Kea Conservation Trust
Welcome to the Kea Conservation Trust website!
On this site you will find out information about one of New Zealands most charismatic species inclusive of current research, threats to kea and how you can make a difference.
All information is easily accessible by clicking on the pages in the menu to the left of the screen - please take your time and enjoy learning more about this fabulous species!
This month:
Photo credit: Corey Mosen
2010 Membership - (1st April - 31st March 2011) 
Help us to continue helping kea by becoming a member of the Kea Conservation Trust! Your membership will help us with our running costs and provide support to help secure funding.
All members will recieve our full colour annual newsletter which is due to be printed in time for the new membership year (April). This year the newsletters production has been sponsored by Franklin Zoo Wildlife Sanctuary (thank you Franklin!)
If you would like to renew your membership or join up as a new member for the 2009-2010 period, please visit our Support Us - Join Now page. If you are unsure as to your status, you may visit our Support Us - Members page to check or contact us via the contact details in the Menu.
Photo Credit: Vicky Nall
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January Summer Survey
(Funded by the NZ Lottery Grants Board and Keystone Trust)
Two sites continued to be monitored in the Nelson Lakes and Arthur's Pass areas this January by our dedicated group of kea workers.
These population studies with the support of Department of Conservation at each site, will investigate the stability of kea and, in the case of the Nelson Lakes site, provide comparisons with the resident population in the 1990's.
For more information and photos on this study, please follow this link to our Kea Research Projects - Population Research page (full information to be loaded at the end of March).
Thank you to all our staff, volunteers, Department of Conservation and community supporters in each area!
Photo: Arthur's Pass Site Coordinator, Paul van Klink, with keen subjects at Arthurs Pass - January 2010. Photo credit: Dr Nigel Adams
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Projects for 2010 - Can you help us with funding?
We urgently need funding to continue our work with kea this year. If you or your organisation can help out with vital funding for the following projects, please contact us at the Trust (refer to the contact details in the menu to your left);
- 2011 Population research - Summer survey (3rd year)
- 2010 Winter survey and advocacy drive
- Continued monitoring of our satellite kea
- Prevention of lead poisoning in kea
- Conflict Resolution - trialling of kea repellent to prevent equipment damage
- Education and advocacy programme for schools
For more information on each of these projects (on a regional or local community level) please contact us. Information on each project will be posted on our Kea Research Projects page soon.
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Genetics Research - Otago University
Dr. Bruce Robertson of Otago University and PhD student Nicolas Dussex have been collecting blood samples from wild kea to ascertain the diversity of the species across the South Island. Dr Robertson is also interested in looking at another gene associated with novelty-seeking behaviour and as such will be testing the captive kea population in NZ.
Collection of DNA from the captive population will have the added bonus of ascertaining whether the captive group is representative of the wild population.
Dr Robertson carried out ground breaking work on Kakapo to investigate diversity of the remaining population using DNA microsatellites and because of the two species family links, will utilise the same techniques for kea. We will keep you up to date with this fascinating research!
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Lead Poisoning and kea
Kea are still dying from lead poisoning!
 A subadult female discovered having seizures on the Rainbow Skifield road at Nelson Lakes in September subsequently died. Post mortem results confirmed death through lead poisoning.
Another juvenile female found by a hunter in June by Fox Peak was also confirmed dead due to high levels of lead leading to kidney failure.
For all those kea that have been tested for evidence of lead poisoning, many more will have gone un-noticed. It is now a fact that kea in areas of human habitation are being exposed to and have access to often high levels of lead in their environment!
You can help save kea from lead poisoning!
- make a donation to help us remove lead from the keas environment;
If you live in the South Island in kea habitat:
- check your house is lead free (no lead nail heads and flashings);
- get your local community together to make your local community lead free.
Another juvenile kea in Arthurs Pass has also been found dead, possibly from a traffic incident. Juvenile kea are very curious and are particularly vulnerable to being hit by cars.
