Critically endangered parrots return to Canterbury valley after 15-year absence
Thursday, 4 November 2021
A previously unknown group of New Zealand’s rarest mainland forest birds have come home to roost in a Canterbury valley – where they were last seen 15 years ago.
Once found throughout New Zealand, the kākāriki karaka – or orange-fronted parakeet – is now critically endangered, with around 360 left in the wild.
Almost all live in a 30-kilometre slab of beech forest across Arthur’s Pass National Park and in the south branch of the Hurunui River, in Lake Sumner Forest Park.
Now a trio of birds has been spotted 10 kilometres away in the Hurunui North Branch valley, for the first time since 2006.
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They were discovered during a recent survey, part of a new $5.1 million Jobs for Nature project targeting the taonga species.
Department of Conservation (DOC) operations manager Wayne Beggs said it could have “really exciting” implications.
“[Kākāriki karaka] has been declared extinct twice before … the gene pool of these birds is quite small, it’s gone through quite a bottleneck.
“Historically there had been birds in that area. We don’t know if this is a remnant, or if the population from the nearby South Branch has spread out.”
His team will go back over the summer to look for nests or eggs, which could be DNA tested to find out for sure.
Beggs said climate change was to blame for the parakeets’ disappearance from the valley.
“We’re not getting such severe winters there any more, so more rats and mice are surviving – meaning more food for stoats.”
The warmer weather also triggered more frequent beech masts, he said.
Beech trees, which alone make up more than two million hectares of New Zealand’s native bush, only drop their seeds every few years, triggered in part by significant temperature increases between two consecutive summers.
While the seeds provide food for some native species, they can also fuel an upsurge in rodents, which has devastating impacts on wildlife if not controlled.
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan said the new kākāriki karaka were a significant find and a great sign for the future of the species.
If they belonged to a new population, she said they “could add valuable genetic diversity”.
The discovery showed the new Jobs for Nature project, a joint effort between Ngāi Tahu and the Department of Conservation, was already making meaningful strides to protect the species, she said.
The project will run for four years and employ up to 25 people. Recruitment is still under way, but some workers are already out in the field.
“The work will increase the scope and scale of predator control in the biodiversity-rich mountain valleys the kākāriki call home, which will also benefit the other endangered species that live there like roroa (great spotted kiwi), mohua (yellowhead) and kea,” Allan said.
“It will also improve biosecurity and knowledge of the island population of kākāriki karaka on Ōruawairua (Blumine Island) in the Marlborough Sounds, and increase the capacity of the captive breeding programmes that are already running with partners.”
That could include using captive-bred birds to create new populations in other valleys.
Allan said this was expected to be a long-term arrangement which would continue after the project funding ended.
“Kākāriki karaka are a vulnerable species that has only just held on, and they need all the help they can get.”
The new Jobs for Nature project will run alongside a previously-announced programme, which has seen out-of-work Canterbury hiking guides redeployed to manage predator control in kākāriki karaka habitat.