Kakapo care delights volunteers
Albie Burgers with his new friends. Photo: Supplied.
Albie and Felicity Burgers have described their recent two-week working stint on Codfish Island, or Whenua Hou, simply as a life-changing experience.
The 1400ha, bush-covered island lies about three kilometres off the untamed west coast of Stewart Island, is home to some 80 resident kakapo, and has become the centre for the parrot’s recovery in New Zealand.
For Albie and Felicity it was the second time in four years that they have been selected by DOC from a list of volunteers to go to Codfish. This trip came at short notice, and the Burgers had to act fast as the preparations for the trip are arduous and the weather at this time of year is not for the faint-hearted. They both agreed that it couldn’t have been more different from a tropical island holiday.
“We had sleet, snow, wind and thunderstorms,” said Felicity. “We were also close to the epicentre of the earthquake, and an hour later we had a tsunami warning which left us ten minutes to run up the hill. We raced to get some warm clothes, our raingear and our torches and then we had to go down to the beach first before going up to the highest point. It was exciting but also very scary.”
“Before we went we had to clean all our gear with antibacterial and antiviral stuff and put it into big plastic bags, which we were not allowed to open again. When we went to Invercargill, we had to find out way first to the quarantine station, where they checked all our gear and the food for mice. Even the velcro on the jackets and the socks had to be cleaned of any seeds and if you had been in contact with domesticated birds in last 18 months they were particularly thorough as you could bring in a virus.”
The Burgers’ work, alongside other volunteers, DOC workers and a TV crew, consisted of walking the tracks for six to eight hours a day, carrying a minimum of 10kg of water and food to restock the feeding stations for the kakapo. These had their own battery-driven, radio-controlled food hoppers, which the birds have learned to operate with their beaks. To open the feeders, the birds hop on a feeding platform that records their weight. From a transmitter on their back, a signal is sent to radio device called a “snark”, confirming the ID of the bird and allowing it to prise open the feeder’s lid with its beak.
The ground-dwelling parrot, which learned to lie immobile on the ground to blend in with the vegetation when hunted by the mighty Haast eagle, would likely not survive without human intervention regarding feeding and breeding.
The older kakapo are fed to bring them into good breeding condition, and the juveniles are supported as they cannot all be fed by their slow-breeding mums, which are encouraged to raise more than the normal number of chicks per season. To avoid inbreeding, the few males available for mating are circulated around and two separate breeding populations have been successfully established.
When kakapo were originally moved to the island it was inhabited by rats, which predate on kakapo eggs and chicks. Since the 1980s all predators have been progressively removed and the parrot population is doing well. Over the years, breeding and chick-rearing efforts have been so productive that more birds have now been released to neighbouring Anchor Island.
Reaching Codfish depends on weather conditions and was an adventure in itself, said Albie. As a specially protected nature reserve, no unauthorised landing is permitted and access is only by light plane, which lands on the beach at low tide or, in bad weather, by helicopter dodging the clouds and wind gusts.
The Burgers’ motivation to brave the fierce weather and tough working conditions was a mixture of conservation ethos and guilt mixed with a bit of selfishness, the couple admitted.
“The part that is selfish is that it makes you feel good when you are doing something useful and this is a primal need of human beings. Another part is guilt because we brought the kakapo close to extinction so we owe it to them today to do everything we can to help them survive,” Albie said. “And the kakapo is a really special bird; they are so soft, their feathers are like fur, and they have a wonderful sweet smell and they are such inquisitive and intelligent birds.”
Felicity said it was also a wonderful experience to go somewhere where predators had been eradicated, “and to see all the different birds that live there and get a glimpse of what New Zealand was once like.”
Ina Holst
