Kakapo Season 2010-2013

So what happens if you're the successful bidder and there are no chicks being hand reared next year?

:p

Hix
 
OrangePerson said:
I didn't imagine it, 12th Feb
Woohoo! Our scientist Dr Ron Moorhouse has been tree climbing on Codfish Island during the past week...all signs are looking good for a breeding season in 2013! He has been checking the amount of rimu fruit that has formed...it won't ripen for ages and is what the mother kakapo feed their chicks...fingers crossed
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Any reports on the other (now potential) kakapo breeding colony island?

ALL:
Mind the auction for the 2013 season in Invercargill!!!
 
kakapo isn't the only experience being auctioned:
Trips with government department auctioned - Yahoo! New Zealand News
Trips with New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) to see rare species in isolated places are being auctioned online on Sunday to raise money for a conservation charity.

Million Dollar Mouse, a charity associated with Wellington businessman Gareth Morgan, is running the auctions on TradeMe, the auction website founded by his son Sam Morgan.

The charity is raising $1 million to eradicate mice on the Antipodes Islands, 800 kilometres southeast of New Zealand, so birds can flourish there.

Bids for an eight-day trip to Snares and Codfish islands in December have reached $3000. Tourists are not usually allowed on the islands.

"You will work with a small DOC team to catch and transfer the endangered Snares Island snipe, as well as assist with a range of other tasks," the auction description says.

A moderate standard of fitness is required.

Other trips include Kakapo chick rearing, a seven-day trip to Resolution Island in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, and a "ranger for a day" on Kapiti Island.
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Sirocco will be at the Maungatautari sanctuary from mid-August for six weeks. They will be doing tours so it might be my chance to finally see a Kakapo!
 
Chlidonias said:
The (very) long-term plan is to get kakapo back breeding on the mainland again.
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zankara said:
Sirocco will be at the Maungatautari sanctuary from mid-August for six weeks. They will be doing tours so it might be my chance to finally see a Kakapo!
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coincidentally, the Maungatautari Ecological Island project is likely to be the first mainland site where kakapo will be test-released (at first with males only). It is basically a mountain surrounded by a predator-proof fence.
 
Chlidonias said:
coincidentally, the Maungatautari Ecological Island project is likely to be the first mainland site where kakapo will be test-released (at first with males only). It is basically a mountain surrounded by a predator-proof fence.
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That's good news since it's only 45 minutes from where I live :D
 
zankara said:
That's good news since it's only 45 minutes from where I live :D
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it'll be a while away yet, and the chance of seeing them will be slim even if they do night tours (they won't be humanised meet-and-greet birds like Sirocco).
 
Looking at that website, Maungatautari Eco Island looks like a fantastic place to visit. I'm surprised it doesn't already have a gallery on ZooChat. Must make sure I spend a day or two at this place when I next tour the North Island.

:p

Hix
 
another kakapo dead :(

Barnard The Kakapo is Found Dead | Fears for Endangered... | Stuff.co.nz
16 August 2012

An endangered kakapo first discovered 30 years ago has been found dead, and conservationists fear more deaths could be on the horizon.

Barnard, a male, was found dead by rangers on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island at the weekend, when they went looking for him for his annual transmitter change.

The discovery was a disappointing blow for the Kakapo Recovery team as it brings the number of deaths up to six in the past 12 months.

Caught on Stewart Island in 1982, Barnard was believed to have died from old age, programme manager Deidre Vercoe Scott said.
He fathered eight chicks, including five of the 11 hatched during the last breeding season in 2011.

"We've had a few older birds die recently and never have been able to detect what was wrong. They just kind of stopped working," she said.
"It's the highest mortality rate that we've had for a while."

Vercoe Scott said about a third of the 125 kakapo population caught on Stewart Island in the 1970s and 80s were now believed to be around 90 to 100 years old.

"We just don't know how old they are. We could have a large group of old birds on our hands that we may see pass away over the next wee while."

She said kakapo deaths were a reminder that, although Kakapo Recovery had achieved a lot during the past 22 years, increasing the total population from 49 to 131 last year, the bird was still a critically endangered species and vulnerable.

