NZ wildlife questions? Ask them here.

27-03-2008

What size are the current wild populations for the 2 species and the Little Barrier subspecies? Has the "headstarter" made any in-roads into establishing new successful populations of either S. punctatus or S. guntheri? Is the recovery effort for Little Barrier tuatara paying off, how many now?

I will keep an open mind as to privately kept tuatara. Will do a search on the internet soonish to find out if some illegals are kept out here.

Re your remarks on relocation of confiscees and all, I think it is better that authorities let the confiscees live than die ... Destroying endangered species is to me capital .. punishment worthy! If the option to return does not exist (aka biosecurity laws or what ... even though I sometimes find that these could help in their recovery at home), it would be good if zoos put up an effort to set up a WAZA functional breeding programme with the offspring partially to augment the captive stock and partially to have disease-free "headstarted" individuals available for NZ recovery programmes.

27-03-2008

there are about 100,000 common tuatara and about 300 Brothers Islands tuatara in the wild. Head-started Brothers tuatara have been used to establish new populations on Titi and Somes Islands (the only island they are still found on naturally is North Brother, so there are wild animals on three islands total). I believe young animals have been used to establish new populations of common tuatara also, but likewise adults have also been used for this purpose (eg to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary). I would say that the recovery effort for Little Barrier tuatara has certainly paid off, going from just eight known adults in 1991 to over a hundred individuals today. There were about 100 young bred by 2006 as I said and that is the last year I have information on. Of course those young won't be breeding themselves for at least another decade.

I'm not sure what you mean by keeping an open mind on privately-kept tuatara. These animals were illegally removed from the wild, threatening those populations with a whole range of factors including the possibility of accidentally introducing rats or diseases to the islands. Nobody who obtains these animals can have any doubt that they were illegally obtained (two seconds on the internet would verify that they could not be obtained otherwise). They are doing nothing for the species other than causing more problems for them.

27-03-2008

Maybe its common sense prevailing for once a'la the origin of Taihaitan Lories at San Diego Zoo (if I remember correctly)...

If you havent already Chlidonias you should do a MSc (Zoology) and apply for a research fellowship, it would a shame if eager students didn't get to learn from you in a more populated medium...

What does your user name mean by the way..?

27-03-2008

Chlidonias is a genus of terns. I'd just seen a whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida) at Travis Wetland in Christchurch a few days before joining the forum. Whiskered terns are pretty common in much of the world but only rare stragglers to NZ and it was the first one I'd seen in this country. Made sense at the time.

27-03-2008

Ah I should of guessed and I wasn't kidding about the MSc:

Master of Science - Postgraduate Studies - University of Canterbury - New Zealand

It probably has part time options...

28-03-2008

You may have misread this remark. I mean if, if .. if I do see them advertised in any reptile forums I frequent as well or while surfing the internet (hobbywise for Uromastyx and related lizards), I will contact the relevant DoC authorities a.s.a.p. I am a reptile conservationtist, not a consumer.

Not sure what the DoC would do with any confiscated Sphenodons: would they be returned to Kiwi captive facilities (fear of introducing obvious rep diseases in wild populations) or true re-release to the wild (on non populated and rat-free islands as is done with most of the Kiwi avian fauna)?

28-03-2008

despite what I was told about confiscated reptiles being returned to NZ, I'm not sure if that's what would actually happen. If they have been in contact with foreign reptiles (and hence potentially foreign diseases) then I would say the risk would be quite high if bringing them back into the country. I certainly don't think they would be released if they were brought back. Much better to my mind to deposit them in a zoo overseas.

28-03-2008

What is known about New Zealand Storm Petrel? What was about telemetry attempt? Why it failed? Any more plans?

28-03-2008

I agree we should be cautious with release of individuals coming from a captive environment, but I would wish that we opt for more realistic scenarios (I feel the arguement is made more often than not just to stifle any real discussion on whether this would be detrimental or not).

I know we speak island environments and stuff, yet I still feel somewhat uncomfortable with the entire thing. Australia has the highest number of mammalian extinctions and NZ is a close folllower in the avian stakes. If one could demonstrate by in depth testing your individuals to be disease-free .. the least thing one could wish for is for them and/or their eventual offspring to be able to be released back onto islands from whence they were extirpated. Anyhow enough of that for now!

