Thread: Whataroa kea

Again, I'm not going engage with the mindless hateful posts, but there are a couple of things worth noting:

1: If this operation is successful, possums will be eradicated from that block. ZIP have successfully eradicated possums entirely from a smaller area last year down near Haast, there is a good chance that they will succeed here. The Whataroa/Perth only receives 1080 for possum control (every so often when monitoring shows high numbers). If possums are eradicated, it will never be 1080'd again. That's a win for everyone, surely.

2: Kea already eat dead tahr, and there is no shortage of dead tahr in the Whataroa/Perth tops. A few more carcasses dropped up there will not train them to do anything new.

Its a big risk to drop 1080 into such an important kea habitat when its well known how inquisitive and curious the kea are by their nature.
They have witnessed them eating the prefeed so its a given they will eat the 1080 pellets.
The carcasses of tahr have been scattered through the area since the beginning of the tahr ballot and yet they are still consuming prefeed baits so how will this help to distract them from the bait?

Its a difficult issue as the possum problem needs addressed but its a huge gamble to use aerial 1080 and given the fact they are consuming prefeed then is it prudent to continue?

What percentage of kea mortality will be acceptable given the net benefits to the envirnoment?

This reference to eradication is nonsense., We were camped in the Whataroa in March 2012 following a 1080 operation which aimed to eradicate possums. No doubt it was effective; there was no sign of any possums.........or deer.........or birdsong.
So that "eradication operation" has lasted 6 years and still DOC's propaganda machine rolls on.

Originally Posted by gimp

Again, I'm not going engage with the mindless hateful posts, but there are a couple of things worth noting:

1: If this operation is successful, possums will be eradicated from that block. ZIP have successfully eradicated possums entirely from a smaller area last year down near Haast, there is a good chance that they will succeed here. The Whataroa/Perth only receives 1080 for possum control (every so often when monitoring shows high numbers). If possums are eradicated, it will never be 1080'd again. That's a win for everyone, surely.

2: Kea already eat dead tahr, and there is no shortage of dead tahr in the Whataroa/Perth tops. A few more carcasses dropped up there will not train them to do anything new.

2 exactly so why the fuck bother suggesting it? It’s PR for brain dead Chardonnay conservationists so they know 1080 isn’t killing any kea, everything is fine.

Originally Posted by ethos

2 exactly so why the fuck bother suggesting it? It’s PR for brain dead Chardonnay conservationists so they know 1080 isn’t killing any kea, everything is fine.

It depends on what bias you bring and project onto their decision making. It could be what you say, or it could be that they legitimately don't want to kill kea, and are trying to mitigate the risk.

Either way they're monitoring kea with radio collars through the operation, and have publicly reported the bykill from their last operation (a handful of birds and something like 3 deer I think) so there's no indication that they won't report it this time: If they find that these baiting methods kill too many kea then they don't want to use them. No-one in conservation wants to kill native birds.

Originally Posted by gimp

It depends on what bias you bring and project onto their decision making. It could be what you say, or it could be that they legitimately don't want to kill kea, and are trying to mitigate the risk.

Either way they're monitoring kea with radio collars through the operation, and have publicly reported the bykill from their last operation (a handful of birds and something like 3 deer I think) so there's no indication that they won't report it this time: If they find that these baiting methods kill too many kea then they don't want to use them. No-one in conservation wants to kill native birds.

We had best park it there gimp, there are realities of DOC management and there are good ground staff working hard for not much.
Fingers crossed for the local kea that this isn’t one of the high mortality drops.