Kakapo Season 2010-2013

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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time for a new thread for the new breeding season to come, hopefully as bountiful as the last which saw the kakapo population go from 91 up to 123 (http://www.zoochat.com/17/kakapo-season-2009-a-63705/).

First news for 2010:
Kakapo numbers given significant boost - Story - Environment/Sci - 3 News
The survival of New Zealand’s critically endangered giant parrot, the kakapo, has been given a significant boost.

There are only 123 of the birds left but, thanks to the generosity of two hospitals, sick baby chicks are about to receive a standard of intensive care usually reserved for humans.

“Unfortunately, often the natural food supply runs out and their parents aren’t able to rear them,” says kakapo vet Richard Jakob-Hoff.

“So we have to bring them in to hand raise them.”

There is just 123 of the parrots left and last year, 26 of 33 chicks had to be hand raised – many needed incubation.

The kakapo recovery programme in Invercargill, currently has five simple heating units.

But they are about to be donated some serious technology, in the form of seven neonatal incubators that Auckland and Dunedin hospitals no longer use.

“They’ve done their job, we’ve had good use for the last 10 to 12 years,’ says Clinical Director of Paediatrics on the Auckland District Health Board, Dr Malcolm Battin.

“They’re now ready to be decommissioned.”

It’s a huge boost for a species on the brink of extinction.

The kakapo has the slowest natural reproductive rate of all birds – the programme can’t afford to lose any chicks.

“It’s looking likely that next year is going to be a fantastic breeding season,” says Dr Jakob-Hoff.

“I’ve got no doubt that we’re going to need them.”

The incubators are now on their way to Invercargill to help another generation of vulnerable New Zealanders.
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news video here: Kakapo numbers given significant boost - Environment Sci - Video - 3 News
 
this thread has unfortunately been sitting idle for a while, but now that this year's breeding season is approaching some news has appeared:
Kakapo breeding to stretch DOC | Stuff.co.nz
Southland Department of Conservation staff will be stretched to the limit this summer as they try to successfully breed kakapo on two islands.

DOC kakapo programme manager Deidre Vercoe said it was the first year the endangered species were expected to nest on two islands after successfully breeding on Codfish Island, west of Stewart Island, in the past.

DOC was hoping for 19 breeding nests on Codfish and up to seven on Anchor Island in Dusky Sound, which if successful would be the first breeding of kakapo in Fiordland in living memory, she said.

However, with just a handful of key people and limited funding DOC would be stretched to monitor the birds on both islands, and was looking at using electronic monitoring on Anchor Island this year instead of the traditional volunteers, Ms Vercoe said.

Previously DOC had put volunteers in tents beside kakapo nests on Codfish Island to monitor them, but the rugged terrain of Anchor Island and the cost of getting them there made it difficult and was the reason for the move to the technology, she said.

If breeding was successful on both islands it would mean more breeding seasons and a faster population growth, which would ease the pressure on staff, Ms Vercoe said.

Meanwhile, seven male birds were moved from Codfish Island last month to an undisclosed predator-free island to give the breeding kakapo more room and safety.

The males included older kakapo that were already well represented in the genetic population and juvenile males, which were often curious and could wander into the nest of a female and begin fighting, she said.

To prevent any harm they had been removed from the island, Ms Vercoe said.
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Breeding on 2 islands would be a historical achievement for DOC.
Any indication what the rimu fruit season be like this 2010/2011 season?
Will they still use volunteers to monitor nests or not (the report was a bit confusing on that)?
 
having kakapo populations on more than one island has been attempted before (eg, on Little Barrier Island) but without success due to various factors. If they can pull it off this time it will be a fantastic boost for the species; as the population is more robust now than it has been for, well, a very long time it should work. It will also obviously be a good safety net should something terrible happen (eg PBFD getting onto Codfish Island, heaven forbid!)

I haven't heard anything myself on the status of the rimu crop.

Volunteers will still be used on Codfish as always, but probably not on Anchor due to the terrain and dangerous accessibility (agreed the article wasn't completely clear on that).
 
I hope this years breeding season is a bumper year for them, these are such cool birds
 
@Chlidonias,
The past attempts at relocation where probably marred by not knowing best technique and/or insufficient numbers? My experience with reintroductions underlines it is a numbers game. Bring in sufficient numbers quickly and continually over time - allowing for mortalities not to impinge on the complete effort - is the best solution to having a population become robust and viable-sustainable long term. In my mind, any effort - even though it is a costly exercise when well planned and executed is always funds well spent.
 
kakapo may be moving onto the mainland!!!

It's not the size of your boom that counts | Stuff.co.nz
09/12/2010
A group of kakapo "studs" have become victims of their own success with the ladies.

The Conservation Department is planning to move the frisky males off their sanctuary island and on to the mainland – in order to give those birds having less luck with the females a better chance.

