The parakeets are back on the volcano!
preening
Last year I had the opportunity to visit a remote volcanic island halfway between New Zealand and Tonga: Raoul Island or Rangitahua. The purpose of the visit was to determine whether or not the Kermadec Red-fronted Parakeets were breeding againg on this site. The introduction of exotic mammalian predatos such as cats and rats wiped-out the parakeets from the volcano over 100 years ago, but since the eradication of these pests, parakeets have been seen around. The good news came the very first day of our arrival. I saw and heard parakeets all around the place but the most amazing sight was a male parakeet feeding a recently fledged chick. Given the limited mobility of parakeets right after fledging this meant one thing: the parakeets are breeding again on Raoul! a week after I found an active nest on a log at ground level and the resident male was very friendly, so much that he “posed” for the photo that accompanies this post. More nests have been recorded by resident rangers on the island and also more chicks have been seen confirming our idea that Raoul is now a safe habitat for breeding pairs of parakeets. We suspect the “founders” came from nearby Herald Islets, 4 km from Raoul and currently we are develping molecular techniques to explore this question further. You can read the detailed story of the parakeet recolonization in the link below:
