Zoo deeply saddened by loss of Darkstar
3 August 2010Auckland Zoo was deeply saddened to hear of the freak accident that led to Northland kiwi Darkstar's drowning.
Zoo vet Dr John Potter and his colleagues, who spent several months treating Darkstar for a broken foot and nursing her back to full health were particularly devastated by her death.
Late last week Darkstar wandered some metres into a narrow culvert on the Ngungaru property were she had been returned in mid-July. Department of Conservation kiwi ranger Pete Graham, who located her via her transmitter, says she would just have been going in to find a roost as daylight came. Unfortunately, the culvert was blocked at the other end, and she was unable to get out when it rained, and drowned.
"It's one of those really tragic situations that no one could have predicted would have happened. Her leg was fully healed when she was released, and her mobility was really good, so her previous injury didn't contribute to her accident," says Dr Potter.
Darkstar hatched at Auckland Zoo as a BNZ Operation Nest Egg bird in September 2007 and was accidently hit by a car some six kilometres from her home range in Northland in late April. Following her stay at the Zoo's New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine, she was returned to the Ngungaru property on 15 July – the area she was initially released onto last October. Department of Conservation staff fitted her with a transmitter so that she could be closely monitored, and were doing a regular check on her when they found her.