NEWS - CURRENT

Minister of Conservation visits Maungatautari Ecological Island

16 April 2008

First kiwi chick on Maungatautari for century

12 December 2007

Grant will boost Maungatautari facilities

3 December 07

A $500,000 grant from the Lion Foundation will see an almost immediate start on the development of visitor facilities at the southern enclosure of the Maungatautari Ecological Island reserve, south of Cambridge.
The 65ha enclosure is rapidly becoming a major tourist attraction in the southern Waikato, with several thousand visitors each month likely to walk through the five kilometres of tracks during the summer holidays.
The 11km track through the whole 3400-hectare Maungatautari Ecological Island reserve is also attracting increasing numbers of trampers and day-trippers.
Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust chief executive Jim Mylchreest, said the Lion Foundation grant was a major boost to the reserve, and comes on top of a grant of $1.25 million from the foundation when the ecological island first got under way five years ago.
“This new grant means we can get on with providing proper toilet facilities and other services at the top of Tari Road, at Pukeatua, to cater to the growing number of visitors we are now getting,” he said.
“Support like this from the Lion Foundation means a great deal to us. It is essential that we now provide adequate facilities for visitors, and we couldn’t do it without such backing.
“We plan to spend $400,000 on toilets, new and more extensive signage, an information kiosk, putting in phone and electric services at the end of the road, and also creating a considerably bigger parking area with a bus-turnaround.
“Lots of tourist buses come through Pukeatua every day, going between Waitomo Caves and Rotorua, and we’d like to encourage them to stop off here, as a halfway point, so the visitors can see the bush and the birdlife.”
Mr Mylchreest said an additional $65,000 would go towards obtaining more native species for reintroduction to the area, including toutouwai (NZ robins), kokako, tuatara, popokatea (whiteheads) and hihi (stitchbirds) in 2008.
The remainder of the money will be used to further pest eradication work on the mountain, largely the cutting of additional track-lines to give better access to the isolated pockets of mice still known to exist on the mountain.
“We want to get all this work started as soon as possible, so we can have it finished by the end of March next year,” said Mr Mylchreest.
“We’re expecting a considerable increase in visitor-numbers this summer, and we will be installing temporary toilets in the meantime.”
Mr Mylchreest also said the breeding season for birds on the mountain had been “very productive”, with several senior conservation workers reporting seeing large numbers of fledgling tomtits and tui in the forest.
Without pressure from predators, and a plentiful food supply on the mountain, many birds may hatch a number clutches of young during the season.

Two kiwi nesting on Maungatautari

6 November 07

Two male kiwi are sitting on individual nests in separate burrows on Maungatautari, and staff at the 3400-hectare ecological island are hoping two chicks will start roaming the forest enclosure within the next six to eight weeks.

Pim de Monchy, operations manager for the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT), said the two brooding kiwi – Elmo and Robin – were both in the southern enclosure, and along with another male and five females. A further three males and three females live in the northern enclosure, but none of them yet appears interested in pairing up. “Elmo has been sitting on a nest since 21 September, and we believe Robin has been sitting since at least 28 September,” said Mr de Monchy.

Kiwi take about 80 days to hatch an egg, but Mr de Monchy said the two nesting males were being left alone to give them every chance with the eggs. “We may check that both birds really do have an egg some time this month, and if they do whether the eggs are fertile, but in the meantime we’ll let the kiwi get on with it,” he said. He also hoped other kiwi on the mountain would nest within the next month or so, though he said most of the birds are still young and may not yet have reached mating age.

Seven kaka, housed in an aviary in the southern enclosure have also been released, and the mountain’s restoration ecologist Chris Smuts-Kennedy said the birds appear to be living happily in the forest. “They seem to have moved away from the aviary area, but I’ve had glimpses of several of them in the forest. There’s good flowering of rewarewa at the moment, and other native food sources coming on.”

The four female kaka have each been fitted with transmitters, and all seven birds have coloured leg bands.

Mr Smuts-Kennedy said if members of the public saw the kaka, either on the mountain or in surrounding rural areas, MEIT staff would be glad to have detail from the sightings. “If people see kaka, we’d really like to know whether the birds are wearing leg bands, and if they are what colours,” he said. “When they were released last week they were all in very good condition, and they should be doing well with all the food on the mountain.”

The birds live on a wide range of seeds, berries, flowers, grubs and nectar.

He said the birds, now almost a year old, could live as long as 60 years.

