Managing new arrivals [split from "Plumed whistling duck, Otaki"]

[chris]

Isn't there a small flock present on private land on the west coast.im sure I read a post about it a while back. If it still exists and being such a rare bird here, wouldn't it be a good idea to introduce this bird to that or any other existing flocks to re-enforce a very rare NATIVE chances of survival. Or is this species to be left out of the national conservation revival and protection strategy the birds like fairy tern or stowaway weka recieve.

[Oscar Thomas]

Plumed whistling duck is a vagrant from Australia where they are abundant. Although it is native and occurs naturally in NZ from time to time, it is not up to us to interfere with whether or not they start breeding here. The NZ fairy tern is endemic (only in NZ), and has a very real chance of going extinct - as far as conservation goes it is a much higher priority.

[chris]

Yeah that makes sense.By the way I didn't realize the fairy tern was endemic, but we,re not talking about a major conservation effort here. Just put it in a box and take it for a drive. In a car. I don't understand the negetive pushback. But hey it's a very kiwi thing in every part of our social fabric.eh.you really notice it when you return to the country after yr o.e.
But seriously don't you think the bird would be better off with its own. Its just pure and simple kindness.Not a good time to be hanging around with introduced game birds is it.

[paradoxdinokipi]

Not really sure what benefit shipping off an individual bird would have to either the NZ population or to the individual bird itself, as I'd assume capture, transporting and then having it settle into an entirely new area with an entirely different flock would be pretty stressful when the bird clearly seems to be content staying there given how long it's been there.

[chris]

Hi Mr O Thomas. I'm 50/50 on yr opinions.yes some of our taonga have higher or lower priority, not that some politicians like shane on the take jones give two hoots about our diversity weather the natural world or social makeup. But that's another issue. I don't want to make this DEBATE to serious.
I didn't intend to be overly specific either. I used the Tara iti and weka as two of many examples of intervention. By the way the Tara iti is also classed as NATIVE On nz. Birds online. Not endemic. As I thought. But yes despite your bending of that fact your point is valid.
As to interfering with the ability to build a viable population my opinion is this. Why not give them a helping hand. These birds are in there natural range and because of human activity we have already interfered with their ability to occupy the niche of the large number of waterfowl lost to hunting and loss of habitat. These animals are really up against it. I think Buller made reference to the massive numbers or water fowl shot by early settlers not for kai but for entertainment. Under that pressure would we still have australaian advocets. Or more recently pelicans.i think your argument not to interfere falls down. We already are in a negative way.predators,hunting, habitat loss in some cases.
But at the end of the day this started as a suggestion, I never really expected someone to actually do it. It does though open up debate and does highline differences in opinion as to how we as a proud nation approach conservation issues as the develope.

[chris]

Just one more point concerning p.w.ducks in Australia.yes the do occur in very large numbers and like titi here are managed as a food resource by the aboriginal people as they have for thousands of years. I lived in the top end for ten years. They joy that the wildlife up there brings cannot be understated. Something wellingtonians are just realizing. But you shouldn't, I think, assume everything up there is honky dory. It's always been a boom and bust ecosystem. Australians are only just now realizing these intact ecosystems as vibrant as thy are face their own threats. What is there now may not be in 30 or so years. Being protected by size and distance,including n.z. may not guarantee they thrive. Climate change, invasive organisms like kamfer laurel, cane toads, feral cats and pigs and yes international conflicts could collapse it all.
How does that affect us. Well many vagrants from Australia, as has been observed over many years arrive following the boom times. It would be safe to assume this has been happening for a very very long time. Maybe once it even went both ways. In this way the two ecosystems are connected. Enabling vagrants here a real opportunity to survive may in fact provide a safety net in the future. We have already seen it with a rock wallaby introduced to nz which became extinct overthrere being reintroduced. A fantastic irony that saved a species. Whose to say that is not a real scenario in the future. I guess my point is. We cannot just look inwardly. You have to look at the big picture. The whole natural range of a species. Will there be a year one year when the p.w d,s doesn't boom and doesn't recover, if that happen we won't ever see them here. Or what about other species. Could thre be a spring where the kuaka don't come, koekoea, titipounamu, even titi. As out there as it may be , as horrible the thought, the possibility should not be dismissed as lunacy or leftwing greeny paranoia. But as legitimate concern.

