DOC's work with kea
In past decades there has been increasing human activity in alpine environments. Associated with this activity is the food scraps that accompany people. For kea, our food sources have become a welcome high energy food source and groups of kea frequent public sites around Fiordland like Milford Road carparks and at Milford Sound.
Josh Kemp, DOC Scientific Officer,
with kea chick
However, because these kea do not have to spend a large amount of time foraging for low energy natural foods, they have plenty of spare time to explore the many and varied new objects placed in their environment by people. Juvenile male birds seem to make up the majority of these loitering groups.
This exploration by kea has resulted in damage to property, especially around camping grounds and in carparks. Although a large number of kea may be watching, it is normally only a few mischievous birds which are doing any damage. A key to solving kea mischievousness is to remove all artificial food sources form their environment.
This means resisting the temptation to feed kea. The Department of Conservation is banding kea to help identify problem birds. Another reason why it is important not to feed keas is that a kea's natural food is mainly plant material such as berries, roots, shoots and insect larvae. Eating human food is as bad for keas as living on a daily diet of junk food would be for humans.
Feeding young kea also discourages them from looking for and learning about natural foods. They can become dependent on human scraps.
Contacts
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Phone 0800 DOC HOTline (0800 362 468) to report:
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