Kakapo Season 2010-2013

There is a Hoki but she was hatched on Codfish Island in 1992 and reared at Auckland Zoo before going to Maud Island.

The ones that came to Maud from Stewart Island were male Arab and females Maggie, Jean and Dianna in 1980/81 (Dianna died within months of the transfer). In 1982 stoats made their way to the island (swimming from the mainland) and so Arab, Jean, Maggie and Richard Henry were caught and removed to Little Barrier Island.

The next birds to be released on Maud (after elimination of the stoats and a preventative trapping line set up around the entire coastline) were female Tara from Stewart Island in 1985 (did not survive) and then between 1989 and 1991 females Ruth and Fuschia and males Piripiri, Jerry, Smoko and Jimmy (all from Stewart Island). Richard Henry returned here from Little Barrier in 1996.

There have been other kakapo on Maud since then but they would be after your visit.

Hoki was on Maud Island from 1992 to 1997 but I'm not sure if she was ever actually released into "the wild"; she may have been in an enclosure the whole time. Afterwards she returned to Codfish Island. There's a page just for her on the Recovery website: Hoki | Kakapo Recovery Programme
 
Chlidonias said:
The next birds to be released on Maud (after elimination of the stoats and a preventative trapping line set up around the entire coastline) were female Tara from Stewart Island in 1985 (did not survive) and then between 1989 and 1991 females Ruth and Fuschia and males Piripiri, Jerry, Smoko and Jimmy (all from Stewart Island). Richard Henry returned here from Little Barrier in 1996.

There have been other kakapo on Maud since then but they would be after your visit.
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My Kakapo 'experiences' would have been between 1989-91 so I deduce that the male I saw recaptured on Stewart Island and flown to Maud Island could have been any one(or was it two?) of those four males you list- none of their names stands out from then. I revisited Maud again on another trip which is when I saw 'PiriPiri' and found out the name etc. I believe there were three males on Maud at that time nd maybe the females as well.

I remember not being surprised stoats could reach Maud, as its very close to the Mainland.

I spent a little time on Little Barrier too- Richard Henry must have been there then, though as there were no catchups going on I never saw any Kakapo there.
 
We spoiled the last year. If 11 chicks will be th score of this year it will be anyway a major boost and a continuation of the good work done last years. It seems DoC has cracked the code. Now let's keeps fingers crossed that one day the Kakapo can have a self sustainable population and maybe even one day will return to the mainland.
 
way-hey, just checked and all eggs have now hatched. Eleven chicks for the year!

Quick summary of the season (from the nesting table on the recovery website):
Eggs laid = 20
Eggs infertile = 5
Eggs fertile = 15 (four of these died in shell)
Chicks hatched = 11
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I assume that Anchor Island holds some of the younger kakapo. I am want for leather to know the age/sex set up on both (no idea there, though a little surfing the net might help) ...
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at the start of 2010 (i.e. a year ago) there were 22 females and 27 males on Anchor Island. I don't know if those are still current figures or not; I don't know the age range either, but I think its a mix of younger and older birds.
 
Junior kakapo get 24-hour care - environment | Stuff.co.nz
7 April 2011

Big handfuls of fluff are being treated like royalty on a southern island.

The kakapo chicks have constant babysitters, can get heat pads and regular feeds if they need them, but then they also have the weight of their species on them.

Department of Conservation staff and volunteers on Codfish Island are working 24 hours a day to monitor the 11 chicks that have hatched this year. Just 20 eggs were laid on the island this year.

With a total population of just 131 birds – 68 of them on Codfish – the pressure is on those on the island, nine rangers and 11 volunteers at the moment, to ensure these chicks survive. The department also has a breeding refuge on Anchor Island, in Dusky Sound.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson and Ryan Cavanagh, general manager of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters which contributes significantly to the kakapo preservation project, visited Codfish yesterday for an update on the breeding season.

They were shown the hand feeding of three chicks, which were being kept in incubators, with a liquid commercial parrot mixture.

DOC kakapo ranger Jo Ledington said the youngest chick on the island was 13 days old, with the eldest 35 days.

