|
Contact
|
DOC's work with Mohua
The Department of Conservation has established a mohua recovery plan. Its goal is to maintain and enhance mohua populations throughout their present range and beyond, by halting and reversing the degradation of the forest ecosystem.
The mohua is still accessible to the public in South Island mainland forests and therefore, priority is being given to managing the birds within these forests, mainly through predator control. Such management will also assist other forest birds.
Predator Control
The fortunes of a mohua population in the Eglinton Valley, Southland have been closely followed for the past 10 years by departmental scientists to monitor whether stoat control efforts have benefited the birds. Related research is also going on in the Dart Valley, Otago.
Early results have proved that intensive trapping of predators does help the mohua. This entails laying traps every 100 metres in a grid layout covering half-a-square kilometre. A new bait method being trialled is to use hen eggs laced with different poisons and laid in tunnels. The entrance is too small to allow the stoat to do anything but eat the egg inside the tunnel preventing poison being spread into the forest.
Additional stoat control work using traditional trapping methods is also carried out over the mohua breeding season on the Milford Track, the Blue Mountains (near Tapanui), Rowallan Forest (Tuatapere), Mt Stokes, the Landsborough and Hurunui Valleys and the Catlins.
Good News
For a threatened species, mohua have a relatively high reproductive rate. Each year they can lay up to four eggs and once these have hatched and fledged the pair can raise another brood. Therefore, if the factors that have caused its decline can be eliminated or reduced significantly, the mohua has a good potential for recovery. Mohua have also bred in captivity at Orana Park in Christchurch.
|
|
|
|