[Mike Bickerdike]

By the way the Tara iti is also classed as NATIVE On nz. Birds online. Not endemic. As I thought. But yes despite your bending of that fact your point is valid.

The New Zealand Fairy Tern (Tara iti; Sternula nereis davisae) is a subspecies of the parent species Fairy tern - it is indeed endemic to NZ, as Oscar noted.

[mccoy]

A lifetime ago I was a member of Ducks Unlimited. plumed whistling ducks were widely kept, the propensity for this bird to accept hand feeding suggests it is an escape, not a vagrant. I once bred Indian Runners, you would be surprised what shows up in a duck pen.

[fras444]

Just my honest take on it..

If I was the leader of DOC or... the PM... Especially regarding conservation and protection from funding of our wildlife.
Thomas brought up a very good and painful point of the funding available and yes, that funding in its current state, should be going towards the most in need species, and that's endemic birds such as the kakapo, where by they are found nowhere else in the world..
But..
I'd definitely would do something that would literally ensure those species survival and not only the Kakapo as well as the endemic South Georgian subspecies of diving petrel but for almost every single endemic New Zealand forest species as well.. A compulsory project to eradicate every single mammal species on Stewart Island and Great Barrier island.. Both sizable islands that would secure ever single endemic forest species..
Also
I'd be looking also towards things I've learned in my time here in Scotland and how, they are using different techniques such as reintroducing long lost wildlife that went extinct, even if those species, through millennia of isolation and potentially completely different genetics, wolves, Lynx, beavers and bears to name a few..
I'd be looking towards a program in reintroducing species of birds that share a link to their Australian counterpart that no longer exist... WIth out side of the box thinking, you could "return" moa like species in NZ Emu for one, although it was the Tinamou that was the closest species.. I mean.. We as a species, have destroyed so much.... We can however, use science and genetic lineage and with outside the box (its introduced but not) thinking, we do not have to confine our brains to "oh but we brought it over here" mindset and if we are doing it in the name of conservation and trying to recreate the ecology, same goes towards the Booted and little eagle..

The PWD...

I'd, in conjunction with fish and game, look into a program where these vagrant birds are captured, through fish and game and their various support groups like ducks unlimited funded by the members i.e hunting community, start a breed and release program, but...
Not only for the PWD but also for other vagrant waterfowl species that.. in its purists are native birds.. on the condition.. that Mallard ducks are declared a pest which.. globally they are..
Mallards are, like it or not and we need consistency especially with Rooks and Trout and what not... are one of the most invasive species in the world and have caused many local duck populations to collapse through interbreeding..
We need to eradicate them from our ecology and through fish and game and their hunter members, they can then manage brown teal, Grey teal, blue duck and the like and that they, through money coming from the memberships and through their close connections to farmers.. fund various community led wetland restoration projects around the country.. with the goal that.. especially for Maori customs at the very least.. that.. once those bird numbers get up to sustainable numbers then.. the possibilities for, first and foremost, local Maori traditions "hunting" to resumes
That would be a massive chunk of DOC expenditure right there.. done and dusted... in the form of the Brown teal and Blue duck projects and put into something that is in much need.. Like kakapo, fairy terns and funding for the Stewart island pest program

[SomesBirder]

A lifetime ago I was a member of Ducks Unlimited. plumed whistling ducks were widely kept, the propensity for this bird to accept hand feeding suggests it is an escape, not a vagrant. I once bred Indian Runners, you would be surprised what shows up in a duck pen.

The Plumed Whistling Duck is no longer kept captive anywhere in New Zealand; they died out in captivity shortly after imports of birds from Australia to New Zealand were banned.