Last move of Hutton's shearwater/titi chicks to Kaikoura Peninsula

Date: 29 February 2008

Up to 100 Hutton's shearwater chicks are due to be moved from the Seaward Kaikoura Ranges to Kaikoura Peninsula next week in what is planned to be the last transfer of chicks to the peninsula to set up a new breeding colony for the endangered seabird there.

The first chicks are due to moved on Wednesday 5 March, weather permitting, with a second group taken to the peninsula a day or two later. The chicks are placed in specially-built burrows on the peninsula and remain there for several weeks until they fledge and migrate to Australia. A team of volunteers helps feed a blended sardine mixture through a syringe to the chicks daily while they are at the peninsula.

Hutton's shearwater/titi chicks have been moved to the peninsula each year for the last three years so they will fledge from there and hopefully return there to breed in coming years. Last year, 83 chicks fledged from the Kaikoura Peninsula burrows, with 79 fledging from there in 2006 and 10 in 2005 (172 in total to date).

Department of Conservation Kaikoura ranger Paul McGahan said setting up a new breeding colony on Kaikoura Peninsula would help secure the long term survival of the species. Hutton's shearwaters have only two existing breeding colonies; both are in the Seaward Kaikoura Ranges and are vulnerable to events such as landslides which could result in the species' extinction.

"This attempt to establish a third breeding ground for Hutton's shearwaters is a trial and employs a technique that has been used before with some other seabird species.. The chicks have to be moved before they are ready to fly as they would recognise the burrows they fledge from as their home breeding ground," said Mr McGahan.

"The titi will return to breed when they reach breeding age four to five years after fledging so the first Hutton's shearwater moved to the peninsula would start to return there to breed possibly in 2009 but more likely in 2010. If the titi return to the peninsula burrows to breed this will be a promising sign that this attempt to establish a new breeding colony for Hutton's shearwater can succeed.

"Leg bands were put on the chicks that fledged from the peninsula to identify them. From around August-September next year we will be checking the peninsula burrows to see if any shearwaters have returned there and we will also be making checks at the mountain breeding colony to see if any of the banded shearwaters have gone there."

The Department of Conservation, Te Runanga O Kaikoura, Whale Watch Kaikoura and the Kaikoura District Council are jointly involved in the project to establish the new breeding colony on land owned by Whale Watch Kaikoura at the south-eastern end of Kaikoura Peninsula.

Mr McGahan said the Kaikoura community had given tremendous support to the project with people helping to feed the chicks and a number of businesses providing free services such as supplying food for volunteers.

"The support we've had from the Kaikoura community and from others elsewhere has been fantastic and it has helped us hugely with this project to try to establish a new breeding colony for Hutton's shearwater."

Facts about Hutton's shearwater

• Hutton's shearwater is one of the few seabird species that has survived on the mainland of New Zealand and the only seabird that breeds in a sub-alpine environment.
• The current population is estimated at around 460,000 adults but the species is classified as nationally endangered because of its rapid rate of decline.
• The species' two remaining breeding colonies in the Seaward Kaikoura Ranges are at altitudes of between 1000 and 1600m. The main existing breeding colony is at the Kowhai River headwaters in Mt Uerau Nature Reserve and the second colony is at Shearwater Stream on privately-owned land. Hutton's shearwaters are known to have bred elsewhere in the Kaikoura Ranges and in North Canterbury in previous times.
• The Kowhai River breeding colony was discovered in 1965 by Geoff Harrow, an amateur Christchurch ornithologist.
• Around March each year, after the breeding season, Hutton's shearwaters migrate across the Tasman to spend the winter in Australian waters. They return to their Kaikoura mountain breeding colonies in August. Their burrows are often still buried under snow but when it melts they relocate their burrows amongst the tussock and inside them lay a single egg from which the chicks hatch in December.
• During the breeding season, flocks of adult Hutton's shearwater birds gather off the Kaikoura coast where they feed on surface crustacean or dive for small fish. After dark, they fly into the colony to incubate the egg or feed the young.
• In pre-European times, the titi was a sustainable food source for Maori. The birds could be preserved in a poha (kelp bag) for up to two years. If not eaten, they could also be traded amongst different Ngai Tahu Hapu. The introduction of predators and changes due to land development brought an end to the customary harvest.