Four kokako chicks hatch at open sanctuary Ark in the Park
Thursday, 14 January 2016
The Waitakere Ranges is home to four new residents.
Four kokako chicks have hatched in Auckland's 2100 hectare open sanctuary Ark in the Park located in the heart of the forest.
'It's exciting for Ark in the Park to have an establishing kokako population as part of our ecosystem recovery project and important for the kokako population on a national scale as they are rare,' Ark in the Park manager Gillian Wadams says.
Kokako are endemic to New Zealand and are part of a translocation project at the ark.
The sanctuary is one of two kokako population recovery projects on the mainland with the other being in the Hunua Ranges.
A qualified bird handler David Bryden placed a stainless steel band around each chick's leg with a unique number. Three colour bands are also attached in a unique combination so they can be identified from a distance.
Before these new arrivals, only six chicks have been banded since the translocation programme began in 2009.
The sanctuary, which is mainly maintained by volunteers, will work hard to give the chicks their best chance of survival.
'The biggest risk to chicks is in their first 30 days, while they're confined to their nest. Upon fledging, they stand a greater chance,' Wadam says.
Volunteers will install and monitor a 'ring of steel' around each nest.
The ring consists of rat traps to catch any rodents that have not been caught by the broadscale baiting and trapping effort which is undertaken all year round to control pests.
Wadam is hoping that these four chicks are not the last this season.
'We are hoping for a good breeding season to compliment our successful translocation programme last year that brought 11 new kokako from the King Country up to the ark.'
She says if food sources are in abundance then pairs may have a second attempt at nesting.
More than the four chicks may have hatched this season as all the nest may not have been found.
- Ark in the Park is a collaborative project between Forest & Bird and Auckland Council as well as being supported by iwi Te Kawerau a Maki.