Mice almost eradicated on Maungatautari

6 November 07

Only tiny pockets of mice remain in the 3400-hectare Maungatautari ecological island reserve, following a third application of aerial poison baits over most of the area.

Almost 1700 tracking tunnels spread across the mountain show a few isolated populations of the rodents are still there, and major efforts to eradicate them are now being made.

Jim Mylchreest, chief executive of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) said staff were concentrating on laying poison by hand in areas surrounding the widely-scattered sites where mouse prints were recorded. “It’s possible some of these mice already had lethal doses of the aerial poison when they made the tracks, but we’re making every move we can to ensure we get the last of them,” he said. “A number of their footprints were recorded in areas where we didn’t spread aerial bait because it was close to farmland where lambing was occurring.

“Extra monitoring lines are being created so we can be confident that any survivors will be detected and then eradicated.” But, said Mr Mylchreest, the good news was there were no signs of any predators such as rats, mustelids, cats, hedgehogs or possums. “It looks like we’ve got rid of all of them,” he said.

“We’re putting eight Judas goats into the area soon, just in case there are one or two goats still in there, although we haven’t seen any sign of goats for several months.”

Judas goats are fitted with bright orange collars and radio transmitters so they can be tracked. Wild goats will be attracted to the Judas goats or vice versa and the wild goats will then be eliminated by hunters.

PREDATOR ERADICATION

12 September 07

Another major step has been taken toward the total eradication of all mammals in the Maungatautari ecological island, following the third air-drop of poison baits on the 3400-hectare bush reserve south of Cambridge last week. A small length of boundary was excluded from this operation to avoid disturbing sheep during lambing. These areas will be treated when approval is given by the landowners affected.

MORE KAKA BOOST MAUNGATAUTARI NUMBERS

5 September 07

Five more kaka have been brought to the Maungatautari Ecological Island reserve, as the organisation’s reintroduction of native species takes another step forward. The five birds – four females and one male – were introduced from the Auckland Zoo, and join two male birds brought to the 3400ha pest-free island reserve in June from Wellington Zoo. All seven birds are now being held in a purpose-built three-cage aviary in the Southern Enclosure on Maungatautari.

Predators threaten Maungatautari security

August 07

A single rat print has raised fears that predators are threatening the security of an ecological island in Waikato.

The Maungatautari ecological island, south of Cambridge, has been fenced off from predators for more than a year, and two major air-drops of poison baits have virtually wiped out all mammals in the reserve. Only several small populations of mice are known to still exist inside the bush enclosure but Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust chief executive Jim Mylchreest said recent storms through had led to minor breaches of the pest-proof fence as branches have blown down.

A single rat print found inside the enclosure and an alarmingly high number of predator animals seen patrolling the outside of the 40km pest-proof fence, have combined to cause a rethink over the vulnerability of the special 3400ha conservation site, he said.

An alarm system notified staff of the breaches to the fence and they were quickly closed, but it's thought at least one rat was able to use a downed branch to climb over the fence and get into the reserve. Rat bait was spread widely in the area and it was believed to have now been eliminated.

A fenceline survey carried out by Waikato University biological sciences Masters degree student Trevor Connolly showed a "startlingly high number of predators patrolling the outside of the fenceline every night," Mr Mylchreest said. "His infra-red cameras caught cats catching mice along the fenceline, another cat with two kittens, and numerous possums, rats, ferrets and stoats and the level of mice outside the fence is phenomenal – we thought rats would be bad, but the mice are much worse."

It showed that if pests were removed from an area it took only a short time for the vacuum to be filled by pests coming in from outside the area, he said. "If the fence wasn't there, all those pests would be pouring straight into our pest-free island right after our poisoning operations."

He said staff at the trust would now rethink methods to ensure any breaches of the fence were even more rapidly mended. Another 30-day study of the fenceline would also be carried out to monitor pest and predator action.

Male kiwi wired for nesting

25 July 07

Two errant male kiwi on Maungatautari have finally been caught and fitted with new radio beacons, so they can be monitored for nesting activity.

