references
The Kea Strike Back
Clio Reid
In Otago in the 1860s, not long after sheep had been introduced to the high country there, some high country sheep farmers and shepherds began to notice a bizarre disease in their animals. Unusual wounds were appearing on the backs of some sheep, and it wasn’t long until it was discovered that the wounds were being inflicted by kea. Persecution of kea began, and the government introduced a bounty on kea in 1883 to deal with the attacks. It took some convincing to get outsiders to believe that kea did attack sheep – a phenomenon sometimes referred to these days as ‘kea strike’. Early published scientific accounts only included second or thirdhand reports of kea strike, and evidence was called into question by the turn of the century. A debate followed about whether kea did actually attack sheep. In response, two scientific papers, one by George Marriner and the other by William Benham, were published in 1906 with evidence provided by eyewitnesses. These papers were the first to provide first-hand accounts accompanied by the names and contact details of witnesses. Marriner travelled to kea country to investigate and though he didn’t witness kea strike himself, he described sheep that had reportedly been attacked by kea. The controversy in the scientific literature died down after Marriner published a book on the subject in 1908. Occasional articles appeared on both sides in years following. For example Richard Jackson, who studied kea in Arthur’s Pass in the 1950s and 60s, was of the opinion that kea strike was a myth. Several high country runholders and former runholders also published articles, and at least one reported his own eyewitness account. The first indisputable evidence of kea strike took the form of film footage of kea attacking sheep taken for a Natural History New Zealand documentary about kea in
1993. However, kea strike is still believed by some to be a farmers’ myth. The government bounty ended in 1970, with payments continuing until 1971. Kea became protected on Crown land in 1976, and fully protected in 1986. An estimated 150,000 kea were killed for bounty during the scheme’s existence, and such high losses contributed to their current threatened status. Because kea are a long-lived, slow-reproducing species, any imposed decrease in their population has a considerable impact on their survival. Kea strike still occurs, and although it has declined in incidence it is still severe on some farms. On most sheep stations where kea strike happens it appears to be
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Photo: Ann McCrone
Photo: Clio Reid