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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:
2012 Winter Advocacy Tour - this July
Arthur's Pass survey – Do you work, live or play in and around AP?
The KCT’s annual Winter Advocacy Tour will again run during July across the South Island for 10 days and will be combined with an education drive for those people keen to drive talks about kea in their local areas. We will also be visiting as many schools as possible and showcasing our new kids kea conservation DVD.
FMC has very generously funded this year’s Tour and will be hosting a number of the talks in many of the main Centre’s around the South Island. At this stage we are looking at holding talks in Wellington, Nelson, Arthur’s Pass, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill and will also look to visit Mt Cook, Queenstown and the West Coast.
A full itinerary will be developed over the next two months and be posted here in time for our June 1st update. We look forward to seeing you all during July!
Please remember that these talks are also for us to find out what is happening in your communities and helping with kea issues.
Funded by Canterbury Community Trust (CCT) and Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund (AZCF)
Do you live, work or play in and around Arthurs Pass? Are you a skier, a tramper, a business owner, a farmer, tour operator, lodge, bach owner or ski operator (or anything else for that matter!)?
EVERYONE and anyone who spends any time in the Arthur’s Pass area and surrounding National Park is welcome to complete a short survey about their thoughts and experiences with kea.
click on the pdf icon, complete and send back to us at
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.
contact us and we will post a hardcopy to you (complete with a return addressed envelope for your convenience).
Information from the survey will help us to identify issues facing the community and kea in the Arthurs Pass area and help direct future effort in resolution of issues. This is your opportunity to tell us what you think – ALL surveys are confidential and no names are required.
The results of the survey will be made available for discussion during our Winter visit in July.
2012 Nestor notabilis newsletter – Calling for sponsor/s
The 2011 Kea Conservation Trust publication is now in development and we would like to take the opportunity to thank all of this years article contributors.
However we are still require funding to produce this publication.
Sponsors will be listed in the contents page of the newsletter, on our website and in all promotional information and bi-monthly updates (sent out to over 500 people here and overseas)
If you would like to help out towards this year’s newsletter, please contact us at the KCT.
Development of the Kea Conservation Kids Kea Conservation DVD, is now in full swing with filming at Mt Cook School taking place on the 20th March.
Roland Payne who developed the KCT's promotional DVD, is making this short education film for the KCT. The DVD will showcase kids taking a lead role in driving kea conservation awareness through insightful interviews with Department of Conservation staff, vets, local farmers, international zoo facilities holding kea, tourism operators and researchers in the field.
With the addition of a great fun soundtrack and film footage kindly donated by Wanaka musician and keen kea advocate, Martin Curtis (filmed by Wanaka filmmaker Mike Balk) and some fun animation wizardry by Roland, this DVD will provide a much needed tool to bring kea into education for schools, groups and children around the country.
Many thanks to Roland for his work to date and to all those involved: Martin Curtis, Mike Balk, Mt Cook School Principal Coral Butler and the kids at the school, and our many interviewees.
Photo: Harry interviewing Buzzy (DOC) at Mt Cook
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Field Projects Update
2012 Summer survey – follow up and preliminary results
The follow up Kea population survey has now been completed by Department of Conservation (DOC) at all three census sites. The aim of this work was to catch up any birds missed during the survey in preparation for this year's breeding season. A summary of the census results is to be posted on our website.
2011 Nest Monitoring results– funded by WZCF
Results of the 2011 nest monitoring work completed in December are now available to view. Only one nest in Nelson Lakes fledged chicks – unfortunately the female's mate, Kelly, died during this period. In Arthur's Pass, no monitored nests were successful and 4 adult breeding kea died, 2 of suspicious causes – a great blow to the region.
STOP PRESS: An additional late nesting attempt at Nelson Lakes produced two chicks, one of which died early on in development and the second which died 2-3 weeks before fledging (mid March). Heavy possum visitation was caught on camera throughout the nesting period and predation is the most probable cause of this nest failure.
Results of this year's survey and nest monitoring are posted on our Kea Research Projects – Population page.
Photo: Nest camera #3 Nelson lakes fledglings with Ceejay and attendant male.
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Donations (February/March) –Thank you!
We would like to extend a big vote of thanks to the following individuals and organisations for supporting kea over the last 2 months:
The Lion Foundation - $5,000 towards development of our Kids Kea Conservation DVD
Dr Mark von Veh - $2,000
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens - $496. The Zoo also continues to raise awareness of kea conservation issue
FMC - $4,000 towards the Winter Advocacy Tour and Education drive. Thank you also to FMC for helping to promote the Tour amidst their membership intheir March 2012 newsletter.
All of our sponsors and donors will receive one of our new certificates of appreciation featuring stunning images of wild kea taken by Corey Mosen. Thank you to Corey for allowing us to use his great images!
“Jake the one-legged kea is settling into his new home at Natureland Zoo and he seems to be getting around just fine.
The two-year-old kea was rescued by cousins Jake and Christian Jenner when they found him with a broken leg near Lake Rotoiti. Jake, 10, said he and Christian, 13, saw the injured kea hopping along a road while they were pig hunting last October. "We picked him up, put him in a sack and took him home and rang up Natureland," he said.”
Natureland Zoo operations manager Gail Sutton said the kea's right leg had a compound fracture as a result of being caught in a trap. "The bone was exposed and his foot was later surgically removed," she said. Ms Sutton said the kea would have died in the wild without the boys' help.”
