Disappointing season for Hunua kōkako

Treasured kōkako in the Hunua Ranges have suffered a blow this season with the impact of high pest numbers hindering breeding and threatening the population.

Auckland Council Biodiversity Manager Rachel Kelleher says results just in from the 2014/15 breeding season are much worse than expected.

“Every year we closely monitor six pairs of kōkako in the Hunua Kōkako Management Area (KMA) and from that monitoring we get an indication of the breeding success in the wider population.

“This year’s results are dismal with no fledging success at all and, of even greater concern, signs that adult birds have been lost,” she says.

Monitoring this season was expanded to observe five additional pairs that have settled outside the managed area.

“The growth of the kōkako population in the KMA over the last 20 years has seen birds move outside the pest-controlled area.

“Unfortunately, four of the five pairs we’ve been following outside the KMA appear to be missing altogether,” she says.

The increase in pest numbers in the Hunua Ranges has prompted Auckland Council to change its approach to pest management in the wider ranges area. An aerial pest control operation using cereal baits that contain sodium fluoroacetate (1080) will be carried out in late winter.

Franklin Ward Councillor Bill Cashmore, a local resident and member of council’s Political Advisory Group for this project, echo’s Ms Kelleher’s disappointment at this season’s kōkako breeding results and emphasises the importance of a new pest management regime.

“Not only are we seeing treasured and threatened species like kōkako affected by rats stealing from nests or adult birds predated by stoats, the wider forest is suffering.

“Take a walk in the ranges today and you’ll see ‘possum browse’, which is our forest canopy being destroyed by hungry pests.

“These results are heart breaking but it is reassuring to know that help is on the horizon,” he says.

For more information about Auckland Council’s pest management programme in the Hunua Ranges see our website or email HunuaProject@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

ENDS

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