Volunteers spend the night monitoring nesting sites, calling the base every time the mother left or returned. If they remained away too long, the chicks could become too cold, requiring human intervention.

Five chicks required some hand rearing this year, although staff were trying to put them back into nests when they could to ensure the nests remained active and they were fed by kakapo.

The goal of the programme is to build populations on predator-free islands and potentially the mainland that did not need human management, she said.

Staff will care for the chicks for about six months.
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wow. Sad....:( I met him several times when I was in NZ- spent one evening talking to him in a crowded bar & disco-type setup at a DOC 'conference', but the music was so loud we could hardly hear what the other was saying. He certainly knew how to manage birds.
 
The conservation fraternity has lost an icon. Very sad day indeed.

:(

Hix
 
this was in a Wellington Zoo thread so thought it best to pop it in here as well:
Kakapo's future may lie with ailing chick | Stuff.co.nz
15 April 2011

chick with "precious genes" has been flown from Codfish Island sanctuary to be treated by Wellington Zoo's resident kakapo expert.

The gangly grey chick is one of 11 hatchlings from this year's kakapo breeding season and could one day play an important role in the rare parrot's survival.

Solstice One, as the 34-day-old chick is known, had been suffering from unknown respiratory problems and low health.

On Tuesday, it was flown to Wellington for one-on-one treatment from veterinary science manager and kakapo chick expert Lisa Argilla.

She has helped to hand-raise 26 chicks, after working with Conservation Department rangers in heavy breeding seasons.

This week Dr Argilla and her team had been running blood tests, X-rays and other diagnostics to try to work out what was wrong.

She said the chick might be suffering from "fatty liver", which can happen when rangers supplement the adult kakapo population's food sources. "It can be deadly – there was a chick a few years ago that died from it."

Kakapo have a 100 per cent herbivorous diet and rely on rimu fruit for much of their nutrition. In years when rimu trees fail to bear enough fruit, rangers give the birds pellets, but these can be too rich in protein and energy for the baby birds to tolerate.

Solstice One is the only chick from this season's 11 hatchlings to show signs of ill health.

Its mother, Solstice, was found on Stewart Island in June 1997. She was the first kakapo to be found and taken from the island in five years. She laid three eggs in 2002, but all of the chicks died before hatching. "This little chick is very precious, genetically," Dr Argilla said.

Solstice was artificially inseminated to increase the population's genetic diversity, so her chick would be a valuable breeding bird if it stayed healthy. Solstice One, believed to be a female, will be given an official name after her gender is confirmed and iwi have been consulted.

Dr Argilla said she completely disagreed with the suggestion by University of Adelaide scientist Cory Bradshaw this week that the "wonderfully weird" kakapo was among endangered species that were beyond saving.

"I don't think they are – DOC are doing such a good job," Dr Argilla said. "In 10 years they've managed to more than double the population, and also the big breeding seasons are happening closer and closer together, and there's now a higher percentage of females."

DOC's Kakapo Recovery Programme has increased the number of kakapo from 50 to 120 since 1995, not including the 11 chicks hatched this season.
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a few photos of the chick are in the Wellington Zoo gallery
there's a video on the link above as well
 
Interesting that this chick's mother was only discovered(?) on Stewart Island as late as 1997. I guess there could still be the (remote) possibility of a few other undiscovered Kakapo still living there ?
 
Yes it is entirely possible. Stewart Island is quite a big area almost fully covered in forest, but due to the vulnerability of the females it would be probable that if any do still survive down there they would most likely be males. Sort of like the former Fiordland situation. The upside of course is that there aren't any mustelids on Stewart Island, so they only have to contend with cats, rats, possums, pigs and deer.
 
Chlidonias said:
Stewart Island is quite a big area almost fully covered in forest, but due to the vulnerability of the females it would be probable that if any do still survive down there they would most likely be males. Sort of like the former Fiordland situation. The upside of course is that there aren't any mustelids on Stewart Island, so they only have to contend with cats, rats, possums, pigs and deer.
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I visited it once for a Kakapo 'pickup' It seemed huge!