Excellent to see everyone working together to save kea such as Jake. Jake will be a very valuable addition to the captive group in New Zealand.
For the full story, please visit our Kea in the News page.
Photo: Cousins Jake (right) and Christian (left) with Jake the kea in his new home at Natureland
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2012 Membership - (1st April 2011 - 31st March 2012)
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 the following:
A 10% discount on any shop items
Access to our members only areas on the website (with full access to past updates, annual newsletters and discussion pages)
A copy of our full colour Annual newsletter (sent out to all current members each June).
If you would like to renew your membership or join up as a new member for the 2011- 2012 period, please visit our Support Us - Join Nowpage. 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.
The Kea Conservation Trust bi-monthly updates are sent out free to everyone interested in kea. Our updates are loaded with kea information, research, sightings and photos and are sent out on the 1st of every second month (February, April, June, August, October and December each year).
Members are also available to view all past updates (loaded onto our members only pages on this website).
If you would like to start receiving these updates, please contact us at the Trust and we will add you to our contacts list.
Check out our great new video produced by Roland Kahurangi. This short video highlights issues facing kea and showcases some of the work that we do here at the KCT in collaboration with the Department of Conservation, university researchers, zoos and local communities. With beautiful footage of kea flying in the mountains and fascinating video of researchers working with birds, this is a must see!
This page has a variety of links (inclusive of BBC series links), resources, and information on the broader human impacts on our planet which is updated on a regular basis.
These impacts affect all biodiversity on our planet and impact on fragile ecosytems such as alpine environments that species such as kea rely on to survive.
Well worth a look!
March Updates:
Earth Hour – Switch off your lights this Saturday31st March 8.30pm!
Rio+20 Talks – Watch the next live earth debate on the 11th April -The topic is entitled; "How do we feed 9 billion people?" To read more and access the debate visit our link on our State of the Planet page.
World on the Edge – by Lester Brown - The MUST READ book of the year - Lester Brown concentrates on 4 major components to get our world back on track: a massive cut in global carbon emissions, the stabilization of world population, abatement of poverty and restoration of natural habitats.
All of these topics can be found via our State of thePlanet page or on our Facebook.
Also check out whats new on the Why Populations Count Facebook page. This page will keep you up to date with discussions on the population issue and is regularly updated with photos, updates and links to overseas sites great sites around the world.
Whats your number? Find our how many people were on the planet when you were born! Follow the link then insert the month you were born followed by the day then the year.
We urgently need funding to continue our work with kea in 2012. 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):
Funding needed in 2012:
Prevention of lead poisoning in kea - we have received partial funding from Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund - Thank you!
Conflict Resolution - trialling of repellent to prevent equipment damage
Nest monitoring of kea nests at our survey sites
Continued satellite tracking of kea - Adopt a satellite kea!
Operational support
Other items on our wish list:
This is the time for us to put our Xmas list out there in the ether and see if any of you can help us to achieve the following:
Website redesign – to ensure a fresh and current face to the KCT
Access database – to better manage our supporters, volunteers and kea sightings lists
4 wheel drive vehicle – to support our South Island based personnel during field and project work
Funds for operational expenses – to support a managerial position
2012 newsletter sponsorship – to cover costs related to design and printing of this publication
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.
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, Wellington Zoo Conservation Fund, Hamilton Zoo Conservation Fund, Canterbury Community Trust and all other individual donors and supporters.
(For a full list of our sponsors and supporters, please visit our Support Us pages in the menu).
Department of conservation and the Kea Conservation Trust are monitoring several populations of kea throughout the South Island. Your kea sightings can therefore provide invaluable information on where kea are, and if banding information is also supplied, where individual birds are.
We have 4 kea which have been fitted with satellite transmitters:
Arthurs Pass:
#68 - status active (since January 2012)
Nelson Lakes:
Chicken Little (#72) - status - active (since January 2009)
Raglan Ranger (#73) - status - not active (January 2009 - October 2009)
Leppard (#70) - status - active (since September 2010)
Chicken Little and Leppard are transmitting signals every month, however Raglan Ranger has not been located since October 2009.
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 3 kea and in particular Raglan Ranger:
Raglan Ranger (73)
His last known coordinates (October 2009) 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
For details of our other satellite kea, please visit ourKea Research Projects - Satellite Trackingpage.
Photo: Chicken Little (72) with his new satellite at Bushline Hut, Robert Ridge 2009. Photo credit: Corey Mosen
John Ray - our Volunteers Coordinator has set up the new Kea Conservation Trust Facebook page. This will allow visitors to connect to events, talks and research taking place around the country and will also provide a forum for people to add their observations and comments.
Please visit us and post your comments! We will be updating the page regularly.
The KCT’s annual Winter Advocacy Tour will again run during July across the South Island for 10 days and will be combined with an education drive for those people keen to drive talks about kea in their local areas. We will also be visiting as many schools as possible and showcasing our new kids kea conservation DVD.
FMC has very generously funded this year’s Tour and will be hosting a number of the talks in many of the main Centre’s around the South Island. We are also planning a talk for Wellington.
At this stage we are looking at holding talks in Wellington, Nelson, Arthur’s Pass, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill and will also look to visit Mt Cook, Queenstown and the West Coast.
A full itinerary will be developed over the next two months and be posted on our websites Home page in time for our June 1st update. We look forward to seeing you all during July!
Please remember that these talks are also for us to find out what is happening in your communities and helping out with any kea issues.
