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DOC gets its ducks in a row for a quacking good day

14 March 2015

DOC gets its ducks in a row for a quacking good day at the races


Max releasing Rubber ducks – Barry Harcourt

A rubber rabble will take to the waters this Saturday as 200 blue rubber ducks compete in the second annual Great Fiordland Whio Race on the Upukerora River, Te Anau.

To celebrate Whio Awareness Month, the Department of Conservation (DOC) is hosting a whio family fun day which also includes face-painting, a scavenger hunt, and a chance to meet Oska the DOC species dog, who is specially trained to sniff out whio in the wilds of Fiordland.

Conservation Services Ranger, Andrew ‘Max’ Smart manages the Fiordland whio programme:

“With a race course of 300m, involving rapids, eddies, weeds and rock, this is no time to be a lame duck. Oska has been in training to round up any wily quackers that try to escape.”

Entry to the race is $2 per duck, and participants can vet the line-up from 10.30am at the Old Pony Club, Upukerora Park. The ducks will be released into the river at 11am, and the course will run from the gravel pits to the Upukerora Bridge. Race rules: first whio into the catching net wins.

Competition prizes will be sponsored by Real Journeys, Air New Zealand and Genesis Energy, and the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation will be cooking up a storm on the BBQ.

The whio is the unique native duck only found in New Zealand’s fast-flowing waters. Featured on the $10 note and with an estimated nationwide population of 2,500 birds, whio are rarer than kiwi. Fiordland is home to a sizeable population of whio, and numbers are increasing in areas where pest eradication measures are in place.

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The support of Genesis Energy is enabling DOC to double the number of fully secure whio breeding sites throughout the country, boost pest control efforts and enhance productivity and survival for these rare native ducks.

This year has been a bumper breeding season for Fiordland whio, allowing a number of juveniles to be translocated into Mount Aspiring National Park to increase pair numbers there. In Fiordland, a number of local whio translocations have also taken place to ensure wild population numbers continue to grow.

Ends


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