Tuesday, 09 March 2010
THE efforts of an ecologically-minded Eastern Bay group are making a difference to one of New Zealand’s most threatened birds - the kokako.
With the Department of Conservation estimating that fewer than 400 pairs of the once-endemic bird remain, work done by the Manawahe Eco Trust is improving the kokako’s chances of survival.
The trust operates in an important area of land, the Manawahe Ecological Corridor, which is the only forested link between the Rotorua Lakes and the sea.
The important landscape features within the corridor have been recognised at district and regional council level, with Environment Bay of Plenty declaring the area is “an outstanding regional ecological asset deserving of special support”.
For about five years, the Manawahe Eco Trust has been working at reducing the threat of pests to kokako and other native birds in the area.
Deputy chairman John Mackintosh said ecological corridors provided a linkage between different habitat types.
“Some native birds use these corridors to access food supplies that vary with the season,” he said.
“Some native birds in the corridor, such as the kokako, are not well adapted to crossing large areas of open farmland.”
Mr Mackintosh said the key to making progress on the grass-roots level was to get people involved.
“During these years, there has been good, quite remarkable progress,” he said.
The trust placed traps to reduce the number of mustelids - stoats, ferrets and weasels - and rodents in the corridor.
Monitoring had revealed the pest control programme was effective.
“The results show that not only kokako numbers have increased, but also the population of many other native birds such as tui, bellbird, whitehead and North Island robin,” Mr Mackintosh said.
On the weekend of March 27 and 28, the trust would hold a “Bunny Blast” competition.
“People can bring in rabbits they have already shot,” Mr Mackintosh said.
“The idea is to get rabbit meat that we can use in our mustelid traps.”
For more information about the Manawahe Eco Trust, see the website. www.lakestosea.org