Help keep kea safe in your area...
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If you are in areas where kea are present, please be careful driving;
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Please do not feed kea in roadside areas - this may put them in an at risk situation.
And remember, if you find any dead or injured kea please contact us on 0274249594 for information on what to do.
Photo credit: Andrew Walmsley
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Satellite Tracking - have you seen these kea?
Help! We need additional funding to locate Chicken Little!
Can you help us out ? We only need $3,000 to follow up on Chicken Little so any donations, no matter how small, will help us to send out our kea experts to see that he is okay. If you are able to help, please contact us via the contact details in the menu.
Satellite maps of the fledgling from last year, nicknamed Chicken Little (72) are now loaded onto the website through until January 2010.
The other juvenile kea (nicknamed the Raglan Ranger after the area he was found in), has not been detected since mid October. This means that his transmitter has malfunctioned, dropped off and been buried or the bird has died and is in an area where the transmitter cannot access a satellite passing overhead.
We are keen to hear of any sightings of these 2 kea.
Raglan Ranger (73)
His last known coordinates (October) are near Conors Creek Hut - Mt Chittenden, (Lat -41.99377 Long 172.84841) and his bands are as follows:
Metal (Right Leg): 27-103420
Colour bands (Left Leg): Yellow/Pink
Chicken Little (72)
Presently on conservation land by the Waihope River in the Wairau Valley
Metal (Right Leg): 27-103403
Colour bands (Left Leg): Orange/Yellow
If you see any kea with the band combinations above, please contact us directly at the Trust; Any information on either of these two birds would be much appreciated!
Photo: Chicken Little (72) with his new satellite at Bushline Hut, Robert Ridge 2009. Photo credit: Corey Mosen
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ASZK - "Bowling for kea" fundraiser
The Australasian Society of zoo Keeping is raising money for kea conservation through their "Bowling for kea" event being held in March throughout Australasian member Zoos. All funds will be directed to the KCT to help fund our research projects. We will keep you posted on our home page as to dates and locations.
As part of this event, Kea t-shirts are available to purchase for a limited period only for $30.00. If you are interested in one for yourself or a friend, please contact us before the 14th February with your order. For a full list of sizes, please contact us at the Trust.
Thank you to Sue Mills and Karen Simpson of Auckland Zoo for organising this event across Australasia, and the AZK for supporting kea conservation!
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Do you have the skills to help us out?
The Kea Conservation Trust requires ongoing volunteer help from skilled and efficient people to help us run the administration side of the Kea Conservation Trust.
With increasingly more interest in kea and more projects being developed we need to find keen and self motivated people to provide running support for the Trust so that we can provide a professional face to our readers and free up our time to continue our research.
If you think you can help us, please contact Tamsin via the Contacts page in the menu - Thankyou!!
Photo Credit: Vicky Nall 2009
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Thank you to our Sponsors!
The Kea Conservation Trust cannot achieve its conservation aims without the generous contribution of our sponsors and private donors.
Generous support from our sponsors has allowed us to begin an extensive research project to estimate numbers of kea remaining in the wild, prevent kea deaths through ingestion of human made toxins and to increase empathy and dialogue on the species.
However there are currently many more unanswered questions to serious issues which impact directly on kea survival and health.
If you can help out with funding to continue these conservation efforts , please contact us for a detailed prospectus.
We would like to thank our 2008 -2010 research sponsors and partners T-GEAR Trust, The NZ Lottery Board and Department of Conservation. We would also like to thank our donors; Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund, CMaG ARAZPA, Keystone Trust, Hubbards Foods Ltd, and all other individual donors.
(For a full list of our sponsors and donors, please visit our Support Us pages in the menu).
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Year Round Monitoring of Kea - new online form!
If you would like to help us continue recording kea numbers throughout the year whenever you are out and about in the South Island please access our new online form on our Kea Research Projects - Population Research page, and simply press the send key to forward to us instantly!
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