Update from Deidre Vercoe - Operations Manager

The much-anticipated breeding season is now in full swing and has already broken records.

On the islands our ranger team, management staff and dedicated volunteers have been working hard to ensure that the kākāpō get the best start to the breeding season.

This year a huge amount of work is going into our assisted breeding (AB) programme and we’re also double clutching a large number of the females. We usually take eggs to incubate them ourselves as we have a higher success rate and leave the females with dummy eggs, but this year we’ve instead blocked off the nests for a number of females once we removed their eggs to encourage them to go and mate again. This will hopefully result in a huge number of eggs being laid and a large number of chicks hatching this season.  Seems to be working well!

We currently have a total of 189 eggs  laid  and 37 chicks currently alive.

Kākāpō Waikawa on her nest. Photo by B. Philp

Kākāpō egg being candled to check its fertility.   Photo by A. Digby

If you follow our work through social media you will already have heard the exciting news that the breeding season is well underway on Anchor Island, Whenua Hou and Hauturu-O-Toi! This year saw the earliest mating ever recorded with Pearl and Boss getting together on the 18th of December, a week earlier than the previous record.

After that, matings flooded in on Anchor with all females mating by mid-January. Whenua Hou matings came a little later and more gradually, but still exceptionally early compared to previous breeding seasons. With such early nesting across both islands, this presented us with an exciting opportunity to encourage females to nest a second time, thereby increasing their productivity. This strategy is starting to pay off with early chicks now in hand-rearing and many females revisiting the males for second matings.

Dunedin Wildlife Hospital are helping out with the early stages of hand rearing.  

You can keep up to date with breeding season events by:

Listening to the ‘Kākāpō Files’ podcasts

Following Andrew Digby on Twitter

Following our Facebook page

Busy days on Whenua Hou. This  kākāpō chick gets fed every hour. Photo by A. Digby.

Kākāpō chick hatching in an incubator on Whenua Hou. Photo by J. Crane

Kākāpō chicks ready to fly from Whenua Hou to Dunedin Wildlife Hospital. Photo by A. Digby 

Rimu fruit in abundance

Spring counts for rimu fruit were completed on Whenua Hou in October, showing that very little fruit had been lost over the winter. In addition to the traditional tree climbing method, we also trialled helicopter snipping which provided comparable results (climbing: 40%, snipping: 38%).

Sad news

Male founder Piripi was found dead on Anchor in late December. His body showed wounds consistent with fighting. It is likely that he fought with Ngātapa who was also found to have some minor injuries around the same time. This takes the population total to 147 adult kākāpō.

Three kākāpō refound

Three kākāpō were refound ahead of the breeding season, having been missing for some time due to transmitter failures. Founder males Felix and Boss were relocated on Whenua Hou by Conservation Dog Peg and her handler James Fraser, one of the dog handler teams in DOC’s Kiwi Bank Conservation Dogs Programme supported by national partner Kiwibank. Juvenile female Ninihi was relocated on Anchor during a chance encounter with a staff member searching for a lost mobile phone!

Kākāpō on the move

A number of successful transfers took place toward the end of 2018. Joe was moved from Anchor to Whenua Hou to increase his chances of breeding, as he was holding territory in an undesirable location where females were unlikely to visit. Having been refound on Whenua Hou, Felix was moved to Hauturu-O-Toi where his high fertility will help in assessing the potential of the island as an unsupported breeding site.

In November, eight juvenile males were transferred from Whenua Hou to Te Kakahu. Juvenile males don’t breed but have been known to cause disturbance at nests, so it is best to move them to a non-breeding location. This move took a real team effort so a huge thank you to everyone involved on the day!

An additional juvenile male was transferred from Anchor in early December. He was accompanied by our Rangers, and VIPs including Professor Juliet Gerrard (Prime Minister’s Chief Scientist), Steve Jurkovich (CEO of Kiwibank), Rose Anne MacLeod (DOC Deputy Director-General), Mike Slater (DOC Deputy Director-General) and Lian Butcher (DOC Director Aquatic).

 Welcome to new staff

Since the last update, we have welcomed Caitlyn Thomas and Ricki-Ann Mitchell to the team, both of whom are undertaking summer placements as part of their trainee ranger programme. We’ve also welcomed Jinty MacTavish, Bryony Hitchcock, Liam Bolitho, Rachel Rouse, Pete Kirkman and Alisha Sherriff as temporary staff for the breeding season. University of Otago research student Kaitlyn Hamilton has been working with us to investigate the behavioural responses of kākāpō to bait stations, in order to inform future incursion response methods.

