In a \u201cvital\u201d step for the survival of one of the world\u2019s rarest wading birds, more than 100 black stilts (kak\u012b) are being released into the wild near Lake Tekapo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sixty-seven captive raised\u00a0kak\u012b\u00a0were set free on the Godley River\u00a0in the Mackenzie Basin last weekend. <\/p>\n
The endangered birds are released when they are sub adults, aged eight or nine months, after first being given a fighting chance at the Department of Conservation captive breeding facility near Twizel and at the\u00a0Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust, near Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Further releases were planned for Friday and Saturday, bringing the\u00a0total released this year to 134 birds.<\/p>\n
Project lead, Doc biodiversity ranger\u00a0Liz Brown, of\u00a0Twizel, said the releases were\u00a0\u201cvital for maintaining wild population numbers and genetic diversity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cReleasing large groups of young birds together also increases their chances of finding future breeding partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the risks posed by H5 bird flu, which is now in New Zealand, the releases\u00a0“needed to proceed\u201d because captive breeding facilities\u00a0had reached capacity.<\/p>\n
Black stilts\u00a0were among the prized native birds to receive vaccinations to protect them against\u00a0bird flu.<\/p>\n
With the aviaries \u201cnow mostly empty, we can begin preparing for the next cohort of young kak\u012b\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
Dedicated\u00a0kak\u012b rangers would now be \u201cclosely\u201d monitoring how the waders got on in the wild.<\/p>\n
And supplementary feeding would continue for the next six weeks to give the released birds\u00a0\u201cthe best possible chance of survival\u201d.<\/p>\n
The important\u00a0six-week period gave the birds the best possible\u00a0chance to establish themselves in their new Godley River home.<\/p>\n
The efforts of rangers, landowners, volunteers,\u00a0Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101i Tahu, The Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust, Alliance Group and the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital were praised by Doc.<\/p>\n
Mt Gerald Station also provided both accommodation and access at the release site.<\/p>\n
Dunedin Wildlife Hospital general manager Suzanne Stephenson called the releases a \u201cmassive achievement\u201d which followed \u201ca lot of mahi [effort]\u00a0from a lot of dedicated people\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was a privilege\u00a0for the team at the hospital to care for such \u201camazing birds\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s really nice to see that species increase and go out into the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kak\u012b in Doc\u2019s captive breeding facility were kept fed with 5000kg of ox hearts provided by Alliance Group, based in Pukeuri in North Otago, and this would also be given as supplementary feeding in the wild.<\/p>\n
Conservation efforts over the past four decades have brought the wader back from the brink of extinction, following a low of just 23 birds.<\/p>\n
charley-kai.john@odt.co.nz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a \u201cvital\u201d step for the survival of one of the world\u2019s rarest wading birds, more than 100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-562443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}