Batteries of tracking beacons on Robin and Almo ran out several months early, and it has taken some weeks to get close enough to the two birds to catch them. Pim de Monchy, operations manager for the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust, said a number of attempts were made to locate the birds, using different methods, both at night and during the day-time. Staff had tried luring the birds within range of hand-held nets at night by standing absolutely still in the bush and using recorded kiwi calls to entice the birds within range. Eventually, a specially-trained kiwi-locating dog, Maggie, owned and run by DOC employee Steve McMannis, of Northland, was brought in, and in two days she located both birds. “One was found sheltering in a big windrow of old wood piled up near the forest edge, and the other bird was mustered back to a person standing in the bush who was able to grab it by the leg,” said Mr de Monchy. “Both have now been fitted with new ‘egg-timer’ transmitters, which can emit three different signals, depending on what the bird is doing.” One signal indicates normal activity, a second indicates the bird may be sitting on an egg, and the third indicates the bird may have stopped moving and may be dead. In each case the signal can be tracked to its point of origin. “Now that we are able to keep track of them, we hope they will start to breed and that each will soon be sitting on an egg,” said Mr de Monchy.

It is the male kiwi who sit on eggs until they hatch, but once the chick emerges it is left to fend for itself.

The two male kiwi are in the southern enclosure section of the ecological island, and have six females to choose from. Mr de Monchy said Robin had been the consistent companion of Horokio over the past 12 months, and Almo had been keeping close to four other females.

In the northern enclosure, there are three male and three female kiwi, but none yet appear to be breeding.

All kiwi on Maungatautari are now fitted with tracking devices.

Maungatautari project impresses invasion species expert

9 July 07

The Xcluder pest proof fence and the early success of the pest eradication operation on Maungatautari have impressed international invasive species expert Professor Daniel Simberloff during a recent visit to the mountain.

Professor Simberloff has a particular interest in invasion biology – the dispersal patterns displayed by species introduced outside their normal geographical ranges, the impacts such introduced species have on the communities they invade and the ways invasions can be managed.

During the visit Professor Simberloff said that the most challenging of all the strategies against invasive animals is to manage an entire ecosystem. He was therefore greatly stimulated by seeing the pest-proof fenced Maungatautari forest and hearing about progress in the pest eradication campaign. He said that if this fencing technology can be shown to work as an effective barrier against pests for a large forest like Maungatautari, then he believed “we could then raise huge amounts of money, and build fences around bigger and bigger reserves.”

While the visit was initially flagged as a low key affair, the visit included DOC, Waikato University and Landcare Research people as well as Maungatautari Trustees and staff.

Maungatautari Trust chief executive Jim Mylchreest said it was great to have a world renowned pest expert on the mountain.

“We had a lot to show and tell - complete multi pest species eradication on the Maungatautari scale has not been attempted on mainland New Zealand before. We have a 40km fence which is completely pest proof, a specially designed pest eradication operation which is already proving very successful and all backed by a number of groundbreaking pest animal behaviour research projects. It is not hard to see why Professor Simberloff was impressed.”

Ecologist Daniel Simberloff, Ph.D., is the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of environmental studies at the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science and an honorary research fellow of the Natural History Academy of London. His interests include the ecology and evolution of introduced species, conservation biology, and the composition of biotic communities.

Earlier in the week Professor Simberloff attended the Conserv-Vision conference at the University of Waikato.

Beetles boom  on  Maungatautari

July 07

Native beetles in the southern enclosure of the Maungatautari Ecological Island have increased by at least 300% in the two years since the area was enclosed and completely cleared of pests.

A scientific study of almost three years, conducted by Landcare Research invertebrate ecologist, Dr Corrine Watts, shows that in some instances there has been a four-fold increase in beetle numbers in the 65 hectare southern enclosure.  Dr Watts says the study may be an indication of how predators such as rats, mice, wild-cats and possums can affect native insects.

She said the survey, funded by the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, began several months before the southern enclosure was enclosed and became pest-free.

She gathered a wide range of beetles from pitfall traps set both inside and outside the enclosure before and then again after it was fenced off.

Last summer a further set of samples was taken, and it was these that showed the massive increase inside the enclosure. “The changes inside the enclosure are happening quite quickly,” she said. “The numbers of species are not changing – it’s just the abundance of them that is changing. “After mammal eradication, beetle abundance increased 8 per cent a month inside the enclosure and 2 per cent a month outside.”

Dr Watts said 128 different beetle species were caught in the traps, with 44 species “undescribed” (known, but not yet formally identified) and several of them rare. The Maungatautari area was also a previously unknown location for the 44 undescribed species. Predominant among the beetles was the large carabid species (Mecodema oconnori) which measure up to 4cm in length, is shiny black in appearance, and “stinks” when it is disturbed.

Dr Watts said the numbers of this large beetle increased to 500% in the enclosure, and she thinks it possible that they may be a food source for rodents, particularly rats, in forest areas. The most common beetles found in the area were rove beetles, weevils and fungus beetles. “Birds will eat all of these three types,” she said.