Kakapo live on Codfish Island, or Whenua Hou, off Stewart Island, and on Anchor Island in Dusky Sound, but kakapo recovery programme acting manager Ron Moorhouse said a move to near Cambridge could be "on the cards" for some.

Under an intensively managed recovery programme, kakapo have been pulled back from the brink of extinction, though there are still only 122 birds now living.

With such a small population, it was important to prevent a genetic bottleneck that could increase the risk of deformities or abnormalities, Mr Moorhouse said.

"Over successive years we've had this small group of males becoming over-represented in the gene pool. They can become victims of their own success and we can't allow that to continue."

There were also birds which appeared to have deformed sperm, and DOC did not want them to breed with healthy females.

"We have the studs – the successful breeders – and the duds, the ones we have reason to doubt their fertility."

DOC is looking for a predator-free mainland site for the birds, and has been talking to the private trust that runs Maungatautari, a 3400-hectare forest surrounded by a predator-proof fence, near Cambridge.

The trust has introduced kaka, but Mr Moorhouse said more consideration needed to be given to ensuring kakapo could be kept inside the sanctuary.

The latest group of "studs" is in addition to three adult and seven young males who were transferred off Codfish Island to another secret island location to reduce competition in this breeding season. However, Mr Moorhouse said doing this every year was impractical and expensive.

While the public were unlikely to see kakapo if they were returned to the mainland – they are scared of people and nocturnal – they would definitely hear their distinctive boom, which Mr Moorhouse described as like a person blowing loudly over a glass bottle.

This year is the 20th year of the kakapo recovery programme, on which DOC spends about $700,000 a year and to which Rio Tinto contributes $200,000.

Rangers are hoping for up to 19 nests on Codfish Island this year – kakapo can lay two or three eggs – and have their fingers crossed that those on Anchor will breed for the first time.
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Is 'Richard Henry' still included in the (potential) breeding population?

Where does he live now?
 
I can't really find anything recent enough on Richard Henry to say where he is. He's very old of course and nearly blind, but he has three offspring carrying his Fiordland genes which is good. He may be in the group of spare males that has been removed to a "secret" location.
 
Richard Henry is dead :(

very sad news
Veteran Kakapo dies - Yahoo!Xtra News
13 January 2011

A kakapo called Richard Henry, who played a vital role in the endangered birds' breeding programme, has died at an estimated age of 80.

Richard Henry, who gets his name from the Victorian conservationist who pioneered work with kakapo recovery, was originally discovered in Fiordland in 1975 when kakapo were believed to be extinct.

When another group of other birds was found on Stewart Island, Richard Henry offered genetic diversity to the breeding programme, which now numbers 121 birds, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said today.

DOC kakapo programme scientist Ron Moorhouse said Richard Henry's death marked the end of an era in kakapo conservation.

"Richard Henry was a living link to the early days of kakapo recovery, and perhaps even to a time before stoats when kakapo could boom unmolested in Fiordland.

"It's sad to lose Richard Henry but the main thing is that the kakapo population is growing and includes Richard Henry's genetic legacy of three adult offspring."

Richard Henry was conservatively assumed to be around 80 years old, but he could have been much older, even over 100, in which case he could have been New Zealand's oldest bird, DOC said.
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R.I.P. I hope this godfather of kakapo genes gets a memorial of sorts along the lines "When all hope seemed lost, R.H. was at the heart of the regeneration of a new stock of kakapos bringing it back from the brink of definite extinction. We remember with fondness and humbled.
 
Any other news on the progress of the breeding?

I was pondering whilst reading the panda thread whether there was anything I'd actually travel very far just to see - I think I've now got an answer! I was talking to someone last year who was working on a conservation project on or near Stewart Island and she'd been to Codfish Island, she said she wasn't that excited before she went but they were amazing!
 
OrangePerson said:
Any other news on the progress of the breeding?
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the birds should be getting into breeding mode in the next few weeks. The population as of now is 121 birds following the death of Stewart Island provenance male Sass in February 2010, Stewart Island provenance female Sarah in May 2010 and the last of the Fiordland provenance birds, male Richard Henry in late December 2010.
 
Are they breeding the different provenanced animals separately?

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
Are they breeding the different provenanced animals separately?
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nope, the absence of Fiordland females somewhat precluded that possibility. The only known kakapo in recent historical times have all been from Fiordland and Stewart Island.

