Student kiwi project puts more great-spots into the Nina valley

Thanks to a Herculean conservation effort by Hurunui College in North Canterbury, three great-spotted kiwi/roroa will be returned to the Nina valley tomorrow.

Tim Kelly, the Hurunui College teacher responsible for the project, says about 40 students have been carrying out extensive predator control work in the area for the last four years.

“Initially we were preparing the valley for the introduction of kiwi in 2010,” says Kelly.

“Since then we’ve had birds to protect, so our work has become even more rewarding and urgent. Our focus has been to get rid of the main kiwi killers – stoats.”

“The stoat control also has a positive impact on the valley’s other vulnerable species such as blue duck/whio, kākā and kea.”

Hurunui College started the project in the Nina valley after DOC biodiversity ranger, Malcolm Wylie, visited the school. The students and community then set up the Nina Valley Restoration Group involving students, parents and teachers from Hurunui College.

Support from BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust and Kids Restore New Zealand, a programme under the Air New Zealand Environment Trust, as well as generous local businesses, has been crucial for the project.

Kids Restore New Zealand spokesperson, Ruud Kleinpaste, says the Nina valley restoration project shows exactly what young New Zealanders can do to help restore our biodiversity.

“They've got the tools, the know-how and a fabulous commitment to improve their environment," he says.

Executive Director of the BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust, Michelle Impey, is impressed by how much the students have achieved.

“These students have achieved an extraordinary amount. If other schools did a fraction of Hurunui College’s pest control work, what a different environment we would have for the protection of kiwi.

“Our warmest congratulations and thanks to you all.”

The young kiwi come from crèche facilities at Riccarton Bush and Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, where they were incubated and raised as part of BNZ Operation Nest Egg.

Kelly says: “Our target is to get a sustainable population of birds (about 40) resident in the valley.”

Roroa are the largest of the five kiwi species and are found in the wild only in Lake Sumner Forest Park and Arthur’s Pass, Kahurangi and Paparoa national parks in the central South Island.  They are threatened with extinction and classified as ‘nationally vulnerable’, the third most critical threat rating in New Zealand.

ENDS

Contacts:
Fiona Oliphant, DOC media liaison: 027 470 1378
BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust: Michelle Impey, (09) 375 1084 / 029 478 4610
Tim Kelly, Hurunui College: 0275562785

Background:

About the release
Three juvenile roroa were crèched at Riccarton Bush after being raised from eggs collected from the Hawdon valley in Arthur’s Pass National Park. They were hatched at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve as part of BNZ Operation Nest Egg™ (work undertaken by the DOC Waimakariri Area office).

The Hurunui College Nina Valley Restoration Group, with support from the BNZ Save The Kiwi Trust and Air New Zealand Kids Restore New Zealand Trust, have installed and maintained around 180 stoat traps in the Nina valley to help protect some of the remaining native bird species in the valley.

There are four main objectives behind releasing juvenile kiwi into the Nina:
 to supplement what is currently believed to be a remnant, low-density population;
 to maintain the current range of great spotted kiwi;
 to support a community group in their objectives to ‘restore’ the Nina valley; and
 to monitor, in a managed site, the survival and behaviour of juvenile roroa, which have been through the BNZ Operation Nest Egg programme

Kiwi in the Nina valley
There have been recent reports of kiwi being heard in the valley, although their presence is yet to be confirmed. It is believed that the Nina is part of the historic range of great-spotted kiwi.
 
The released birds will be weighed each month for the next few months to monitor their progress. In time it is hoped that the Nina Valley Restoration Group will be able to undertake most of this work themselves.

BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust was established in November 2002 by Bank of New Zealand and the Department of Conservation, building on a sponsorship relationship that started in 1991. BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust is responsible for public awareness and education, fundraising, sponsorship and grant allocations for kiwi recovery nationally. In 2011 alone, more than $700,000 was allocated to community and DOC kiwi projects. More than $6 million has been granted for kiwi work in total. This money came from BNZ, its staff, customers and supporters of BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust.

Teachers in New Zealand interested in teaching about kiwi in their classroom can request a copy of Kiwi Forever from Save the Kiwi Trust. It has been created to support teaching and learning about kiwi. The aim of this resource is to inspire and encourage more young people to be involved in contributing to a sustainable future for kiwi.
 
Kiwi Forever is based on the New Zealand Curriculum (2007), is targeted at levels 2-4 of the New Zealand Curriculum.  It is the culmination of months of research and writing, and has been professionally peer-reviewed.

For more information about the Kiwi Forever resource visit: http://www.savethekiwi.org.nz/kiwi-classroom/teachers-corner/kiwi-forever-a-resource-for-schools.html

BNZ Operation Nest Egg™ is a powerful tool to reverse the decline of key kiwi populations. Eggs and chicks are harvested from nests to save them from stoats and cats. The young kiwi are returned to the wild when they weight about 1kg, big enough to fight off these predators. More than 1400 kiwi chicks have been returned to the wild since the programme began in 1994, with captive facilities and hundreds of field workers from DOC and community groups throughout the country contributing to its success. The BNZ Operation Nest Egg™ egg harvesting, chick rearing and return-to-the-wild technique was developed for kiwi through research funded solely by Bank of New Zealand and is now also used in other species recovery programmes.