Weka bludgeoned in bloody cull
"A bloody weka cull on the Chatham Islands is under fire from an Act MP.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter is defending his department's annual cull of
the birds ..."
New Zealand Herald
15 September 2003
Survival hopes rise for unique NZ bird
"The endangered taiko has had its most successful breeding season ...
five of them have got out to sea safely in the last few days without getting
munched by cats or weka on the way ..."
New Zealand Herald
29 May 2000
Rugged retreat last frontier for weka
"In rugged scrub and swamp of the Raukumara Forest, a husband and wife team is
protecting the last stronghold of a bird once so numerous it was considered a pest"
New Zealand Herald
25 May 1999
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Four species of red-crowned parakeet are spread over a range extending from the tropics to
the subantarctic. The New Zealand red-crowned parakeet Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae
was once abundant throughout New Zealand, but today it is rarely seen on the mainland North
and South Islands.
C. novaezelandiae is on Ewing Island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands 500 km
south of the South Island, which is the world's most southern parrot location.
It is also the only parakeet on Stewart Island, and is holding its own quite well on
some predator-free offshore islands, including Kapiti Island, and Hauraki Gulf islands such
as Little Barrier Island, Cuvier Island, and Tiritiri Matangi Island where it was
recently reintroduced. |
In the early 1900s, settlers took buff weka from their
original habitat to the Chatham
Islands, where they now thrive so well they have to be controlled. |
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Two subspecies, the Kermadec Island red-crowned parakeet C. n. cyanurus, and the
Chatham Island red-crowned parakeet C. n. chathamensis are on
the New Zealand subtropical Kermadec Island, and Chatham Island. A third subspecies, the Lord
Howe Island red-crowned parakeet C. n. subflavescens that was on Lord Howe Island in Australian territory is
extinct.
Genetic research in 2001 (see Molecular systemics and conservation of kakariki
[Cyanorampus spp], Boon, Kearvell, Daugherty and Chambers, Department of Conservation)
reclassified the New Caledonian red-crowned parakeet Cyanoramphus saisetti, Norfolk
Island red-crowned parakeet C. cooki, and Macquarie Island red-crowned parakeet
C. erythrtis as separate species. They were previously subspecies of the
New Zealand red-crowned parakeet.
Eight red-crowned parakeets were once widely distributed throughout a region that represents
the greater New Zealand continental landmass of 135 million years ago, that spread from New
Caledonia to the subantarctic islands, and from the Lord Howe Rise to the Chatham Rise.
C.n. hochstetteri is found only on the subantarctic
Antipodes Island.
Two extinct subspecies were on Australian oceanic islands, with Cyanoramphus
novaezelandiae erythrotis from subantarctic Macquarie Island, and C.n.
subflavescens on subtropical Lord Howe Island. The remaining Australian subspecies
C.n. cooki on Norfolk Island is endangered but with a strong conservation
action to save it. Another subspecies with the most northern, tropical home
is C.n. salsetti in New Caledonia.
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Parakeets from tropical paradise to the bleak but beautiful subantarctic ...
A red-crowned parakeet is shown above on the megaherb
Stilbocarpa polaris on Ewing Island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands south
of the New Zealand mainland islands.
Image: Peter N Johnson, Crown Copyright, Department
of Conservation, February 1973.
 View larger image
The geographical range of red-crowned parakeet is quite extraordinary.
Parrots are normally associated with the warm tropics, so it is unexpected to find them on a
cold, wet and wind-swept subantarctic island with very limited forest habitat, where the fauna
is predominently ocean feeding seabirds such as albatross and penguins, and seals.
In 1849, three ships brought settlers to Port Ross on the northern
tip of Auckland Island at latitude 50deg30m south longitude 166deg10m east. They
very quickly became disillusioned with the consistent westerly gales and rain, long winter,
and impossible farming conditions, and abandoned the island after two years. The
cobblestone street, church and houses of the Hardwicke settlement have completely vanished.
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International Threatened & Endangered Listing
2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Weka Gallirallus australis Vulnerable |
Photo Credit
Left, second from top: Kakapo
Left, fourth from top: Tusked weta
Crown Copyright, Department of Conservation
Top right: Weka, Virtual New Zealand
Illustration Credit
Left, third from top: John Gerrard Keulemans 1842-1912, Huia (male
and female) Heteralocha acutirostris 1888.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand,
Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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