Kōkako finds its feet: A 21st anniversary

Friends and champions of a threatened native New Zealand bird gathered this week to celebrate a 21-year milestone in its conservation on Tiritiri Matangi Island.

Managed by the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi and the Department of Conservation since 2010, the recovery programme has increased kōkako numbers fourfold across New Zealand in the past 19 years.

The North Island Kōkako Recovery Plan placed kōkako in reserves on the mainland and isolated islands to breed and protect the native bird from unnatural predators.

Launched in 1999, the programme aimed to increase numbers from 400 pairs to 1000 pairs by the year 2020.

According to DoC’s website there are now 1600 pairs of kōkako, raising their status from endangered to at risk and recovering, exceeding their goals from the recovery plan by 60 per cent two years early.

The sell-out event at Unitec on Monday drew in more than 200 long-term supporters and public alike, with a kōkako photograph competition being taken out by Auckland’s Geoff Beals with Bandit eating nikau fruit.

The chair of the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi’s biodiversity subcommittee, Kay Milton, said there were now about 35 kōkako on the island, with other fledglings having been translocated to other reserves around the North Island.

“There are now more kōkako populations that have been created by translocation than there are natural populations. It shows that the recovery of the birds has been not just due to pest control, but also people putting in a huge effort.”

The Hauraki Gulf island has been a successful sanctuary for kōkako and other native birds with its isolation creating a safe haven from mainland predators like rats and opossums.

Although Tiritiri Matangi has been considered pest free since 1993, DoC rangers killed a rat after a 19-day hunt on the island in January. In November there was an alleged mouse sighting, but no evidence was found.

This small, grey-slated, robber-mask wearing bird has flourished on Tiritiri Matangi and in other wildlife sanctuaries, preserving its haunting organ-like call for future generations.

DoC is currently looking over a new kōkako recovery plan set to be released later this year.