Kiwis returning to the Cobb after sustained pest control efforts
The discovery of great spotted kiwi around the houses by the Cobb Dam has caused considerable excitement among conservationists.
Last month, Forest and Bird member Edith Shaw was tramping with her friends in the Cobb when the group made their last overnight stop at the Department of Conservation house near the dam. They were amazed to hear a kiwi calling beside the cottage around midnight, and watched another kiwi close at hand.
“The kiwi beside the cottage called from midnight to 12.45am, but we stayed up listening until 2.00am. In the moonlight we had a kiwi feeding on the lawn outside the kitchen window,” Mrs Shaw reported. “It’s two years since I have been up in the Cobb and I believe trapping is certainly paying off. Waxeyes or white-eyes were everywhere, we saw and heard good numbers of tomtits, grey warblers, bellbirds, kakariki, riflemen, and several flocks of brown creepers.”
Friends of Flora chairwoman Maryann Ewers said her Motueka-based trapping group was pleased about the re-establishment of kiwi within the trap-controlled area. However, she pointed out that the return of the kiwi to the valley was largely a reflection of the success of the 1080 drops on the outer edges of the Cobb.
“The kiwi had enough protection from that so they started spreading out and finding their way back into the valley. Who knows where they are coming from, but their numbers were brought up and we now have to look after them and their young. We’re bringing kiwi back into the Flora too. We’re releasing seven pairs of brown kiwi on 1 May, but first we have to put everything in place and make sure that stoat trapping numbers are low enough so they can breed in safety and survive. Adults can defend themselves against stoats, but when they breed the young ones are the most vulnerable.”
To determine what predators are in the nearby bush, inkpads with a fresh piece of meat and cardboard on either side are set up adjacent to the traditional traps, and footprints indicate which animal has scurried past.
Trapping efforts have been expanded over the years, with associated groups Bush and Beyond and Friends of the Cobb, and once the trapping lines of all three projects are connected, some 10,000 hectares will be protected, making this one of the largest voluntary trapping projects in New Zealand.
Without the work of volunteer groups up and down the country, DOC, which has suffered significant funding cuts, could not achieve its targets.
DOC’s local biodiversity manager Hans Stoffregen commended the efforts made by community groups and said the return of the kiwi to the Cobb may well indicate that efforts are starting to pay off.
“The damage by possums, stoats and rats on our native flora and fauna is often underestimated and their combined impacts are the reason why our forests are perceived to be so silent.”
Conservationist Jo-Anne Vaughan was equally enthusiastic about the recent observation of kiwi in the valley.
“It is really such an exciting discovery. Friends of Flora, covering 5,000ha of Mt Arthur tableland, are desperately trying to raise well in excess of $72,000 to reintroduce kiwi into the area now that stoat numbers are so low, and here are we, the Friends of the Cobb, with a small kiwi population which we can expand upon to healthy numbers, and all we have to do is keep expanding and maintaining our trapping lines. I’m sure the discovery of kiwi will enhance chances of getting funding for more traps but we need more volunteers.
“When you think of what Friends of Flora have achieved since their inception in 2001 from the Motueka population, I feel sure that there is an untapped population of fit retirees who would love the involvement of maintaining trapping lines in the Cobb once a month.”
For enquiries about joining the groups, contact Jo-Anne Vaughan on 524 8072.
Ina Holst
