Good news on the kiwi front on all counts.
Graham was on the move from the middle of September his signal location moved back into the gully were he had nested. His activity plummeted from 8.5 hours to 5.5 hours over a week, we thought hopefully he is about to sit on an egg again. Good news when we listened again this week he was back in fast mode and incubating his second egg of the season. Fingers crossed this time he is more successful.
Meanwhile Terry is still safely in his puriri tree burrow. The first photographs showed him hopping in and out of the burrow and feeding in the leaf litter close to the nest area. He was joined by a large cheeky rat. A call to our amazing trapper and within 24 Horus we had a military operation in place to catch the rat. A week later 5 rats caught and finally a night of none on the camera. Without his transmitter which allows us to get such amazing camera footage we would not have known his peaceful nest was being disturbed and be able to respond so quickly.
Even though rats are not significant threat for kiwi eggs Terry was more relaxed on the footage once the rat was absent. The message, even though we though our mammalian pest control was good rats are everywhere and (we saw one and caught 5), they will be back.
On another note a vet in our group was part of an amazing team effort to save a female kiwi from being very close to dying after being hit by a car in September. She had multiple injuries and intensive treatment at Bay of Islands Veterinary Clinic for 5 days until she was well enough for DOC to transfer her to the rehab place in Whangarei. It was a great opportunity to make connections with Massey Wildlife Base and Kiwi Coast’s Lesley came and helped show staff how to handle, tube feed and feed sick kiwi. Named Rose, she is doing well and at this stage sometime before Christmas will be returned to her home in the Puketi Forest.