The study is one of only two such invertebrate research projects undertaken in New Zealand, and the Maungatautari study is of special importance because it was carried out before and after pests were removed, and before native birds were introduced into the enclosure.

“It provides a good baseline for studies to look at what effect introduced native bird species will have on the beetle population,” she said. “The beetles can also be a source of food for native geckos and skinks.”

Dr Watts said beetles make up 50% of the country’s known insect species.

Jim Mylchreest, CEO of the Maungatautari Trust, said the survey had been “a real eye-opener” and was an excellent indication of how much damage small pests such as rodents, cats, possums and mustelids could do to native species. “Having this build-up of a basic food-source for birds, skinks and geckos means that when the birds and other species are reintroduced to the area they will have an abundant food supply and will therefore probably breed very well,” he said. “If the beetles are making such a great come-back, it makes me wonder what other insects and native plants are suddenly making a come-back to

“Now that we have eradicated most of the pests except a few mice, we should see some major changes on the mountain.”

For further information, contact:

Corinne Watts,
Ph:  (07) 859-3706

Storm Damage

July 07

Four large branches smashed an eight-metre section of the pest-proof Xcluder fence around the 3400-hectare Maungatautari Ecological Island in Tuesday night’s storm.

Pim de Monchy, operations manager for the ecological island south of Cambridge, said he received a callout at about midnight to two separate areas, one on the northern boundary fence, and the second along the western boundary. A surveillance wire runs along the top of the Xcluder fence right round the enclosure, and if it is moved more than 4cm it shorts out, it sets off an alarm which can pinpoint the area where the fence may have been breached.

“The northern breach was just a small branch pushing against the surveillance wire and setting off the alarm, and we were able to deal with that quickly,” he said. “On the western side, four big branches had dropped on to a section of the fence and crushed it down to half its height. They were forming a bridge over the fence from the outside.” He said the branches were chain-sawed free from the fence within two hours, and a new piece of Xcluder fence was installed by midday.

The morning after the storm, a full inspection of the whole fence and all the culverts running under it was carried out, to ensure no more breaches had occurred.

New  birds  attract  wild  kaka  to  Maungatautari

18 June 2007

Within days of two kaka being released into a large new aviary on Maungatautari, a wild kaka has been seen several times in their vicinity.

Jim Mylchreest, Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust CEO, says the wild bird has been seen close to the aviary, and it could be an indication that other wild kaka may be attracted to the area by the arrival of the new birds. “The wild one seems to be hanging round the area, so the new birds may already be having a good effect,” he says. “We will be setting up a feeding station close to the aviary in the hope that we can encourage any visiting wild kaka to stay around and help populate the mountain. “Just occasionally we get the odd kaka up in the bush there, apparently just passing through on the way to somewhere else.”

The two new birds were released into the purpose-built aviary early last week, and were welcomed by about 50 people, including students from the nearby Pukeatua School. The students will be responsible for feeding the new birds.

The male birds, named Mamaku and Rata, have been specially bred at the Wellington Zoo for Maungatautari, and Mr Mylchreest says the pair have settled in well to the new aviary. “It’s double the size of their Wellington home, so they’re very happy about it all.”

Within the next month or so, the birds will be joined by another five kaka, including females, from the Auckland Zoo. They will all be held in the aviary for several months, and then half will be released into the wild.  Feeding stations will be set up outside the aviary to encourage the released birds to stay in the area, and a few weeks later the other birds will also be released.

Mr Mylchreest says it is hoped the kaka will continue to live in and around the southern enclosure of the ecological island, so that they will be seen by some of the growing stream of visitors to the area.

Kaka were once plentiful on the mountain, with thousands of them living in the bush there. But in the past century they have been wiped out by increasing numbers of wild cats, stoats and rats, which raided nests and took eggs and nestlings. None has been resident on the mountain for decades.

Now that the mountain’s 3400 hectares of bush have been ring-fenced with the Xcluder pest-proof fencing, all predators have been removed from the bush and bird and native plant life is making a major recovery.

It is hoped that in the coming spring, the kaka will mate and begin to repopulate the mountain.

Kiwi  egg-hatching  plan  all  in  vain

1 June 2007

Te Tuatahi a Nui, Maungatautari’s sitting male kiwi, has spent the past 75 days in vain.

Staff at the 3400-hectare ecological island south of Cambridge last night checked on how the bird was going, hatching what they believed to be the first kiwi egg laid on the mountain in more than a century. But they found Te Tuatahi has been sitting on an empty nest.