Re Kakapo: the rimu fruit is out this year in full bloom 11-12 kakapo females were nesting and males were heard booming on Codfish early in the new year. 1-2 kakapo females had already were with eggs and DoC staff were expecting a good season! Do you have any news of the kakapo recovery since early March 2008?

28-03-2008

what is known about the NZ storm petrel? Precious little!

For those unfamiliar with the story, the NZ storm petrel was known only from three museum specimens, all collected in the 1800s. It was actually generally thought to be a form of another known species, or at most a subspecies (it has now been determined to not only be a distinct species, but possibly also to belong in its own genus). Then in 2003 NZ birders Sav Saville and Brent Stephenson spotted some unfamiliar storm petrels while on a pelagic birding trip in the Hauraki Gulf out of Auckland. Some detective work showed these to be the presumed-extinct NZ storm petrel. They have since been seen by hundreds of birders on trips into the Hauraki Gulf. The probable reason for the 150 year absence of sightings probably relates to the fact that pelagic birding trips here are a fairly new phenomenon, and the population is almost certainly very small (probably a remnant one, with most colonies eliminated by rats etc).

At the start of January 2006, Brent and DoC workers set out on a trip to catch some petrels and fit them with radio transmitters to try and find their breeding sites. Several were captured but as the transmitters only have short ranges and also short lifespans most birds were not found again (the signal of just one was picked up, and that was at sea not on land). There were plans to repeat the scheme in 2007 but I don't know the results if any.

The breeding grounds are still unknown, and it is quite important that they are found. There is obviously only a small population, quite probably all from one colony, and if rats reach whatever island this is on, they could very quickly be wiped out. Finding the island would ensure that it could be monitored to remain rat-free.

28-03-2008

at the start of March there were five active nests with one or two eggs per nest. Two of the breeders this year are six year old birds (the previous youngest bird known to have laid eggs was a nine year old), so this is pretty exciting news. In the last breeding year (2005) 58% of eggs were fertile; of the eggs laid this year all are fertile which is also good news. Unfortunately the two six-year-old breeders showed their inexperience. One female broke one of her eggs and accidentally pulled the other out of the burrow when leaving to feed so it was removed for artificial incubation. The other female seemed to get bored of incubation and gradually spent longer and longer off the nest each night, so her eggs were also taken after 25 days. All three eggs are developing well apparently. Of the other birds on eggs, one female hatched her sole egg on 17 March but sadly it died a week later. Both of another female's eggs have hatched and the chicks are so far still alive. There are currently five other eggs in other nests still being incubated.

I could potentially have been much more help because I was aiming to be part of the volunteer programme on Codfish Island during this year's breeding, but unfortunately for me there were no positions available this season (its a very popular activity).

For anyone who's in NZ between 8 September and 22 October this year, Sirocco a nine-year-old male kakapo will once again be on Ulva Island (Stewart Island) for public viewing. He was last there (also for the first time) in 2006 while I was out of the country. The cost is $90 for adults and $50 for children aged 5-14 years, the fee going towards the Ulva Island Sanctuary. He is to be kept in a special enclosure, viewable on a guided tour at night. Although its hardly a "wild kakapo experience" it is the only chance most people will ever get to actually see one.

11-04-2008

new information regarding the NZ storm petrel. On 8 April one was spotted and photographed off New Caledonia during a pelagic birding trip from New Zealand to Japan. It is the first one seen outside of New Zealand, and the area MAY be the species' wintering grounds. They leave the Hauraki Gulf around late March and disappear entirely from NZ between May and September. The website with photograph is WildWings Western Pacific Odyssey Spring 2008 sightings

02-05-2008

latest info on the kakapo breeding this season. Of the ten eggs laid, seven hatched and all seven chicks are being hand-reared in Nelson and are doing well. Total kakapo population is now 92 birds.

first wild tuatara breeding on NZ mainland in centuries
01-11-2008

Wild sex in the sanctuary - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz

02-11-2008

Very groovy...