Kakapo behaviour at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari

[CANBirder]

Hello people, contemplating a trip out to Maungatautari, does any one know if the kakapo there are booming around now (or at all)? Curious how an all-male population is responding to all the different environmental cues without any ladies around.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

They are not expected to boom this year as they are not in good enough condition.
Chances of hearing or seeing one is approximately zero. Not absolutely impossible though. One was recently found sleeping in the middle of a road mid morning, well away from the forest...

[CANBirder]

Cool! What a surprise that would have been for the person that stumble across that!

In general, do they boom in non-breeding years, especially without females around? Been trying to do some research on the topic but sources are pretty few. Would be pretty cool to know what cues prompt that behaviour.

[Tim Barnard]

As someone who invests a lot into conservation I find this deeply saddening and worrying. How can a Kakapo end up in a road Neil???
Surely there is better planning and action in place.

[RussCannings]

I'm assuming he meant one of the maintenance roads that circle the mountain and Southern Enclosure (inside the fence)? At the furthest though the trees would still be within 20m or so I would think. Would still be a shock to find it!

Russ

[David Riddell]

The kakapo was found on a road by a tanker driver at 1.30am after presumably parachuting over the fence from a tall tree. They have a two strikes and you're out policy, this was its first escape so it's been returned to the mountain. Others have been relocated after repeat escapes.

[Kate B]

The bird was found on Scott Road, which from Google Maps seems to be about 1km away from the sanctuary at the closest point.

News story with more details of the encounter – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/waikato-news/news/waikato-kakapo-narrowly-escapes-death-thanks-to-member-of-the-community/UJOIRYUK3RBYLGKKJW3746ILTQ/

[RussCannings]

Wowee--I had heard about the first escape but not this one. Cheers all. I guess the 'kakapo-proofing' of the fence was not 100% effective!

[Jan]

A large pre-school is being built near us with external fencing bent inwards at the top so the little tykes can't climb out......I assume. It looks like a prison exterior. Could a kakapo scale a fence like that? Probably.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

As David notes, it was night when first seen on the road but mid-morning by the time it was recovered.
This is all very interesting. A lot of work, effort and money went into the planning, trying to kākāpo proof 47 km of fence and monitoring what happens, but this is all new stuff. The existing places are full, and in some ways this is a good problem to have. These are less valuable males being used to test things. The fact that these birds have been able to survive up to a couple of weeks and travel many km on the outside is also quite impressive, and perhaps reassuring. The big problem is that there are no realistic alternative sites available or even on the horizon. This surely shows that Wainuiomata would be at least as problematic.