Page 70 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11

“But while these parrots are lots of fun and From above: the
seem plentiful up in the mountains, they’re
actually considered Vulnerable. There may
be fewer than 5,000 wild kea left, and that’s
largely down to the actions of humans,
including bringing predators to New
Zealand.” It was a refrain we were to hear
throughout the rest of our trip.
A born survivor
shoes: Andrew Wa ms ey/naturep .com; cone: Andrew Wa ms ey/A amy; fly ng: Terry Wh ttaker/FLPA
Endemic to New Zealand’s South Island,
kea have evolved over millennia to survive
harsh alpine conditions. They became
omnivores, with sharply curved beaks and
claws suited to foraging on berries, seeds
and grubs, as well as scavenging the flesh
Skis: T ui De Roy/Minden/FLPA; aerial: Mark Carwardine/Minden /FLPA;
from carcasses. They play an important part
in alpine ecosystems, by spreading seeds
across the mountain ranges: around 12
per cent of New Zealand’s alpine flora
depends on kea.
With few other sizeable meat-eaters
around, kea flourished. Today, however, the
birds’ neophilia – their love of new things –
has become a double-edged sword, ensuring
their survival but also, with the arrival of
people, their destruction.
European settlers came in the 1860s,
but kea’s problems really began with
the introduction of sheep farming. They
70 BBC Wildlife
into trouble; they
kea is one of the are not scared
most intelligent of humans and
birds – some have will pluck at your
even managed to laces; kea have
work out how to been known to
open zips; their move cones into
inquisitive nature the road, forcing
can get them cars to stop.
garnered a reputation for being pests:
kea relish high-energy foods, such as
fat, and soon learned to cut through
the backs of sheep to reach the fat
around their livers. As a result, the
government introduced a bounty of
10 shillings (equivalent to NZ$120
today, or approximately £62.50) for
every kea killed. Around 150,000
kea were exterminated between the
1860s and 1970.
The settlers also brought invasive
predators with them, in the form of stoats
and rats from Europe, brushtail possums
from Australia, and domestic cats. With
plentiful dense forests and abundant
food, the alien mammals thrived, soon
threatening many of New Zealand’s ground-
nesting native birds. Kea nest in burrows,