Some history of the two populations:

Fiordland:
By the 1960s there were very few kakapo left in Fiordland and they were probably all old males (estimates of Richard Henry's age ranged from 80 to over 130, based on the supposition that once mustelids reached Fiordland there wouldn't have been any chicks coming through to adulthood and the females would have been being killed in their burrows). The five captured in 1961 and sent to Mt Bruce for an attempted captive breeding programme were all male as it turned out (at the time it wasn't known how to sex kakapo visually). A proper effort to try and save the species started in 1974 when surveys began in an attempt to establish how many birds were actually in Fiordland. Two males (at the time thought to be male and female and hence named Jonathon and Jill) were caught that year and moved to Maud Island in Cook Strait. Richard Henry was caught in 1975 and also moved to Maud Island. In all, between 1974 and 1978 just eighteen kakapo, all male, were caught in Fiordland as well as two more in 1981. All were moved to Maud Island and none of them except Richard Henry survived. In 1986 and 1987 there were known to be about four male kakapo remaining in Fiordland but they proved impossible to catch and they were not seen alive again.

Stewart Island:
Almost every kakapo alive today is either an actual individual or a descendant of a surprise population discovered on Stewart Island in January 1977. It was estimated that the population in this one area was about 200 birds. A female caught there in 1980 was the first to be seen in over 70 years. In 1982 seven females and eleven males were transferred to Little Barrier Island. Unfortunately feral cats were killing the Stewart Island kakapo with increasing frequency (it was thought the cats were gaining easier access to the forest via the tracks the kakapo researchers were cutting) and the decision was made in 1985 to move all the remaining birds to Codfish Island which had recently been cleared of possums and introduced weka, as well as to Maud and Mana Islands. By 1992 a total of 61 kakapo had been caught and moved, as well as a single additional female in 1997. And that was all there were left.

Richard Henry:
This male was caught in Fiordland in 1975 and moved to Maud Island. He was later transferred to Little Barrier Island but he never took part in the booming activities of the Stewart Island males that were moved there in 1982, so in 1996 he was moved back to Maud Island along with an outcast Little Barrier female called Flossie with whom he bred and produced a clutch of three chicks in 1998. These chicks are Sinbad and Gulliver (males) and Kuia (female). They are all still alive and are the only surviving birds carrying Fiordland genes. Richard Henry as noted earlier in the thread died in late December 2010.
 
Chlidonias said:
Richard Henry was caught in 1975 and also moved to Maud Island. In all, between 1974 and 1978 just eighteen kakapo, all male, were caught in Fiordland as well as two more in 1981. All were moved to Maud Island and none of them except Richard Henry survived. In 1986 and 1987 there were known to be about four male kakapo remaining in Fiordland but they proved impossible to catch and they were not seen alive again.
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I didn't realise 18 Kakapo had been translocated from Fiordland!:eek: In the book 'Quest for the Kakapo' which has a long and detailed chapter on the searches for and attempts to capture Fiordland birds during this period, particularly females for captive breeding, little mention is made of these birds, apart from a brief 'throwaway' sentence saying 18 birds had been 'found' by 1978. Though it does describe in detail the capture of the initial two Kakapo, 'Jack' & 'Jill' (who was another male obviously) and later also 'Richard Henry' Presumably 17 birds later lost was not something they wanted made public for posterity in a book! This seems to have been 'disguised' by not mentioning either their capture or movement to Maud Island. Though the capture and transfer of the two 1981 birds(Hugo & Mirkwood) is described as both were caught by hand.

Two more males(Biscuit & Tawbert) were captured during the 1986/7 searches but there was 'political' disagreement about what should be done with them so transmitters were placed on them to allow for later recapture. One was later removed, the other stopped functioning. By then the focus had moved to finding females in the Stewart Island population and the last few Fiordland males vanished into oblivion.

The article doesn't give Richard Henry's location when he died. Any ideas?
 
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I haven't yet been able to discover which island Richard Henry was on, I'll get back to you with that one if I find out.

You may be interested (well, you will be interested :D) in a brand new book out in 2010 called "Kakapo: rescued from the brink of extinction" by Alison Ballance. It is very very good. Here's a link to it on NHBS but you could probably get it cheaper by ordering it from NZ, perhaps. NHBS - Kakapo - Alison Ballance
 
@Chlidonias
If you should have any suggestions to get it direct off Kiwi shores, I keep myself recommended.

I cannot wait untill the new season should get underway ....
Any early predictions on the rimu seasons on both islands habitats?
 
OrangePerson said:
I was talking to someone last year who was working on a conservation project on or near Stewart Island and she'd been to Codfish Island, she said she wasn't that excited before she went but they were amazing!
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One of my best memories is my first sight of a Kakapo. I spent a day on Stewart Island when they were translocating a few Kakapo to Maud Island. The birds had already got transmitters on so they could be relocated but radio telemetry can only find the rough area they are in. Then a (muzzled) dog was used to actually find the bird in the thick scrub vegetation. When the dog handler came back with a bulging sack I knew they'd been successful. They carefully opened the bag and this beautiful green and rather bedragged bird peered out. Wonderful....
 
Chlidonias I m actually waiting for the book to get back in stock here in Europe, so good to hear it s a good one.
I m as curious as Kifaru and if things work out as I hope I ll finally drop by in the South.
 
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