Hunters may have lit fires next to kiwi

GILES BROWN/The Press

VITAL SIGNS: Doc ranger Iain Graham uses a radio transmitter to check the health of rare kiwi in an area scorched by fires.

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Residents of a tiny West Coast town believe irresponsible hunters may be behind nearby scrub fires which endangered the world's rarest kiwi.

Six fires damaged more than 10 hectares of swampland near Okarito, north of Franz Josef, at the weekend.

The area is a sanctuary for 350 rowi, or Okarito brown kiwi, and part of BNZ's Operation Nest Egg mission to protect the birds.

The arson has aroused anger in Okarito with some saying it could be the work of hunters hoping to encourage new growth to attract deer.

Richard Saunders, owner of Okarito Nature Tours, said suspicion fell on hunters about two years ago when there were fires in the same area.

"The regrowth attracts deer and then they can drive by and shoot them from the ute. It's incredibly lazy hunting."

Ian Cooper, who takes people into the bush to learn about the birds with his company Okarito Kiwi Tours, said there was a "tradition" of hunters having burnoffs to attract their prey.

"They might think it's the right thing to do because it's not going to endanger the forest but go into the swamp and attract the deer, especially at this time of year with the roar coming on."

However, Cooper, who hunts in the area, said many hunters would be horrified if that was the case.

One hunter, who did not want to be named, said it was unlikely hunters were responsible because deer did not graze on swampland and would not be attracted by regrowth there. "No self-respecting hunter would do that. Anyone who did that wants dealing to," the man said.

Yesterday, Iain Graham, DOC's Operation Nest Egg ranger for the area, used transmitting equipment to confirm two pairs of birds that lived near the fires were still alive.

Because fires were set at night the kiwi were likely to have been out foraging and would not be trapped in their burrows and unable to escape.

"We can't understand why anyone would want to do this in a national park. I'm a hunter myself and I can't understand why anyone would do that because the deer don't spend time out there," Graham said.

A plane with detection equipment would fly over the 11,000ha sanctuary in the next week and confirm if any of the 120 birds DOC monitored had been killed.

Constable Paul Gurney, of Franz Josef, said he was keeping an open mind over who the culprits may be. "Inexperienced hunters might try that sort of thing to get the growth back. But there's plenty of people who have ill-will towards DOC. Someone knows who's done this and if they've a shred of decency they should tell us who it is."

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