Female kea population declining rapidly
Monday, 3 April 2017
Alarm bells raised by the rapid decline in kea populations are ringing anew as the female population plummets.
Kea, New Zealand's most beloved hooligans and the world's only alpine parrot, are at risk of extinction from predators. A recent population survey revealed females were especially vulnerable.
Graeme Kates has been counting kea for the Department of Conservation (DOC) in the Arthur's Pass Village area since 1997. This year, for the first time, he has found only male kea.
The kea census is taken by counting kea in several locations on three different days, with the highest count being the official record.
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The first count of the year happened last week. At the time, only seven kea were found and all were male.
A second count on Monday found only five kea: four males and one female.
'All kea folk are noticing the kea population is becoming male-centric,' Kates said.
Female birds were more vulnerable to predators while they were nesting and looking after chicks.
Chris Stewart, the DOC field centre supervisor at Arthur's Pass, said female kea were 'getting into trouble in some of the valleys'.
Another monitoring team, surveying the Hawdon Valley, had noticed the decline as well.
Dr Laura Young, who works with the Kea Conservation Trust, said a disproportionately low female population was 'pretty standard, but it seems to be getting more pronounced'.
A similar sex-ratio skew was found in the kaka population of Waitutu forest, Fiordland, in the mid-2000s, before DOC ran a long-term pest control programme in the area.
DOC media advisor Fiona Oliphant said a population sample taken in in December last year found 'the sex ratio changed in response to integrated pest control'.
The female kaka population 'increased almost four-fold' since 2007, according to a DOC media release last month.
Stewart said the pest control plan in Arthur's Pass National Park was being expanded.
'There will be double the number of people on the ground,' he said.
The plan included trapping and poisoning predators in the valleys of the national park.