Rats found on Ulva Island are very bad news. This is now an emergency situation where the authorities have to go into overdrive. They still haven't caught the stoat/s on Kapiti Island.
From The Southland Times - Stuff
Endangered birds in one of New Zealand's leading wildlife reserves are under threat again after a small population of rats was found on "rat-free" Ulva Island. Twelve rats have been found in traps on the island in the past fortnight. A juvenile rat was found, which means a breeding population has been established on the island. The island had been rat free for 12 years. If the island was not cleared of rats within six months then the protected birds that had been released there, including the mohua and saddleback, would disappear.
This is very serious and the likely way these rats got to the islands is via boats. This island is open to the public and this will need to change. The island is a window to our past and our future if we want it. As Busted Blonde says on Roarprawn in a very good post on the issue
If they have caught 12 in a fortnight then there is a strong possiblity that there are hundreds already established on the sanctuary. Ulva is a window on what Stewart Island once was -alive with the haunting melody of a myriad of nativel birds and lush rich flora.
I have just sat outside taking photos of a pair of kereru in the tree. Whilst they were sitting there eyeing up hopefully their new home, a pair of piwakawaka flitted around them and the tui looked on from above. I want my son to be able to experience the cooing of kereru and the mad antics of tui. Let's plant great swathes of new bush and get serious about eradicating pests - it could be done if we had the will and the heart.
Hat tip - Roarprawn
The black-billed gull is only found in this country - it looks like a red-billed gull except for the difference in bill colour - as you'd expect. Why oh why has some sicko in southland gone out and shot, and smacked to death over 100 of them? There is no rational reason - but these people or this person is still out there and whilst a human - their partner or child - don't look like Black-billed gulls - who can say that they won't be next.
From Stuff
More than 100 of the rarest gulls in the world were massacred as they nested near Wreys Bush in Southland.
Department of Conservation Murihiku biodiversity ranger Ros Cole said more than 100 adult black-billed gulls were found dead beside the Aparima River at Wreys Bush on November 24.
Most of the birds died from bullet wounds, but others had broken bones and some chicks were found starving to death beside their dead parents, she said.
Shotgun cartridges were found beside some nests and an autopsy confirmed shotgun pellets were the most likely cause of death, Ms Cole said. "They have gone into the colony and gone mad. It's pretty sad that people want to shoot these birds and leave the chicks to starve," she said.
DOC Murihiku compliance and law enforcement ranger Kelwyn Osborn said the shooting was the third involving the endangered native gull in two months.
The THIRD!!! This is getting sicker and sicker - who is doing this and can you guarantee they won't do the same thing to their family or anyone else.
I oppose sending our endemic fauna overseas to zoos and other institutions. News that 5 kiwi have been sent overseas is sad. These birds, our birds, whakapapa here and for them to be bought up and live in a zoo overseas shows what we really think of these birds - that they are a commodity, a thing to be used to build prestige or even up the wildlife that come here to our zoos.
From NZH
"American researchers studying ways to breed kiwi in captivity are about to receive their first delivery of the shy brown birds for almost 20 years.
Five North Island brown kiwi were packed into crates and put on a plane to Los Angeles yesterday evening, destined for new homes at San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia and Frankfurt Zoo in Germany.
The two pairs and a female will join an expat population of about 39 kiwi - 23 living in Europe and 16 in America.
This idea that they can help our breeding program from overseas is a red herring in my view. They want to learn how to breed in captivity to increase the numbers of birds - in zoos, in captivity.
"The Smithsonian got its first pair of kiwi in 1968 as a gift to the US Government from then New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake. They produced the first chick born outside of New Zealand in 1975, a male which is still alive and entertaining visitors at the zoo.
A spokeswoman for Auckland Zoo, which hatched and reared the birds being exported this week, said they were needed overseas to inject some genetic diversity into the small populations.
To me it is exploitation without consideration for the individual birds or the species. I just don't trust their motives or reasons.