As you said, the females get wiped out first- as with most NZ endemic birds. It was a miracle they saved them in time before the Cats stared to exterminate them on Stewart Island really.
 
I just found a brilliant new book today (well, I say brilliant but because I just got it I haven't actually read it yet; and I say new, but I found it in a second-hand shop so its only new for me). Its called "A Celebration Of Kakapo", and is in fact a special edition issued in book form of Notornis (March 2006: volume 52, part 1) devoted to kakapo. It contains 197 pages consisting of twelve scientific papers and a short photo essay of historical photos.

I just did a google search to see if I could find any second-hand ones on-line, and found the papers listed here which can be downloaded as well: Special Edition Journal | Kakapo Recovery Programme

Cover picture can be seen here: A celebration of Kakapo. : Williams, Murray, editor. - Andrew Isles (no copies available here though)
 
the kakapo chick at Wellington Zoo is well enough to be returned to Codfish now:
Kakapo out of intensive care | Stuff.co.nz
4 May 2011

A rare baby kakapo will return to the South Island today after recuperating in the expert hands of Wellington Zoo's Lisa Argilla.

The veterinary science manager and kakapo nanny has been tending Solstice 1 around the clock since the chick was flown to the zoo in mid-April, aged just one month. Under Dr Argilla's watch, Solstice 1 has gained half a kilogram, and bundles of energy.

"She's bright and perky now, getting her stroppy attitude back."

Dr Argilla has worked for 24 days straight, from Solstice 1's first feed at 6.30am to her 11pm supper.

Her job is not quite over yet, as she will fly to Invercargill with the chick and "get her used to being a kakapo again".

Dr Argilla is part of a nationwide emergency response team for the kakapo population - vets who are experienced at dealing with the rare parrots, and take turns being "on call" in case something goes wrong.

She was also part of a team that hand-reared 26 chicks during a bumper breeding season several years ago. Solstice 1 is one of 11 kakapo chicks born this season, boosting the species' numbers from 120 to 131.

She is the first chick born to Solstice, who was the last female kakapo to be found on Stewart Island, in 1997. With such low numbers, every kakapo is precious, but Solstice 1 is even more so because of her unusual genes.

Dr Argilla said tests had shown the chick was suffering from an infection that made her lethargic and malnourished, but she was now in the normal weight range for her age and not expected to have further problems.
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Pertinax said:
Interesting that this chick's mother was only discovered(?) on Stewart Island as late as 1997. I guess there could still be the (remote) possibility of a few other undiscovered Kakapo still living there ?
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just coming back to this for a minute, there's a few relevant mentions in the new kakapo book by Alison Ballance, which give hope this is so.

The female Solstice was caught on Stewart Island in 1997 five years after the last Stewart Island bird had been found. This appears to have been largely a consequence of not much effort being put into finding more kakapo there. As Ballance phrased it : "No one thought they had caught every last bird, it was just that the effort wasn't justified" [in terms of money and man-power]. A bit surprising really, but there you go. In 1997 though it was decided to make a last expedition to try and find any more survivors and that's when Solstice was found.

On Little Barrier Island all known females were removed in 1999. There were two missing females that hadn't been seen since they were released there in the 1980s, and which were presumed to have died. Surplus males were left on the island, and there was much surprise when there were signs of mating activity at one of the male's bowls. A more intensive search with a kakapo-tracking dog discovered Lisa on a nest of three eggs. She hadn't been seen in 14 years.

On Codfish Island in 2009 male Rangi was unexpectedly captured after having been released there in 1987 and never seen since (i.e. 21 years). And this was despite all kakapo being removed temporarily from Codfish during rat eradication in 1999 and the island being combed with experienced kakapo-tracker dogs just in case there were any MIA kakapo still out there.

So even on small islands criss-crossed by track systems and worked over by trained kakapo trackers and their dogs, kakapo can still remain completely hidden. Who knows how many kakapo could still be holding out on Stewart Island. After all, Richard Henry and his mates hung on in Fiordland for over a century in the face of mustelid invasion.
 
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