Page 72 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11

KEA
guts full of wrappers, plastic and other
rubbish,” he adds.
The scavenging is not just limited to
food – lead poisoning is an unusual but
unfortunately common cause of death in
these alpine parrots. “Kea are attracted to
lead flashings found on the old buildings
here, but when they peel it off they can
get lead poisoning,” says Mark. “For some
reason, lead tastes sweet to them.” The Kea
Conservation Trust has an ongoing project
to identify, remove and replace all lead
on buildings in South Island. It also tests
kea for lead levels in their bodies so that
treatment can be given before it’s too late.
Under attack
Stoats, rats, possums and cats continue
to plague kea. Up to 40 per cent of young
birds do not survive their first year, and
rats and stoats readily kill female kea that
attempt to defend their nests. Adults
and young alike are particularly
vulnerable to attack in the period
before the nestlings learn to
Top: a kea being
caught for research.
Right: these birds
easily negotiate
rocky outcrops.
72 BBC Wildlife
“Kea are attracted
fly. To boost the birds’ survival rate, New
Zealand’s conservationists are involving
the public in large-scale efforts to deal with
these invasive predators.
Every year, the DOC runs a ‘Battle for
our Birds’ programme, which aims to
reduce populations of invasive predators
and protect vulnerable native species. The
campaign focuses on spreading poison
across vast swathes of forest from the air.
The substance used is 1080, a synthetic
form of sodium fluoroacetate. This
biodegradable chemical occurs naturally
in plants and has a consistency similar to
colourless salt. In addition, baited traps
laced with 1080 are laid and other ground-
based predator controls are carried out.
The number of kea taken by predators
shoots up during forest-
seeding seasons – for
example, when beech
trees (New Zealand has
five species of beech,
all unrelated to Eurasian
beech) produce their mast.
An abundant seed crop leads
to a sharp increase in mice
and rat populations, in
turn boosting stoat
populations. The
combined
predator
to lead flashings
found on the old
buildings here.”
onslaught means that the proportion of
kea chicks surviving may drop as low as
one per cent.
When an area is treated with 1080, nearly
100 per cent of the rats and 95 per cent of
the possums are killed. Peter Morton of the
DOC says that they have already seen great
results. “The benefits of pest control are
very apparent, with improved kea breeding
success when predators are controlled,”
he says. “Observers reported a group of
around 20 young birds last summer, which
is exceptional. Seeing that many juvenile
kea is an encouraging indication that
predator control in the area is helping to
protect chicks in nests – enabling them
to fledge successfully.”
Monitoring pest control
But there are concerns about the potential
dangers of releasing 1080 into forests, and
the side-effects it might have on kea. In
one 2016 study, the DOC tracked the birds
throughout pest-control operations in South
Westland and at Arthur’s Pass, Kahurangi
National Park and Lake Rotoiti. Four out
of 49 kea had died from 1080 poisoning.
Since then, however, efforts have been
made to avoid alpine areas that the kea
frequent for food, and with well-timed 1080
aerial controls, 70 per cent of kea nests are
now successful.
Overall, Peter argues that the 1080
programme has proved its worth. “Research
is giving us increasing confidence that
pest-control operations improve kea nesting
success and juvenile survival during beech-
mast events,” he says. “In a nutshell, more
kea breed and survive in the areas that
do receive aerial 1080 than in the areas
that don’t.”
The Kea Database is a citizen-science
initiative established in 2017 by Mark
Brabyn, Laura Young and George Moon
to enhance our understanding of kea.
Hopefully, a better-informed public will
lead to fewer unnecessary kea deaths. With
the help of volunteers, the team aims to
ring as many kea as possible, giving each
individual a unique name and profile on
the database, and is sharing the details on
information boards and pamphlets. This
allows local people and tourists alike to
November 2018