by Glen Holland and Rose CollenNew Zealand

.Re,.establishment of aKaka Population

success of these another release wasundertaken in 1999, comprising adultmales.

The first releas group consist­ed of five wild-origin (Kapiti Island,Wellington) and four hand-rearedjuvenile Kaka. The Kapiti Islandbirds were captured and transferredto Mount Bruce in May 1996, andput into two aviaries with the hand­reared juveniles. Five were held in alarge aviary with two captive adultKaka, and four were held in a smalltemporary aviary at the reI ase ite.

During a one-month quarantineperiod, cloacal swabs and fecal sam­ples were collected from all nineKaka, to screen for almonella,yersinia, chlamydia and internal para­sites including coccidia. All te tsreturned clear results. The birds were

Photo by Rose Collen

fitted with transmitters (weighing 60/0of the bird s body weight and with a27-month life span) and individualcolour leg band combinations.

In order to encourage the birdsnatural feeding behavior, the aviarieswere supplied with fresh natural for­age including berries and rotting logswhich contained invertebrate. Analuminum feed tation identical tothree feed tation which were to beset up at the relea e site, designed forease of cleaning, was et up in eachaviary 0 that the Kaka wouldbecome familiar with feeding fromthem. A diet of nectar fruit, vegeta­bles eed and nut was supplied atthe feed tations daily. The feedsta­tions each consist d of a circular bodydivided into four feeding compart­ment, urrounded by pipe for thebird to perch on. Each feed station atthe relea e ite wa ecured 2 metersoff the ground at the top of a metalpole, and could be easily lowered forcleaning. Food wa supplied daily at3:00 P.M. to the wild birds from therelease date onwards.

The first release of nine birdsoccurred in June 1996. The juvenilesspent the night before release alltogether in the temporary aviary at

the release site.The followingmorning the frontmesh wall of theaviary wasremoved, freeingthe birds. A morn­ing release gavethe birds time toinvestigate theirsurroundingsbefore nightfall.Once the birdsbecame accus­tomed to the daily3:00 P.M. restock­ing of the feedsta­tions all but twowild-origin birdsbecame regularfeeders. Of thewild origin birdsone was recap­tured at the pointof origin and a

T he Kaka Nestor meridionalisis a forest-dwelling parrotendemic to New Zealand.

There are North Island and SouthIsland Kaka sub-species. The NorthIsland Kaka was once widespreadthroughout the North Island andoutlying islands, but numbers havedwindled on the mainland to theextent that the only ecure popula­tions are on offshore islands.

The main reasons for thedecline of Kaka on the mainland arehabitat loss through deforestation,and introduced predators uch asmustelids and opossums. Kaka werelocally extinct from Mount Brucereserve for nearly 50 years, until abold new initiative to return them tothe area. The reserve surrounds theMount Bluce National Wildlife Centre,which is dedicat­ed to the captivebreeding of NewZealand's rareand endangeredspecies forrelease into thewild. The initialgoal of the proj­ect was "Todeterminewhether or notthe release ofjuvenile Kaka isan effective toolin the restorationof Kaka to main-land ecosys-terns. " Threegroups of juve­niles from differ­ent origins werereleased in 1996

and 1997, and Adult Kaka showing colour leg bandfollowing the and the transmitter aerial is clearly visible.

the afa WATCHBIRD 43

Photo by Rose Collen

Soon another hand-rearedfemale, "Yakka" wa found nesting ina rotten tree stump. The entrancehole was con idered low enough toprovide acce to jumping predatorso the nest wa closed over with wire

me h to prevent Yakka going back tothi dangerou ite. However thidetermined bird che ed the me haway and went back in to finish lay­ing her clutch of four egg. taff thendecided to predator proof th nest aswell as po ible, by clearing the sur­rounding vegetation, attachingsmooth metal heet to the tree andplacing 20 fenn traps around the ite.Hand-reared Yakka was v ry tameand unafraid of people but whilene ting all the protective/aggres ivein tincts were there. After 25 dayincubation, four chicks hatched, andat 55 days of age it was time to takethem from the nest and fit transmit­ters and leg bands to them beforethey fledged at 65 days, so that theirurvival could be monitored once

they left the ne t. Due to aggre iontowards staff, Yakka wa apturedand held temporarily in a box. Thechicks were then returned to the ne tYakka allowed back to them, and allfour fledged the following week.

