Kiwi Coast and members of the Warawara Komiti Kaitiaki have trialled a new method to monitor Northland’s only population of titipounamu/rifleman. The successful results may help detect further titipounamu at additional Warawara sites in the future, and complements the Five Minute Bird Counts the Far North DOC office have been assisting with to date.
Article by Lesley Baigent (Kiwi Coast) and Rongo Bentson (Warawara Komiti Kaitiaki)
At the end of last year a suggestion was put to the Warawara Komiti Kaitiaki from Kiwi Coast, to trial using Kiwi Listening Devices (acoustic monitors) for titipounamu/riflemen, to see if these listening devices could pick up their very high pitched call, which can be very hard to hear for humans, especially as you get a bit older.
On the 30th of December 2021, with the permission of the Komiti Kaitiaki, Ngaire Sullivan and Lesley Baigent of Kiwi Coast, accompanied Komiti Kaitiaki members, Rongo Bentson and Mina Pomare-Peita, Jobs for Nature (JFN) Kaimahi, Darren Johansson, Amos Waipouri and Paora Proctor, and also Ngawari Bengtsson and Sherry Pomare, who all spent an amazing day in Warawara installing six Kiwi Listening Devices along the track around the area generally referred to as the Titipounamu Area.
This was a trial for the detection of titipounamu using the Kiwi Listening Devices – something never done before. However, recently Kiwi Coast have used the devices successfully in other Northland forests for kākā, korimako and other rare Northland birds with great success.
After 10 days, the devices were recovered and Kiwi Coast funded Dr Karen Verdurmen to analyse the data recorded on the SD cards. Of the six devices one didn’t work due to battery failure, but five picked up titipounamu calls. Two of the devices which had also been programmed to detect kiwi, picked up kiwi calls too. So now we have conformation that the titipounamu are still there and it’s also great to know that kiwi too are still present in Warawara, making it a real success story.
Titipounamu have been seen and heard from time to time over the years in Warawara, making Warawara the only place on the mainland of Te Tai Tokerau where they exist but because they are so tiny and because of their high pitched sound they are not easy to monitor and keep track of. So to know we can now detect them with listening devices means it will be a lot easier to monitor them.
Hopefully with the three year Jobs for Nature contract, we will be able to protect them so they can flourish as they are still very much at risk of falling prey to predators such as stoats and rats. They are relatively poor flyers so will not disperse across broken country, making Warawara a perfect habitat for them.
Credit to everyone who participated in this project, especially the three JFN Kaimahi who also retrieved the devices. Kiwi Coast extends their thank you to the Komiti Kaitiaki for allowing this to take place, and special thanks to Dr Karen Verdurmen for the long hours spent deciphering the devices.
