The hard work by the community groups, forestry companies and associated professional trappers is starting to pay off as landowners increasingly report in kiwi sightings, calls and mystery footprints…
There has been a flurry of kiwi news from the Whareora, Owhiwa, Kohinui and Taheke Landcare Groups and the forestry projects at Glenbervie and Whanui:
Whareora Landcare:
Following a plan put in place with help from Pete Graham at DOC, Whareora and Owhiwa Landcare (myself, Sue G, Justine, Michael and Antoinette + family) carried out some coordinated Kiwi Call Count listening from 3 deliberately overlapping sites around the Maungatika Scenic Reserve on Mt Tiger to triangulate where the kiwi are located. We accomplished this during the first ‘kiwi listening window in May.
Lesley Baigent, dog Tohu and myself then spent 5 hours in the reserve to see if we could find the kiwi in the hopes that we may be able to put a trail cam on an active burrow before nesting got underway. It was needle in a haystack type stuff, so we weren’t surprised to not find them, but Tohu did find some recently used burrows which was exciting. Mt Tiger Kiwi Listeners are now working to complete their 4 nights of listening at the sites and have been excited to hear a 3rd kiwi most nights, when previously we only heard one pair.
Taheke Landcare:
An interesting footprint was found in mud near Brynavon (half way between Taheke and Pataua Nth) by Cameron McInnes of Carex Ecological Services. Have sent this to kiwi experts to find out if this is a kiwi or not. Kiwi Listening Devices deployed earlier in the month by the Kiwi Coast are now being analysed by David Wright.
Kohinui Stream Landcare:
Professional trapper Todd Hamilton has reported that landowners on Te Rongo Road are hearing kiwi. A Kiwi Listening Device was deployed at Helen and Geoff Burgess’s a couple of months ago, and this data is also currently being analysed.
Owhiwa Landcare:
A landowner near the junction of Mt Tiger and Owhiwa Roads has reported being woken up by kiwi calling to each other very loudly around 6am in the morning. A Kiwi Listening Device is now in place. We have had previous occasional kiwi reports from the metal road part of Owhiwa Rd before but have not been able to confirm anything…
Whanui Project:
Tony Dwane from Hancock Forest Managers is working with Pete Graham to carry out some Kiwi Listening at Whanui.
Glenbervie Forest:
James Griffin is listening in at the Glenbervie Forest and hopes to complete his listening over the next couple of weeks. Previous listening data suggests that kiwi are declining here, so it is really important we keep an eye on what is going on and then we can figure out what might be able to be done to turn this around.
This is all very interesting news and especially so when put together. One kiwi here, and two kiwi there may not seem like much at each individual site. But together these kiwi observations confirm the scenario of a small number of kiwi hanging out in the Mt Tiger, Owhiwa, Brynavon, Whanui and Glenbervie areas. This is important because these sites are technically within kiwi wandering distance and so we’re not dealing with isolated kiwi cut off from each other.
The Kiwi Coast has deployed over 150 new predator traps between the Whangarei Heads and Tutukaka during the last 12 months in an effort to protect and link the last few kiwi remaining in between, and to make the area safer for kiwi roaming out of the strongholds.
Kiwi Coast Coordinator Ngaire Tyson says “It is my hope that we have got this added protection in place in time to help these protect these remaining kiwi and create safer pathways for roaming kiwi to be able link up with new mates and rebuild thriving kiwi populations”.
