B1.2.3.1 New Zealand: Flora And Fauna
Description
This article is from the New Zealand FAQ, by Phil Stuart-Jones and Lin Nah with numerous contributions by others.
B1.2.3.1 New Zealand: Flora And Fauna
cakes@io.org (cakes) has provided the following article (advice on legality
requested!):
Reprinted without permission.
RACE AGAINST TIME TO SAVE ANCIENT PARROTS
Reuters, 19.01.96
WELLINGTON, New Zealand.
After a peaceful existence spanning millions of years, the survival odds
seem stacked against New Zealand's native parrot, a fat, flightless bird
called the kakapo.
With only 50 kakapo left in New Zealand, Britain's World Conservation
Monitoring Center (WCMC) recently placed the bird on its list of the
world's 20 most-endangered species predicted to become extinct during 1996.
"That bird has so much stacked against it," said Kevin Smith, president
of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand.
Only one kakapo chick has survived into adulthood since 1990, although
three more are almost there.
"At the moment the clock is just ticking. Unless there are some chicks
fledged in the next five years the kakapo's prospects are very bleak,"
Smith said.
Fully grown kakapo weigh up to eight pounds, heavier than most other
parrots, and are bright green in color. Scientists say the bird existed
without significant threat for millions of years.
Their decline began 1,000 years ago when humans arrived in New Zealand,
bringing predatory mammals such as cats, dogs, rats and stoats. Flightless
native birds, including the kiwi, moa and kakapo, had not developed
defenses against predation.
"Some were literally eaten alive. The kakapo's only defense was to sit
very still, and predators basically had meals on wheels," said Janet Owen,
Department of Conservation (DOC) Director of Protected Species.
She said kakapo populations were plundered as a food source by Maori and
European settlers alike, and their natural habitat was largely destroyed by
the clearance of rich forests.
Hope seemed lost in the late 1960s when it was found all kakapo known to
exist were male. Then the discovery of a single feather on Stewart Island,
at the foot of the South Island, led to a hitherto unknown population of
about 200 birds, including females.
But cats discovered this kakapo haven at the same time. "By the time we
could do anything about the cats, the population had plummeted to around 50
or 60 birds," said Paul Jansen, head of DOC's Kakapo Recovery Program.
The kakapo were moved in the 1980s to the relative safety of Codfish,
Little Barrier and Maud islands, dotted around New Zealand's coastline.
The nests need video monitoring as they come under constant attack from
rats, and Maud Island is occasionally invaded by stoats swimming over from
the mainland.
The male kakapo abandons the female after mating, forcing her to leave
the nest dangerously unattended while she feeds.
What is more, kakapo are reluctant breeders mating only once every four
or five years. They also have a history of laying infertile eggs.
Despite the hurdles facing the kakapo, the WCMC's prediction of imminent
extinction is overly dire, DOC says. While the kakapo is critically
endangered, it is a national treasure which can be dragged back from the
brink of oblivion.
"Results will take a while because they're long-lived birds. We think
they live around 60-80 years, so they won't be wiped out this year," DOC
Director-General Murray Hosking said.
Over the next 10 years the recovery program aims to establish a younger
breeding population, although numbers will probably remain similar as older
birds die.
"Conceivably we will be giving help to the kakapo for at least the next
five decades, if not longer," Jansen said.
Smith is sharply critical of the amount of funding the government
provides for endangered species research. DOC has a $660,000 budget for
kakapo research in 1996.
"We've become too insulated in New Zealand we don't realize just how
special our native plants and animals are. There's a niggardly,
pathetically small amount of money going into conservation, and we reap
what we sow," he said.
Smith said predation was causing the decline of New Zealand's bird
populations in general, and forest habitats were gradually being destroyed
by possums, deer and goats.
"New Zealand's wealth has been generated out of the 75 percent of the
country we've cleared. Unfortunately we're not using any of that wealth to
save those species that are trying to survive in the little remnants we
left them," Smith said.
"The dawn chorus in our forests, which used to be a real feature of New
Zealand, is in many places becoming more of a solo." Reuters
I found this article on a bird-related web site - I can't recall which
one as I've scanned many over the last few weeks. Recently I saw a
television program on the Discovery channel, which highlighted the plight
of the kakapo in much the same manner as this story.
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