Yellow-crowned Kakariki released on Maungatautari Eco Island
Female Yellow-crowned Kakariki on Barrier Island © Dick Veitch
From the Wildlife Extra News website, we learn that a pair of Yellow-crowned Kakariki have been released into the southern enclosure aviary on Maungatautari Island, New Zealand, signalling the start of a Kakariki breed-and-release programme.
The captive-bred birds were collected from the wildlife recovery centre at Lochmara in the Queen Charlotte Sounds, and transferred to Maungatautari via a commercial flight.
Yellow-crowned Kakariki were last sighted on Maungatautari approximately 100 years ago, and despite being only a year old, the pair could breed this season and may produce from two to nine eggs in each clutch. Once reared, these chicks will be released into the southern enclosure, where it is hoped they will stay in the area to be close to their parents.
The parent birds will then remain in the aviary for two to three years, where it is hoped that they’ll produce more chicks, to form the foundation of a Yellow-crowned Kakariki population on Maungatautari. They will then be released to join their off-spring in the wild.
“This is stage one in establishing Yellow-crowned Kakariki on Maungatautari,” said Trust ecologist, Chris Smuts-Kennedy. “Once we have a number of Maungatautari-reared chicks keyed into the aviary area, we will conduct a ‘wild to wild’ transfer of up to 60 birds. That would involve transferring Yellow-crowns, probably from the Marlborough Sounds, and releasing them close to the enclosure where they would hopefully join with the resident birds.
“The small group of free-flying captive-reared birds would then hopefully encourage the larger wild-caught group to stay in the area – that technique has worked for our Kaka. It’s another important step in the jigsaw as we recreate, as closely as possible, the original wildlife ecosystem that existed on the mountain, complete with native bird song and, at the same time, bring those species to the attention of the public.”
Yellow-crowned Kakariki, are members of the parrot family, with a distinctive chattering call. Along with other native birds are, they are susceptible to introduced pests such as ship rats, stoats and possums. The fact that they nest in tree holes makes them an easy target, but in the absence of predators, they will forage on the forest floor.
Although they are not critically endangered, their life-span is relatively short compared with other native birds, and surviving populations are only found in large podocarp forests across the middle of the North Island and on off-shore islands.
For more information on the Yellow-crowned Kakariki, see Rosemary Low’s article on New Zealand’s parrots in our In the Wild section
