Kākāpō ranger diary 27 July
Kākāpō 'Sirocco' looking through a
glass window
The 15th July was a night to remember (or forget) on Anchor Island. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck not far from here giving the place a fair old shake up.
For all those wondering about Jo's comment on the TV news about "not really being scared" I can offer an alternative view. A fair few books and bottles fell off the shelves and the fridge danced its way across the floor. Apart from that, no damage was done to the hut. Quite staggering really considering the proximity and strength of the thing! We went to check on the chicks in the pen soon after and they didn't seem too fazed by the whole affair.
It has been a while coming but Anchor is now the home of four newly released kākāpō chicks. The four (two boys and two girls) were released on a Friday on a lovely fine evening. All have been since on a regular basis as we are keeping a close eye on them for a little while longer. They seem to be enjoying their new home.
The chicks (whose mothers are Rakiura, Heather, Solstice and Sue) are all maintaining good weights and will hopefully continue to do well over the next few weeks. The aim is that they will become completely self sufficient over the next few months and not reliant on us at all. At the same time if any have issues we are there as a safety net to ensure they continue as they should. It is really satisfying to get to this stage and see them go their own way a little more. It doesn't seem that long ago that these little critters were the ones responsible for a number of sleep deprived nights for all the volunteers and staff involved.
We also just received a present from Codfish of six more chicks almost ready for release. They are the chicks from Kuihi, Bella, Fuchsia, Pearl, Zephyr and Lisa. This has brought the population on Anchor to 44 birds, the most ever! This increase in the population will hopefully lead to kakapo breeding seasons happening here in the future. An exciting prospect for sure!
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