Good result for Mt Arthur kea

SUPPLIED

POSITIVE RESULT: Josh Kemp with a kea on Mt Arthur.

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The results of a scientific 1080 poisoning programme in Kahurangi National Park announced today are great news for Department of Conservation staff and Kea Conservation Trust members working to protect the country's declining kea populations.

The Kahurangi study is part of a three-year research programme looking at the impact of 1080, which is used to control predators that have been decimating kea populations throughout the South Island high country.

Thirteen kea on the eastern slopes of the Arthur Range were caught and tagged with radio transmitters in June. DOC scientific officer Josh Kemp, who leads the kea research programme, said today that all 13 birds were found to be alive one month after the poisoning operation.

Mr Kemp said aerially-applied 1080 was currently the only tool available for the large-scale pest control required to protect species such as kea, which were sparsely spread over large areas.

"We need to know whether the benefit achieved by reducing predation on nests can outweigh the risks to individual kea.

"We set baiting specifications for the Mt Arthur aerial 1080 operation that we considered posed less of a risk to kea. The 100 per cent survival rate shows the risk to kea can be reduced through such baiting practices without compromising pest control effectiveness."

Mr Kemp said monitoring of kea in the Mt Arthur area would now focus on nesting success over the next two years to determine the benefits of the 1080 pest control.

"We would expect kea nests to do well in the Mt Arthur area this year, as aerial 1080 operations achieve large reductions in numbers of possums, rats and stoats that prey on eggs and chicks."

A previous study in Nelson Lakes National Park found that about 40 per cent of kea nests were preyed on by various pests.

Mr Kemp said research staff would be monitoring the movements of the eight breeding-age adult kea among the 13 currently radio-tagged, to locate their nests and evaluate the survival of eggs and chicks. Monitoring would focus on the nests until around Christmas, when chicks fledge and become independent.

"We will also be monitoring kea nesting success in the Crow Valley on the other side of the Arthur Range, where no pest control has taken place, for comparison purposes."

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