Department of Conservation

The Kea Conservation Trust is working in partnership with Department of Conservation on a number of research projects and conservation initiatives.

DOC is also undertaking a number of their own field research projects, the progress and reports of which will be loaded onto this page periodically by experts in the field.

We would like to thank all our DOC contributors who have provided information and images on this site.

• Westland Kea Research Project - Nest monitoring
• Video of nest predation on kea

Westland Kea Research Project - Nest Monitoring

Brent Barrett

This project shows clear evidence of stoat and possum presence and predation at kea nest sites on the West Coast of the South Island.

The Westland Kea Research Project was formally initiated in Spring of 2008

The 2008/2009 breeding season research was focused only in Okarito and resulted in two nests being located. 

 One double clutched and produced one chick from each clutch over 5-6months of continuous nest occupancy.  This was located by radio-tracking one of our transmitted females.

The second fledged two chicks from one breeding event. This was found incidentally very late in the nesting period (i.e. days before the nest fledged).

Kiwi (top left)outside kea nest.

Likewise the 2009/2010 breeding season resulted in only nests located in the Okarito reserve however we were focusing in Fox at this time as well.

Five nests were located and monitored through regular visits as follows:

• Two nests fledged chicks one produced 3 chicks (very impressive) the other 2
• Three nests failed, two in the egg stage and one late chick stage
• The late chick nest was almost certainly predated by a stoat as both chicks were absent from the nest and not located. 
• One egg failure nest was probably predated an only lasted 2 weeks.
• The other egg failure was reduced to one egg (possibly from predation) which is assumed to have been infertile as the female sat on it well beyond hatching period.
• The last female was first encountered on what was probably a nest but we were not able to confirm nest contents (egg nor chick) before it was vacated (probably from predation).

Despite considerable effort no nests were located in our Fox ( Copland Valley to Paringa River ) study area.  This is attributed to a lack of transmittered females and the complications (near impossibility) of following males to nests in that country.  The following Autumn a huge catching effort was invested and resulted in 7 new radio tagged females in the Fox area.  This is main reason for our success this year in locating nests in both study sites.

In the 2010/2011 breeding season we doubled our efforts in Fox and followed every radio tagged bird we could locate, likewise we followed females in the Okarito reserve considerable earlier than the past.  Some birds were being tracked in early July.  As a result many of our nests were located in the egg laying stage which is the purest form of nest survival data.  Furthermore in this breeding season we embarked on the first concerted effort to capture images of activities around the nest and as such monitor the nest 24hrs/day.  historically all data was derived from researches fortnightly nest visits and inferences from what was encountered.  Although as expected we had many teething problems with equipment namely memory cards, moisture, battery life and multiple entry cavities we were achieving almost 100% monitoring of our known nests.  So in this season to date we had:

• Six nests located and active at the same time, 3 in fox ( Havelock River , Catlins tk, Black stump rd), the remainder in the Okarito Reserve (two on the Tartare Ridge and one on Release Ridge).
• Four nests have more than one entrance.
• One nest was found already with 3 large chicks (giving a lay period of Late June)
• Two nests were found after the first egg was laid, giving exact laying dates.

Since their location, five nests and two vacant cavities (previously prospected by kea) have been visited by Possum, three of the five cavities with in Okarito were visited by Kiwi (passing the entrance). 

Kea at entrance to nest cavity (left).   Possum at entrance to same nest cavity (right).

One stoat approached a cavity where a pair were present, they latter abandoned the cavity, it is unclear if they had made any attempt to lay before abandoning.

One nest was visited by a stoat in the 'old chick' stage.  This is the nest where a stoat appeared 12days later and attempted to kill both chicks (and succeeded to kill one possibly both).

 Kea in 2nd nest entrance (left).                         Stoat at kea nest entrance (right).

Another nest was completely predated in the 'old chick' stage.  Most certainly by a stoat coming in through a second cavity entrance at the back of the tree and out of camera range.

So for this year to date (half way through the season) we have:

• Two nest failures both contained two large chicks, both attributed to Stoats and both in the unprotected study area south of Fox.
• Every nest has been visited by some form of introduced mammal, stoat on 2/6 nests and possum on 5/6 nests.

It is unclear if these failed parents will attempt to re-nest within this season

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Video of Predation by Stoats and Possums

To view video footage of predation of kea chicks in their nest by stoats and possums and an account of this research by Department of Conservation, please visit our Audio and Video page (under Resources in the menu).

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