Kākāriki karaka released to Nelson forest sanctuary
Sunday, 21 November 2021
One of New Zealand's rarest and most endangered bird species has been given a chance to thrive at a pest-free sanctuary in Nelson.
On Saturday morning, 20 kākāriki karaka/orange-fronted parakeets were released at the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary – a 700ha beech forest surrounded by a pest-proof fence on the outskirts of Nelson.
The Kākāriki Karaka Recovery Programme has been lead in partnership between the Department of Conservation and Ngāi Tahu, with support from a range of other organisations.
Department of Conservation kākāriki karaka operations manager Wayne Beggs said while the birds were once a prolific species spread across the forests of both the North and South Islands, today there were only about 360 left in the wild – limited to a few alpine valleys in Canterbury and an island in the Marlborough Sounds.
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Beggs said as kākāriki karaka nested in tree hollows, they were especially vulnerable to predators such as rats and stoats which can climb trees and seek out their nests.
“Populations can be seriously impacted during years when the beech trees mast, or seed heavily, and predator numbers skyrocket.”
“They’ve hung on in the south branch of the Hurunui quite well because it's a very cold valley, and the rats don't survive so well in those very cold areas.”
Beggs said it was a big milestone to release the birds at the Brook Sanctuary. While translocation to offshore islands had been tried in the past, only on Blumine Island in the Marlborough Sounds had there been any real success.
“[The Brook] is an ideal habitat for them. Old-growth beech forest, predator-fenced, It's as much as we can hope for on the mainland – there's no other sites like this that are really comparable.
“As well as helping expand the wild population, this new location will offer an important insurance policy if anything were to happen to the kākāriki karaka at other sites.”
It is the second big release for the sanctuary in April 40 tīeke or South Island saddleback were released, and a pair have since made their home near the organisation's visitor centre.
The 20 budgie-sized kākāriki, 10 male and 10 female, were raised at the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust facilities in Christchurch.
They were flown to Nelson in partnership with Air New Zealand on Thursday, before spending two days in aviaries on site to acclimatise before their release.
Beggs said at three-months old, the parrots already had their full plumage and would be ready to breed almost immediately.
Following a karakia, the birds’ aviaries were opened. While some of them took off as soon as they could, several lingered in the aviaries as they continued to get used to their surroundings.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu kākāriki karaka species recovery representative Yvette Couch-Lewis said the transfer would preserve the whakapapa of the manu.
“Even those these precious taonga have left our takiwā (tribal area) … we will always be their kaitiaki.
“We're asking the iwi of Te Tauihu to protect our manu and help the kākāriki karaka flourish in their new sanctuary.”
Brook Waimārama Sanctuary chief executive Ru Collin said the organisation was proud to have been selected by DOC and iwi to receive kākāriki karaka.
“In time, we expect to see the kākāriki population grow and expand out of the sanctuary into the Richmond Forest and out in to the Nelson Hills.
“This project has a great chance of leaving a wonderful legacy for the Nelson region.”
Sanctuary operations manager Nick Robson said after the completion of the pest-proof in 2016 and pest eradication the year after, the hard work done by staff and volunteers was starting to pay off.
“These things take time. There’s a huge amount of work to maintain that fence, a huge team of volunteers monitoring the sanctuary to check if pests get through, and if they do to have systems in place to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
“We needed a couple of years to get our systems in place before something as precious as an orange-fronted parakeet could be released in here.”
DOC staff will stay on and continue to monitor the birds’ progress (which have been equipped with transmitters) over the next month, before handing the responsibility for the birds over to the Brook staff and volunteers.
If the first release proves successful, more kākāriki releases will be scheduled for the sanctuary over summer.