“It’s a major disappointment all round,” said Jim Mylchreest, CEO of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust. “We had been really hoping we could tell the world we were about to hatch the first kiwi on the mountain in more than a hundred years,” he said. “This shows just how delicate and difficult it is for our large native birds to breed. “They’re not good breeders, especially the kiwi, takahe and kakapo, and it just emphasizes the fact that we have to look after the ones we’ve got.”

He said kiwi breeding in the wild had a 90% or higher chance of losing their chicks to predators within the first three months, whereas chick survival was far higher in protected areas such as Maungatautari.

“But it wasn’t to be on this occasion,” he said. “We’re hoping one of the other pairs of kiwi on the mountain will produce a chick during this breeding season.”

Pim de Monchy, operations manager on the mountain and an expert in kiwi breeding, went to Te Tuatahi’s burrow with the trust’s restoration ecologist, Chris Smuts-Kennedy and several staff members late on Thursday night, waited until the bird had vacated the nest, and then checked its contents.

“We found he had a very good burrow, and there was a 10cm layer of leaf litter and feathers in there, but no egg or egg fragments,” he said.  “There was no evidence of a chick being present at all.” He said Te Tuatahi returned to the nest after about four hours, and when he was caught he showed no brood patch on his chest, indicating he had not been sitting on an egg.

Kaka  heading  for  Maungatautari

May 2007

The calls of native kaka will soon be heard again on the slopes of Maungatautari, south of Cambridge. Seven of the birds are to be brought to a purpose-built aviary in the southern enclosure on the 3400-hectare ecological island reserve within the next month. They will be held in the aviary for some months to acclimatise them to outdoor living, and get them used to the location. They will then be released into the mountain’s bush.

Jim Mylchreest, chief executive of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust, said the birds were being obtained from breeding colonies at Auckland and Wellington Zoos. “The zoos say the birds are ready to be relocated by mid-May, so we’re working hard to have our aviary completed by then,” he said.

It is being built by Trust staff and a team of volunteers.  Lance Tauroa and his team will be working seven days a week to get the job completed in time.

Mr Mylchreest said three flight areas are being built into the aviary, each about ten metres by four metres. Cost for the construction is about $35,000, and it is being sited near the viewing tower.

“After the birds have become used to the area and have settled down, the doors to the aviary will be opened so they can fly free,” he said. “But we will continue to feed them in the hope that some will stay around the viewing tower.”

He said the birds, like most parrots, were omnivorous, but fed principally on fruit, berries, seeds and flowers.

Mr Mylchreest said that the Prime Minister Helen Clark and Conservation Minister Chris Carter had been invited to attend the release of the birds.

Whitebait return home

5 April 07

Three species of endangered whitebait (kokopu or native trout) have been returned to Maungatautari after an approximate 60 year absence.

It is the world’s first release of banded kokopu back to the wild, made possible with expert assistance from Waikato whitebait farmers Jan and Charles Mitchell and funding from the Waikato Catchment Ecological Enhancement Trust.

On 5 April approximately 10 shortjaw, 40 giant and 200 banded kokopu were transferred from Charles and Jan Mitchells’ aquaculture farm at Raglan into waterways within Maungatautari’s Xcluder pest proof fenced enclosures.

Maungatautari Trust chief executive Jim Mylchreest said the return of the kokopu was an important link in recreating, as close as possible, the ecosystem that once existed on Maungatautari. 

“With the modified landscape of farms and dams between the mountain and the sea the reintroduction of fish would not have occurred naturally, therefore we are extremely fortunate that Charles and Jan have been breeding kokopu – and on our doorstep. The ancestors of the kokopu that have been returned would have lived on the mountain – it is a real homecoming.”

Charles said that for him it was very satisfying to be returning juvenile kokopu into inland waterways.

“Dams, pollution, loss of native forest and sustained predation by rodents and mustelids have contributed to the extinction of kokopu from many parts of New Zealand. Rats and mice eat the eggs that are deposited along stream edges during floods, and stoats have even been recorded ‘fishing’ for kokopu. To release kokopu into a pest proof fenced area of restored forest gives them the greatest chance of survival.”

Integral to the pest proof fence construction are specially designed Xcluder culverts which are placed at all water outlets.   Each has hinged gates covered in 5mm by 40mm aperture heavy grade woven mesh which allows the movement of young native fish in and out of the reserve to mature and breed, yet stops all introduced pests.