start breeding until they er foury ar of age. The fir t clu was whenone female, three-year-old hand­reared 'Mel" stopped feeding fromthe feedstation each afternoon,

hich wa unu ual for her. Her ig­nal wa tracked orne way up thehill and h a located at a nest site

ith a mal in attendance. The itea in a leaning hollo tree not

afe for the female a it provideda y acce for predators. taff

attempted to pr dator-proof the treeby placing metal sheet around theba e to prevent climbing predator ,and etting baited fenn trap aroundthe ite. Within a week the bird waattacked on the ne t and her eggpreyed on - he a injured butr covered and did not mak anotherne ting attempt. Two other femalessoon di app ared, and to the dismayof staff were both found dead on thesame day at nest sites. Bite marksand broken egg hell ugge ted thata ferret and a toat were re pon ible.After this disappointing tart to theun xpected breeding ea on moni­toring of the female was tepped upto ensure any further ne t werefound quickly ith the aim of pro­t cting them from predators.

econd di appeared. A ec­ond relea e group of fiveparent-reared captive-bredju enile, a a embl dand held at Mount Bruc inMay 1997. The e birds erprepared for release underthe same protocol a thprevious group with aquarantine, tran mitter,band fitting, and feedstationet-up. They ere h ld in

the temporary aviary at therelea e/feed tation area forthe three day prior torelease, then relea d inJune 1997 at the afternoonfeed time. This meant thatthe 1997 relea e juvenilewould ee the re ident ildbird using the feed tations.There a no difference inurvival between the bird Kaka drinking nectarfrom a tube on the upplementary feed station.

released in th morningand tho e relea ed at thafternoon feed time.

All relea e group were moni­tored using telemetry equipment dur­ing the six-month periods followingrelea e. Re earcher Raelene Berrywrote her Ma ter the is on the bird'behavior and urvi aI, and found verylittle difference between the threerelease group. All urvi ed the ix­month po t-relea e n10nitoring peri­od, and all retuained within theMount Bruce re erve, within appro i­mately 1km of the relea e ite. Two ofthe three ample group had the ben­efit of parent rearing to 1 arn their nat-ural foraging technique ho er thhand-reared juvenile ho ed equalnatural foraging abilitie. All birdpent mo t of their fe ding time

chewing into ood for inv rt brateand were ob erved £ ding on apfruits and nectar. The urvival and itefidelity result howed th re was littledifference between the captive-bredand wild-origin juvenil ,apart fromles inclination from the wild-originbirds to use the artificial ~ d tation .

The ummer of 1998 a thefirst breeding attempt by thereleased Kaka at the ag of twoand three year . Thi a a urpri e,as it wa thought that Kaka did not

44 Fourth Quarter 2001

Two of the two-year-oldfemales bred as well. One chose avery good site - a tall tree in a semi­clearing. The surrounding vegetationwas trimmed and the tree banded,no tra ps were necessary.Unfortunately her mate died due toa bill injUly (suspected fighting), andlacking backup and fe ding from themale she deserted her nest withthree fertile eggs.

The other two-year-old, "Cleo"laid in an artificial nestbox in whichstarlings had already constructed anew nest - she laid and incubated inthe cup of the starling nest! She wasunpartnered (due to a shortage ofavailable males) and the infertileeggs were removed. Her secondnesting attempt was in a stump verylow to the ground, so her eggs (alsoinfertile) and the stump wereremoved. She went on the try a thirdclutch (amazing for a two year oldand first time breeder), and by thistime she had a mate. The chosen sitewas a tree by the edge of one of the

service roads, making predatorproofing easy. Cleo fledged twochicks from this nest, which werealso banded and fitted with transmit­ters. The season started with threemales and nine females. It endedwith two males, five females andtwo juveniles (unfortunately onejuvenile died aCCidentally and threewere killed by predators at inde­pendence). Two females disap­peared and radio transmitter contactwas lost. At the end of the season,despite some disappointments, wefelt that we had the necessaryknowledge and skiJIs to supportsuccessful breeding.

A third release, in September1999, involved a fourth sample group.Inaccurate sexing of the Kapiti Islandbirds back in 1996, was due to theirage. Current methods for assigningsex based on measurements are onlyaccurate for adults, had lead to anunexpected skew towards females inthe Mount Bruce population, andmore adult males were needed to

increase the number of pairs. Fourmales, aged from three to elevenyears, were brought to Mount Brucefrom other captive holder, and pre­pared for relea e as with the previousgroups. They were all captive bredand having spent their entire lives incaptivity were very tame and accus­tomed to people.

They were released at the feed­stations at the afternoon feed time andobserved interacting with the residentwild Kaka almost straight away. Overthe following weeks the four relied onthe food supplied at the feedstations,but were observed foraging for naturalfoods more over time.

This release group proved justas successful as previous releases,with 100% survival and site fidelity.One bird even paired with a residentfemale over the 1999/2000 season,however no offspring were pro­duced. Interestingly only a handfulof birds on the orth Island attempt­ed to breed that season and nonewere known to have been success-

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Artificial nest and predator trap box lor public viewing al Ihe sup­plementary feed station.

