Operation Nest Egg
Project Tongariro members have been volunteering their time over the recent months to help transport kiwi eggs and chicks between the Tongariro Forest and the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua as part of Operation Nest Egg. This season has resulted in the successful release of 15 chicks back into the forest. Luke Easton, Biodiversity Ranger for DOC has summed up the season, read about his adventures tracking the chicks below.
If you would like to join our kiwi egg and chick driver database, please get in touch!
Visit Save the Kiwi to learn more about Operation Nest Egg.
Jim Boston with the precious cargo. Photo credit: Helen Boston
Looking through the tiny 2cm hole on top of the ‘Kiwi on the move’ box at Mauao. Photo credit: Helen Boston
Kiwi Team Update - 16 December 2022
By Luke Easton | Biodiversity Ranger
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai
So, we had 12 adult males nest (9 have since re-nested). We therefore performed 14 egg lifts, resulting in 25 eggs lifted. 1 egg got stomped and couldn’t be saved (Dino’s – scrambled egg alright), 1 had early embryonic death, 1 was infertile, and 1 died point of hatch (ended up upside down and the wrong way round to hatch). So, 18 eggs have hatched successfully (3 are still in incubation from the two 2nd clutch egg lifts performed recently). We therefore released 18 chicks so far. 2 chicks have died due to stoat predation (preliminary results suggest stoat but pending necropsy report from Massey), with 1 more dying because of misadventure (he fell down a ditch). Thus, we currently have 15 chicks being monitored in the forest. We also had some more sad news with one of our best breeders and renesting males, Dani, who was found dead out in the open. It had been 7 days since he died but because of the warm, humid and wet conditions, he was well and truly gone to confidently tell what had happened (dog or ferret predation?). So that was a shame.
As for the released chicks, 2 had moved at least 800m from their release location (one into blackberry. Dang.). The others have stayed put, relatively speaking. We had fun the other day doing a strap change on one – we were half-way up a clay track with bird in hand, then I slipped and went sliding down on my backside with the chick ‘flying’ in the air. No bird was harmed in the process, but my dignity was haha. Maia is a good runner. Keeps us on our toes. And Zaz8 likes bog. So, it’s great fun trying to pin her down. All are putting on weight. Har11 didn’t at first, but then must’ve found a good stash of worm burgers. We had a couple faulty transmitters, so they switched into mortality mode when the chick was still alive and well. This has meant that we have had to catch them a bit earlier than usual to change their transmitters. One of these was the blackberry chick. He had evaded capture twice already, so on the third attempt 3 of us went in to catch him. I was in overalls and had some cutters, whilst my fellow workmates were tough as old boots and didn’t have blackberry-proof gear. We spent 3 hours going round in circles (me cutting trails in the blackberry and the others slowly, slowly following me), one miss-capture later, then finally managed to pin the wee fella down. He made one more attempt to run but I managed to grab him. Phew! We did his transmitter change and then moved him out of the blackberry and dropped him off into a nicer bush patch. He was forever grateful – I got pooped on! Chances are he will return to his favourite prickly patch. Turns out I wasn’t as blackberry proof as I thought. I was still picking out thorns nearly 2 weeks later.
Anyway, I want to extend my gratitude to your and the team’s support, patience, and flexibility with last-minute changes. It has been rather challenging this season for various reasons thus I do appreciate your willingness to adapt to plans as they change.