WELLINGTON, Dec 4 (NNN-RNZ) – Surveying of brown kiwi in New Zealand’s Eastern Coromandel has shown a 10 percent increase from 2015 to 2020, as sustained predator control by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the local community pays off for the threatened birds.
Numbers are expected to continue to increase, following the recent distribution of biodegradable 1,080 bait pellets at Whenuakite, which will provide further protection to kiwi from stoats, Whenuakite Kiwi Care group spokesperson, Janice Hinds, said today.
The area’s kiwi benefit from a combined predator control approach, Hinds said, adding a crew of landowners contribute to on-ground predator control covering 3,500 hectares.
Every three to four years, the DOC and Waikato Regional Council apply 1,080 bait to clean up the possums destroying the canopy, and the trap-shy rats and mustelid, she said.
DOC Biodiversity Ranger, Leon Pickering, said, vulnerable brown kiwi are a particular focus of the aerial predator control programme.
“We know that kiwi chicks are especially at risk, with up to 95 percent loss of chicks being killed by predators in some locations,” Pickering said, adding, sustained predator control means around 60 percent of the chicks make it to adulthood.
Monitoring has shown, the recent aerial 1,080 operations in Whenuakite, managed to reduce rodents to an undetectable level. Stoats have also been controlled, at a rate of 90-100 percent on average, through secondary poisoning, as they feed on rodent carcasses, Pickering said.
There are further signs of the biodiversity gains from the programme, such as flocks of kererus seen up to 250 at a time, and the tomtits spreading up from the south, and pohutukawa trees flower seen for the first time in a lifetime, he said.– NNN-RNZ
