Monitoring and research links
Takahe
The Mana Island ecological restoration plan was prepared using available information on biogeography, biotic community structure, habitat requirements, and interspecific interactions. The plan placed considerable emphasis on identifying the most appropriate source populations for faunal and floral re-introductions.
For five years from 1994 students in the Masters in Conservation Science class at Victoria University visited as part of their course work, to assess growth rates and survival of plantings, and to measure the effect of revegetation on plant, invertebrate and lizard communities.
There has been a succession of post-graduate theses undertaken on the island, including:
- Mouse population ecology
- Studies of establishment of introduced or re-introduced fauna (North Island robin, spotted skink, Duvaucel's gecko, brown teal)
- Interactions between resident and translocated species (pukeko and takahe, goldstripe gecko and Duvaucel's gecko)
- Factors affecting takahe productivity
- Genetics of translocated brown teal populations
- Seed dispersal by common geckos and by roosting starlings
- Determining whether restoration of seabirds has a measurable effect on marine-sourced nutrient input to terrestrial ecosystems
Mana Island has been the single most important research site for petrel re-introductions globally (3 species, 704 individuals). A major paper on these translocations has been accepted for publication in the journal Biological Conservation in 2009 (authors Miskelly, Taylor, Gummer & Williams).
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