diverse enough gene pool for the birds to continue reproducing healthily.
She said it was an incredible opportunity to re-establish a species at Bushy Park Tarapuruhi, that would have once lived there in the hundreds.
Brooke said the success of this project could mean benefits to other native birds as well.
"Whiteheads are 'babysitters' for koekoeā long-tailed cuckoo eggs and chicks, so if we're lucky, we'll also have some koekoeā decide to move in too," she said.
Forest and Bird Bushy Park Tarapuruhi sanctuary manager Mandy Brooke with a translocation box. Photo / Alina Huff
"We're extremely grateful for the support we've received to make this project a reality and honoured to welcome what will become our first breeding pōpokotea pairs," Brooke said.
Kevin Parker, from Parker Conservation, is the translocation specialist leading the 12-person catching team.
He said the project timing was reliant on the availability of birds and the weather.
"We'll be catching and releasing pōpokotea as we go to minimise stress on these birds."
If the team is unable to capture enough birds from the Waitahinga Reserve, additional pōpokotea can be translocated from a back-up site which has been confirmed with Palmerston North City Council and local iwi Rangitaane.
The translocation has been funded by Horizons Regional Council, which has been working closely with Bushy Park Tarapuruhi.
Horizons community biodiversity adviser Nick Heslop said this was an incredible opportunity for the Whanganui area from a biodiversity standpoint.
"It's about restoring the missing pieces of the ecosystem in an important priority habitat site," Heslop said.
"To be able to provide a safe predator-free habitat for these and other 'at-risk' species, to not only survive ... but to thrive and repopulate is a credit to the many volunteers and expert input and advice from all involved."
