Arrival of 7 females a bonus for Kahurangi National Park whio project
Date: 10 March 2008
Seven female whio that hatched at a Christchurch wildlife centre in October are a surprise bonus for a Department of Conservation programme to protect whio in Kahurangi National Park.
The seven female whio/blue duck were taken as eggs from Kahurangi National Park and hatched and reared at Christchurch's Peacock Springs wildlife centre. They were released on Saturday (8 March) into the South Branch of the Wangapeka River, part of the DOC Wangapeka-Fyfe Operation Ark site which is focused on protecting and increasing the numbers of endangered native whio in the area.
DOC Motueka Area biodiversity programme manager, Gavin Udy, said it was remarkable and pleasing that all seven whio chicks hatched at Peacock Springs should turn out to be females.
"This increase in female numbers should considerably boost breeding once the females pair up with males and begin to breed, hopefully from next year.
"Loss of females and chicks due to stoat predation on whio nests has been a major cause of declines in whio numbers nationally and has resulted in males outnumbering females. More females are needed to form pairs to breed and increase whio numbers. To have seven females produced from the eggs hatched in captivity is a real bonus for the Wangapeka-Fyfe Operation Ark whio programme."
Seven captively-reared female whio are
released into the Wangapeka-Fyfe
Operation Ark site
Whio numbers in the nearby Flora Stream have also been boosted with breeding and movement of young whio over the 2007-2008 breeding season adding eight juveniles to the population. A community group, the Friends of Flora (FOF), and DOC are jointly trapping stoats in the Flora catchment for the protection of whio and as part of a wider Friends of Flora pest control project to protect and enhance the area's native vegetation and wildlife.
Three female and two male whio that hatched on the Pearse River in Kahurangi National Park were in January moved to Flora Stream with funding from the Tasman Environmental Trust through the Cobb Dam Mitigation Fund. Three juveniles survive from four chicks that hatched in the Flora in December - the first hatched in the stream for over a decade.
Prior to the breeding season three pair had seen using the stream; three years before that only one male survived there.
Kerry Marshall, Chairman of the Tasman Environmental Trust, said "The Trust is delighted with its success. It acknowledges the work of the different parties involved in this project and the strong community involvement."
Maryann Ewers, chairperson of Friends of Flora said," It has indeed been a successful breeding season for female whio within the Wangapeka-Fyfe and Pearse and Flora areas. Friends of Flora volunteers couldn't be happier to have three young born and raised in the Flora, two of whom are female, grow to maturity for the first time in over a decade. Along with the five young released here from the Pearse we feel we have a very healthy start to bringing whio numbers back to what they once were in the Flora catchment area.
"This is the reward, and great testament for all the hard work and dedication shown by our volunteers who are on the mountain every month, in all weathers, to check the trap lines. Thanks also go to the hard work and great dedication by the DOC staff in Motueka."
The Wangapeka-Fyfe Operation Ark site is one of 10 in the South Island focussed on protecting and strengthening populations of four endangered native species: whio/blue duck, orange-fronted parakeets/käkäriki karaka, mohua/yellowhead and pekapeka/short-tailed and long-tailed bats. The goal of the Wangapeka-Fyfe programme is to establish a sustainable whio population of 50 pairs.
When the programme started on the Wangapeka catchment's Rolling River in 2003, just three whio lived on the river. Now 28 adult whio are known to use the river. The programme extended into the Fyfe River in 2006. Two whio pairs were then resident on the river; now it is home to 12 blue ducks.
The programme is now being extended into the South Branch of the Wangapeka River. Stoat trapping has been put in place and the seven females hatched at Peacock Springs will be the first whio to be released there.