Good rimu fruiting. Photo DOC

James Fraser holds Kākāpō Boss while Peg looks on. Photo by B. Philp

Karen Andrew holds Ninihi - Photo by J. Rickett

Kākāpō Felix being transferred to Hauturu-O-Toi. Photo by S. McInnes

New staff help out for this massive breeding season. Check out the impressive egg tally on the Whenua Hou fridge door.  Photo DOC

Monitoring kākāpō  movements

We have completed several deployments of GPS tags ahead of the breeding season. A total of 18 tags were deployed on adult male kākāpō on Whenua Hou in October. An additional trip in November deployed 19 GPS tags on adult females. The data from these tags will provide a detailed insight into the behaviours of kākāpō throughout the breeding season, including mating, incubation and chick rearing. We’re excited to see what they get up to!

New database launched

Our new database went live in early November. This first release included the core data requirements for much of our work, and several subsequent releases have increased functionality to include aspects specific to the breeding season.

Delivery by drone

Technology has recently been put to good use during our assisted breeding work on Whenua Hou. To minimise time between semen collection and insemination of females, we have trialled the use of a drone to courier samples between locations on the island. This has proven very successful, reducing transit times from hours to less than ten minutes!

Kākāpō Sinbad and the sperm ferrying drone. Photo by A. Digby

Science Advisor Andrew Digby bringing a kākāpō egg back from a nest for artifial incubation. Photo DOC

Sirocco on tour

Sirocco once again delighted fans during his first tour since his temporary disappearance. Sirocco spent three weeks at Orokonui Ecosanctuary in September where over 1500 people were able to have a close encounter with him and learn about the programme and the plight of the kākāpō. He has since returned to his island home. This will be his only public appearance until at least 2020, as the team will be busy devoting all their time to supporting the next generation of kākāpō, but we are hoping there will be opportunities to view kākāpō chicks later in the breeding season.

Volunteers working hard

Supplementary feeding is a critical aspect of our management during the breeding season. It ensures that the kākāpō have the right nutrition to flourish, but we couldn’t do it without help! Thanks to our volunteers who have been working hard to deliver the food on the islands – and thanks also to the many wonderful cooks who have been keeping our field teams well fed!

Adoptions in demand

Adoptions and donations have been flooding in, with Christmas being a particularly busy time – thank you to all our supporters! Your generosity makes a huge difference to our work.

Kōmaru back in good health

Kōmaru returned to Whenua Hou after six weeks of treatment at Auckland Zoo for cloacitis. His weight increased quickly after release, and he has since gone on to mate with several females on Whenua Hou. Thank you to all the staff at Auckland Zoo for getting him back to good health! Auckland Zoo expert staff are also helping on the islands during this breeding season.

Instagram account launched

A new social media account for Kākāpō Recovery has been launched on Instagram. There should be lots of activity over the breeding season.

Saxy saxophonist to get kākāpō breeding

With breeding in full swing for kākāpō, the revolutionary ‘smart egg’ and Meridian’s idea to find NZ’s ‘saxiest saxophonist,’ this summer is bound to be the saxiest one yet. This season, Meridian have provided additional funding to help us make the most of the season with smart eggs and assisted breeding. They’re also helping raise awareness of the plight of the kākāpō by having recruited a saxophonist to help get the birds in the mood! Their engineers have also been busy on the islands, ensuring the power systems are in tiptop shape will be able to support the extra needs of incubators and brooder.

Interactive kākāpō experience now on Google

We’ve been working closely with Google to produce an interactive kākāpō experience, which lets people explore Whenua Hou and Anchor Island, learn about the birds and the programme, and follow the team into the bush as we monitor and manage the population. The project was carried out in collaboration with local iwi and includes video narration from Sir David Attenborough.

Sirocco at Orokonui  Ecosantuary. Photo by B. Jeynes

Volunteers feeding out on Whenua Hou. Photo by Nicki van Zyl

Adoption packages ready to go! Photo by C. Sutherland

Meridian working together with DOC on Smart egg technology 

Inside the 'smart egg'. Photo by S.Cockburn

The real kākāpō eggs being incubated on Whenua Hou. Photo by A. Digby

Visit Whenua Hou with Google. Photo by J. Osborne