Fairy tern chick hand-reared for first time since the 90s released into the wild

Friday, 26 March 2021

Auckland Zoo captured the journey of the fairy tern/tara iti chick which was hatched and hand-reared there.

The first fairy tern chick hand-reared since the 1990s has been released into the wild.

Also known as tara iti, the birds are the rarest in New Zealand. The number of adult tara iti hovers below 40.

Despite intensive management, they continue to be critically endangered.

The chick was hatched and reared at Auckland Zoo before it was transferred to a purpose-built aviary near a breeding site and released into the wild.

* Man-made nest sites to boost breeding for endangered fairy tern/tara iti

* Critically endangered New Zealand fairy tern lays egg in Northland

Bird keeper Catherine Francescon encouraging a one-day-old tara iti chick to take some fresh fish at Auckland Zoo.

It hatched from one of four vulnerable fairy tern eggs rescued from a Northland beach in November due to stormy weather.

It was the only one to survive.

Richard Gibson, the zoo’s head of animal care and conservation, said “every tool in the conservation toolbox” is needed when a population is so tiny, overwhelmed by a host of threats and “perched so precariously” on the brink of extinction.

He said the opportunity to hand-rear the chick was an essential first step towards an intensive future programme focused on population to help reverse the fortunes of the plucky bird.

A six-day-old chick, standing in front of a 3D-printed adult tara iti, after one of nine daily feeds.

Carl Ashworth, the zoo’s birds tea, leader, said the team was delighted to collaborate with the Department of Conservation (DOC) to give the chick a fighting chance.

Watch Department of Conservation staff return critically endangered fairy tern eggs to their nest after a storm in Mangawhai during the 2020 breeding season.

An incubator had mimicked the conditions under the mother as closely as possible, automatically turning the eggs every hour, maintaining Goldilocks-like levels of humidity and temperature.

Once it was hatched, the chick was provided a natural diet of live fish every hour-and-a-half.

“These factors were critical to successfully rearing this chick for release and are going to stand us in great stead for future tara iti efforts.”

Once the chick was transferred to the aviary, it was cared for by on-site DOC rangers for about a month while it learned to fly and hunt on the wing before being released into the wild by opening the aviary doors.

Alex Wilson, DOC’s senior ranger biodiversity, said rearing the bird in captivity had opened the door for more options in the future for the tara iti.

“We hope to see the chick return in the summers to come and breed themselves.”

Along with the chick hatched at the zoo, four tara iti fledged in the wild this breeding season.