The Waikato Catchment Ecological Enhancement Trust will fund a monitoring programme, led by the Mitchells, to record the progress of the kokopu in their new home.

Kokopu  Facts

• Kokopu are native to New Zealand.

• There are three different types: giant, banded and shortjaw.

• Banded kokopu often reach 150mm in length.  Giant kokopu grow much larger and a fish of 3.5 pounds was once recorded.

• Kokopu inhabit forest streams, lakes and wetlands.

• Eggs are laid amongst leaf litter on the water’s edge, hatch during flooding and the larvae wash out to sea to grow over 3-5 months into whitebait.

• They then re-enter freshwater as ‘whitebait’, as they mature they are called kokopu.

• Predators include introduced mammalian pests particularly rodents and mustelids.

• Kokopu eat insects and spiders that fall into the water.

They are members of the Galaxias genus.

MICE

April 07

Mice appear to be the only survivors in any numbers after intensive pest-destruction efforts over the 3400-hectare Maungatautari ecological island reserve, near Cambridge. Jim Mylchreest, CEO for the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust, says there is currently no evidence of pigs, cats, mustelids, possums, hedgehogs and rats surviving on the mountain. Very few rabbits, hares, goats or deer are believed to be still on the mountain, and intensive hunting operations are under way to try to eradicate the last of them. “But the mice are a continuing problem,” says Mr Mylchreest. “We found small numbers of them in three locations in January, and since then we’ve found others in various locations across the mountain. “We’ve caught 23 since February, but we continue to find their tracks in a number of our tracking stations.”

He says mice have always been seen as one of the major difficulties to clear from such a large area, and international scientists and conservationists are watching the programme with interest. “I don’t think mouse eradication on this scale has been contemplated anywhere in the world before, so there’s a lot of scientific interest in how we’re going about it and how successful we will be.”

Once other predators have been removed from a location, mouse populations are likely to explode, and the tiny rodents can do major damage to forest reproduction, eating huge amounts of seeds, flowers and tiny seedlings, as well as large numbers of native insects.

Mr Mylchreest says it is now almost certain that a third poison-bait drop will be carried out over the ecological island bush in a further attempt to get rid of the mice, and any other isolated pests which may have escaped detection.

“We’re looking at a number of options such as reducing the size of the baits so it’s easier for mice to handle them. If the baits are small enough for the mice to pick up and take away to their burrows, they may be inclined to eat more of them.

He says a third bait drop had always been programmed, and the trust already has a resource consent to carry it out. It is likely to do so during the first fine weather pattern after the beginning of June. The cost will be about $300,000.

“Mice were always going to be a challenge here,” says Mr Mylchreest. “We’ve been working hard on them, but now that virtually all the other predators have been removed from the mountain and there’s no competition for food, the mice can easily triple their numbers every three weeks because of their rapid rate of breeding.”

Easter egg surprise for Maungatautari

April 07

The first kiwi to be heard calling on Maungatautari in an estimated 100 years may have pulled off another first.  A transmitter attached to Te Tuatahi a nui which gives staff valuable information about his health has indicated that the five year old is sitting on an egg.

Jim Mylchreest chief executive for the Maungatautari Trust said that staff and volunteers were buzzing with excitement at the news.

“Certainly it appears that he is incubating an egg or eggs, but it is only day 15. We would love to check the burrow but it is just too risky at this stage of the incubation – we don’t want to disturb Te Tuatahi a nui and frighten him off. The next two months will be a tense time for all of us.”

Operations manager Pim de Monchy said that the egg timer transmitter was incredibly accurate and a valuable management tool.

“It measures the kiwi’s normal activity pattern but sends a different signal when the bird is incubating. The indications are very positive even though the timing is a surprise as kiwi peak breeding is normally during winter and spring, however, breeding has been recorded in every month of the year.

Te Tuatahi a nui, which means “the first of many”, holds a very special place in the story of Maungatautari’s restoration.  He was one of the first kiwi to be released temporarily into the privately owned native forest at Warrenheip where the Xcluder pest proof fence was designed and which became the forerunner to the Maungatautari project.

Te Tuatahi a nui is now settled in the southern pest proof fenced enclosure on Maungatautari.

Originally Te Tuatahi a nui was displaying normal courtship behaviour and sharing a burrow with Horokio but has recently shifted his attention to Te Rahurahu, who is now roosting within a few metres of the nest site.  

With North Island brown kiwi the female lays the eggs while the male has responsibility for them during the 85 days of incubation.