Public viewing olKakas at the supplementarYleeding statioll.

Conservation staffgive a talk about thereintroduction proj­ect. This also offersthe opportunity totell members of thepublic about prob­lems other speciesface in New Zealandand the effortsrequired for theirrestoration.

There are cur­rently. approximate­ly 50 Kaka in captiv­ity in New Zealandwith only selectedbirds allowed tobreed so that theiroffspring's geneticvariability is maxi­mized. Re-introduc­tions such as thisare likely to bereplica ted else­

where in ew Zealand and givegood reason for future captivebreeding to supply birds for release.

UpdateThe re-establishment of ew

Zealand's ol1h Island Kaka to theMount Bruce rational Wildlife

successfully been re-established to anarea from which they had becomeextinct. Apart from the conselvationbenefits for this species, which tl1isproject has produced, a number ofother species such as kiwi, kokako,robins and more are likely to benefitfrom re-introductions after tlle futurepredator con­trol.

The rein­troduction ofKaka to theMount Brucereselve has pro­vided excellentadvocacy andeducationopportu n ities.The supplemen­talY feeding notonly supportsthe birds andenables ea ymonitoring, butis also a velYgood advocacytool. Up to 50visitors a dayattend the dailyKaka feed, andDepartment of

fu!. It has also been interesting toobserve the lack of mate fidelityfrom one season to the next andpromiscuity amongst the birds evenwhen paired in a season.

Following the success of thereintroduction project, the new goal is'To e tablish a viable, self-sustainingKaka population at Mount Bruce. ,.The first step is to SUppO!1 nestingpairs with intensive nest site manage­ment as with the first season, until thepopulation reaches 10 pairs. Once 10pairs are present, the focus of preda­tor control will move to a system ofpredator trapping over the main 50hectare breeding area.

The project has been significantnationally and now provides amethod for the re-establishment ofbirds into areas where they areextinct. The soft-release methoddescribed is currently the only oneknown for mainland sites, and Kakahad never before been successfullytranslocated to establish a new popu­lation. Internationally this project alsooffers techniques, which may be ableto be succe sfully applied to otherpsittacine species. Likewi e, this is thefirst time tllat captive-bred parrots(including hand-raised birds) have

46 Fourth Quarter 2001

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ty. This is the first time such nest­boxes have been successfully usedby Kaka in the wild. Also fortunatewas the tendency of the birds thatpreferred natural sites to re-usethose from previous years. The twonatural nest sites this season hadbeen used before and had alreadybeen made predator proof.

The 2000/01 breeding seasonat Mount Bruce drew to a close withnine females, five males and ninefledglings. A release of three captiveorigin males and three juveniles isplanned to increase the number ofmales and re-balance the sex ratio.

Next season the populationwill pass the 10 pair mark, and thefocus of predator control will moveto a system of predator control overthe main 50 hectare breeding area.The population is now large enoughthat we will be monitoring selectedpairs rather than every individual.This will determine the success ofthe new predator control regime,which will pave the way for a self­sustaining population. •

Centre has progressed since theabove information. The populationis now large enough to sustain itself,with only one further releaseplanned.

The 2000/01 breeding seasonbegan with the release of three morecaptive, parent-reared juveniles intothe reserve in September 2000, all ofwhich are alive and well. This hasbeen our busiest season yet, withfour females nesting. We were verysurprised that one of these four wasone-year-old "DJ," released inSeptember and paired up with acaptive-reared male released theyear before. Until now it was notknown that the birds could breed atone year of age (the youngest previ­ously recorded was two years old).She laid four fertile eggs in one ofsix artificial predator proof nestbox­es provided for Kaka. Two chickshatched and are now well on theway to fledging.

Another female, "Cleo," a pro­lific breeder who made three nestingattempts when she was just twoyears old, was supported by twomales and nested in her old naturalsite, fledging one chick early inDecember. She immediately went onto second clutch in an artificial nest­box nearby and currently has threemore chicks on the way, which aredue to fledge in March.

The female, "Mel," survivor of apredator attack during our firstbreeding season, also nested in anartificial nestbox and has threechicks. She paired with one of theadult captive-reared males releasedin 1999. This is another first forKaka, because he was hand-rearedand long term .in captivity until hisrelease at the age of eight years, andhe had never bred before.

Staff were very pleased withthe high use of artificial nestboxesby Kaka, with three out of five nestsites in boxes. This saved staff a lotof time, as there was no need to settraps for mustelids at the sites withthe daily chores of checking andrebaiting - time which could insteadbe spent monitoring single femalesfor any other possible nesting activi-

the afa WATCHBIRD 47