Pāteke take to Abel Tasman and surrounds like ducks to water

Sunday, 28 November 2021

Pāteke brown teal ducks being reintroduced to Anchorage Bay in the Abel Tasman National Park last week by Project Janszoon.

The last 21 of more than 350 pāteke ducks have been released into the Abel Tasman National Park, marking a four-year success story for the rare native birds.

Project Janszoon, working alongside iwi, the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust, and the Department of Conservation, has been releasing pāteke (brown teal) into the Abel Tasman since 2017.

The juvenile birds, about five or six months old, were reared around the country before being checked over by the Isaac Wildlife and Conservation Trust in Canterbury, before being sent to Project Janszoon for release into their new home.

Pāteke were once an abundant species of duck across the country, but introduced predators like cats and rodents reduced their numbers significantly, and they are now only found in the South Island in Fiordland and, after their reintroduction, in the Abel Tasman.

Project Janszoon director Bruce Vander Lee in Torrent Bay, near the site of the last release of pāteke in the Abel Tasman National Park.

* More pāteke released in Abel Tasman, rare duck population now in the hundreds

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Project Janszoon director Bruce Vander Lee said their successful reintroduction to the park relied on the intense pest control efforts of volunteers and DOC staff, and now the birds were 'exploding out” into surrounding areas.

Wally Bruce and other volunteers carry the precious cargo - boxes of about four or five ducks – off the boat at Anchorage Bay for the last planned release of pāteke into the Abel Tasman.

Most releases had been in the north of the park, but the latest and last release of 21 birds in Rākauroa (Torrent Bay) was intended to “anchor” a more southern population.

“They’re not shy about moving,” Vander Lee said.

“At least one, maybe two have been seen as far away as Rabbit Island.”

The reintroduction of pāteke to Abel Tasman began with the kaitiaki (guardian) of pāteke, North Island iwi Ngātiwai, transferring guardianship of the birds to the rohe of Te Tauihu (top of the South Island) iwi Ngāti Rarua and Te Ātiawa which were involved in the reintroduction process.

Motueka student leaders released the pateke from their boxes with the help of a DOC ranger. Livinya Jayasinghe and Mieke Rowling carried this box of about four to the water to be released.

It was planned in 2017 for about 300 pāteke to be reintroduced to the rohe (area), if the initial introduction of 20 juvenile birds went well. Just over four years later, and with an unexpected bumper year in 2018, 358 birds have now been brought back.

It can be difficult to monitor pāteke populations, but trail cameras had seen from almost the very beginning of the reintroduction programme pāteke pairs with chicks and fledglings, and as the years went on there were more and more unbanded (wild-born) adults showing up with chicks of their own.

“If the numbers are what we think, then we won’t need to release any more, and just need to keep them protected from cats and stoats,” Vander Lee said.

Each box had about four or five pāteke, and upon release they were quick to swim into the tussocks and hide. The birds are naturally secretive, and are unlikely to be spotted in the middle of the day, but may be seen at dusk.

Much of that work comes down to the volunteers of the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust. Volunteer coordinator Abby Butler said there were about 80 active volunteers monitoring trap lines in the area on a fortnightly basis.

She said numbers of pests caught in the extensive volunteer trap network were very low at the moment – a good sign of the very low populations of rats and stoats in the park.

The Birdsong Trust volunteers would also be checking temporary birdfeeders set up for the released pāteke to help tide them over while they got used to fending for themselves.

Darryl and Julie Thomas, residents of Torrent Bay since the 1970s, said the work Project Janszoon and the Birdsong Trust volunteers had done was massive.

“The kākā you can hear a lot now, they’ve started spreading their wings a bit. There’s lots of tūī and weka,” Darryl said.

“Some have got quite friendly, they’ll come swooping out past you from the trees.”

Julie said the birds were particularly noticeable in the early morning with the dawn – or sometimes pre-dawn – chorus.

Bruce Vander Lee said it felt “amazing” to be, potentially, reaching the end of the reintroduction journey for pāteke.

Vander Lee said the birds were “secretive” and could be hard to spot, but with numbers high and potentially climbing, “people will see them, and understand their conservation story”.

“We’re seeing them moving around the park, moving to places outside the park, they’ve been seen now in the Otuwhero wetlands … a species that had been eliminated is back.”