"The good news is more than half the kakapo population consists of young breeding age birds and indications are that there will be a breeding season this summer - planning for that is well underway," Scott said.

The Kakapo Recovery team were now looking at technology that allowed them to more closely monitor the bird population, as Barnard's death went unnoticed for three months.

"That technology is constantly changing to increase the information that we can collect. We may be experiencing some problems with how we interpret these complex transmitter signals accurately, so we will be looking into this closely.

"While it won't prevent a kakapo death, identifying a mortality signal as soon as possible means we get better information from the autopsy examination."

The 125 birds are being managed by the Department of Conservation on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island, near Stewart Island, and Anchor Island, in Fiordland.

DOC's Kakapo Recovery programme, in partnership with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Limited and Forest & Bird, has injected more than $3.75 million towards breeding programmes, predator proof sanctuaries and innovative research.

Its long-term goal is to have 150 females at three separate sits, one of which is self-sustaining.
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Not good news for a breeding season this year.

COLD SPRING AFFECTS KAKAPO BREEDING | Kakapo Recovery Programme

Hopes for a solid kakapo breeding season now look unlikely, following a cold southern spring.

Kakapo Recovery programme manager Deidre Vercoe Scott said indications from earlier in the year suggested a reasonable rimu fruit supply on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island this summer.
“We’ve spent the past few months preparing for up to 15 nests on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island, but the latest data from the island suggests we may be looking at only several nests this season.”

It is most likely that the record cold, wet Southland spring had stopped the rimu fruit – which female kakapo feed to their chicks – from developing. It is thought female kakapo use the availability of the fruit as a cue for breeding, she said.
“Our rimu fruit count last month shows there has been a 67 percent decline in fruit abundance since it was last counted in February.
“Compare that to the 38 percent we lost after the big September snow in 2010 and it’s obvious the fruit has been hit hard.”

As a result, plans to recruit volunteers to mind the nests had been cancelled, Ms Vercoe Scott said.
“Luckily, all is not lost. There are some trees with good supplies and, if they’re located in a female’s home range, we’d still expect some nesting to occur.”

Part of the work being carried out by Kakapo Recovery involves trialling supplementary food pellets that scientists hope will be accepted by female kakapo, as an alternative to rimu, to feed their chicks. Several volunteers including workers from New Zealand Aluminium Smelters and Forest and Bird, key partners in Kakapo Recovery, would be assisting with the supplementary food trials this season, she said.
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No Kakapo Chicks this Year

No point making a new thread for this season sadly.

Story here: Kakapo: No Stork Coming For Rare Native Parrot | Stuff.co.nz

No kakapo chicks will hatch this year, putting further pressure on the endangered species.

It is the second year in a row the kakapo, which is on the brink of extinction, will have no new additions to its small population.

Department of Conservation southern area manager Andy Roberts said the breeding season had begun with optimism but it was now highly unlikely any new kakapo chicks would be born this year.

For a species on the brink of extinction, the news was a setback but not a catastrophe for the Kakapo Recovery Programme, he said.

A failure to breed would not jeopardise the work of the recovery programme on Codfish Island, but it would slow the programme down.

"Kakapo are a long-lived bird so if there is a non-breeding season, there will be other years to breed," Mr Roberts said.

Hopes had been high for up to 15 nests on Codfish Island, but a record cold and very wet Southland spring had stopped the rimu fruit - an important food source for the kakapo chicks - from forming which in turn deterred the rare birds from mating.

It was believed female kakapo used the availability of the fruit as a cue for breeding, Mr Roberts said.

It was the second year in a row there had not been any new chicks, but alarm bells were not ringing at this stage, he said.

"While it would be ideal to have the kakapo breeding, this is part of life for the birds and is not highly unusual.

"It's disappointing, but with the poor spring, there was always a possibility breeding would be impacted this year."

It was getting very late in the breeding season and unless there was some last minute romance, everything pointed to the world kakapo population remaining at 125, Mr Roberts said.

The department also confirmed the kakapo population on Anchor Island in Dusky Sound had failed to breed this year.
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