Forest & Bird’s Kaikoura branch has been actively involved in creating a third breeding site for our nationally endangered Hutton’s shearwaters.
Fast Facts
• The Hutton's shearwater was first described in 1912, however it wasn’t until 1965 that their breeding grounds were discovered by an amateur ornithologist – Geoff Harrow.
• The Hutton’s shearwater is the only sea-bird species that breeds in a sub-alpine environment.
• Often Hutton’s shearwaters return to Kaikoura only to find their burrows covered in snow. They must wait several weeks for the snow to melt to reveal their burrows.
• Each day the birds travel to the sea to feed, rocketing down at a speed of around 154km/hour and reaching the ocean in as little as 7 minutes .
• The adult population lies at around 460,000 and is classified as ‘nationally endangered’ because of steep population decline in recent years.
There were once eight breeding colonies in the Kaikoura region but only two remain on the mountain-sides of Kaikoura’s ranges. These inaccessible sites are free from pigs – one of their key predators.
Another breeding site on the Kaikoura peninsula has been established as a community initiative involving Te Runanga O Kaikoura, Forest & Bird and DOC, as a safeguard to prevent further population decline.
Over the past three years, 360 titi (young shearwaters) have been transferred by helicopter to this site and fed on a mixture of sardine smoothie before they fly to the fish-rich waters off the Australian coast.
Young birds stay in Australia for three or four years then return to Kaikoura to breed. Several youngsters returned to this site in the summer of 2010/11 proving the success of the project.
This year, 102 juveniles were transferred onto the site, and another 'top up' is expected to take place next March.
Currently the Kaikoura branch is raising money for a more extensive predator proof fence. Once this is realised the branch plans to introduce a number of species, from rare lizards to additional birdlife.
