The Wildlife Conservation Thread

[Miss Chicken]

I have just been over at Facebook reading my newsfeed. Sirocco Kakapo has just informed his followers that two more kakapo eggs have been found. Lets keep our fingers cross that the eggs are fertile.

The first egg I mentioned yesterday was laid by Lisa who had mated with Blades. Lisa has now laid a second egg.

Rakiura has also laid an egg. She mated with Sinbad. Sinbad is the son of Richard Henry, a kakapo who was found in Fiordland in 1975. Richard Henry died of natural causes in December last year. He was about 80 years old. Richard Henry arrival on the islands brought new genes to gene pool.

Edited to add - SHAME AND SCANDAL IN THE FAMILY - after reading through some kakapo bios in seems to me that Rakiura and Sinbad are 1/2 brother and sister. They have the same mother but different fathers.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I have bought this thread up to announce that the first Kakapo chick of the 2011 has hatched on Codfish island. The chick was one of the three that Lisa laid. Unfortunately two of Lisa's eggs ended up with an early dead embryo. Lisa was not spending enough time on the nest so her surviving egg was removed and fostered to Rakiura. A dummy egg has been placed in Lisa's nest in case they need her later as a foster mum.

Rakiura is still sitting on her own egg. Her other two eggs have been removed to an incubator.

This is the breeding list so far

Eggs laid = 20
Eggs infertile = 6
Eggs fertile = 14
Eggs still alive = 10
Chicks hatched = 1

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Let's hope the other nine hatch okay .

 

[Miss Chicken]

^^^ I think there is still 10 more eggs to hatch.

The population of kakapo now stands at 121. Lets hope it is up to the 130 mark.

This has not been the best season, at least not going by the number of eggs. In the past more than 20 eggs have hatched in a season. However rangers have stop most supplementary feeding because it has been discovered that well-feed mothers tend to have sons. As there is more of a need for females it was decided not to feed the females so much.

Edited to add - 2009 was a bumper season. Kakaps don't breed until they are a few years old so it will be interesting to see how many chicks are born when the 2009 chicks are old enough to breed. 13 female chicks from the 2009 breeding season survived.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

.... However rangers have stop most supplementary feeding because it has been discovered that well-feed mothers tend to have sons. As there is more of a need for females it was decided not to feed the females so much....13 female chicks from the 2009 breeding season survived.

This is interesting.

What's the overall percentage of females to males in the current population?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, this sounds like good news so far. Any word on the health of the chick that has hatched, or when the other eggs are due to hatch?

 

[Miss Chicken]

In 2005 there were 52 adults of breeding age (21 females, 31 males) and 34 juveniles. Kakapos females don't usually mate until they are 9-11 years old. However during the 2008 season two of the femlaes, Apirama and Rakiura, surprised everyone by breeding when they were only 6 years old.

In the bumper year of 2009, 33 chicks survived (and 3 died). Of those 33 chicks 13 were female.

Judging by those figures I would say that about 60% of the kakapo alive today are male.

Well, this sounds like good news so far. Any word on the health of the chick that has hatched, or when the other eggs are due to hatch?

I think we are looking at at least a couple of more hatchlings this week, or at the latest next week. If i remember correctly Rakiura laid soon after Lisa and all three of her eggs are fertile (2 in an incubator and one in her nest).

Sex and health status of the chick is yet to be announced.

EDITED TO ADD - I assume that the reason that Lisa's egg was put in Rakiura nest was because her hatchlings would be close in age to Lisa's. I imagine that the rnagers didn't want the chicks Rakiura raised to be too different in age. Hence she got one of Lisa's eggs and had two of her own - her second and third egg- taken from her nest.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The kakapo population has increased to 122 with the hatching of Rakiura's no 1 egg. Rakiura's no 2 egg has been moved out of the incubator and given to Ellie (whose only egg was infertile). This egg is very close to hatching.

No news on the sex of either chick yet.

The father of the first hatchling is Blades (who mated with Lisa) and the father of Rakiura's eggs is Sinbad.

There are still 9 fertile eggs unhatched.

For every hatchling I am going to try and donate $NZ10 (about AUS7.50) to Kakapo Rescue.

 

[RJDiogenes]

This sad story is on topic for this Thread.

With only four left in the world, it does not look good for the Turtles.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

This sad story is on topic for this Thread.

With only four left in the world, it does not look good for the Turtles.

I'd heard of the turtles, but I had no idea they were so few in number. I'm shocked to hear that there's only four.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Isn't Lonesome George on the Galapagos Islands the very last of his species?

Edited to add - Lonesome George is the last known member of his subspecies - the Pinta Island Tortoise, which is a subspecies of the Galapagos Tortoise.

 

[Miss Chicken]

This is from last year but there are some really nice photos.

Best Rare Bird Photos of 2010.


One Tasmanian bird, the Orange-Bellied Parrot, included in the photos. It only breeds in Tasmania but winters on the Mainland of Australia and it mainland habitat is dwindling.

Edited to add - the kakapo population is now 123 as Rakiura's no 2 egg, that Ellie is foster mum to, has hatched.

Radio interview with one of the rangers here

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ That's good news.

These Turtle species are pretty much doomed. I hope they save some genetic material.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It is always possible that there are more of the turtles somewhere in Vietnam. It is a country where they has been several new discoveries of previously unknown animals and rediscoveries of animals thought to be extinct.

 

[RJDiogenes]

That's true, there have been several unknown animals discovered there, so that is a possibility.

 

[Miss Chicken]

First photos of the hatchlings here.

Adorable!

 

[WillsBabe]

I have been a supporter of WWW for several years and now I am a current supporter of the RSPB. I am also interested in shark conservation since I started diving a few years ago. If I were younger I would jack in my job, retrain in science and get as a job in shark conservation.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The kakapo population has risen to 125 with the hatching of two more eggs.

These were Rakiura's third egg which had been in the incubator but was fostered to Solstice. Unfortunately it failed to gain weight under Solstice's care and is now being hand-reared.

Solstice's two eggs were fostered to Suzanne but the no 1 egg was later put into the incubator because it had a crack. Soltice's no 2 egg (in Suzanne's nest) is very close to hatching.

There are still 6 eggs left to hatch.

EDITED TO ADD - this is an older article - as it says there is only 86 kakapo which means it was written before the bumper year of 2009 - but it does mention an interesting fact

Yet, it turns out, the Kakapo produces an amazing scent - like dust and honey - that is really striking, and very sweet. Furthermore, we recently discovered that the Kakapos' brain has one of the largest regions devoted to smell (termed the olfactory bulb) of any bird known. The bird's keen sense of smell was well-known to native Maori hunters of New Zealand, who always approached birds from down-wind while hunting.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I hope it is OK to bring this thread up after it has been dead for a few months.

I have just found out that the kakapo population, which has risen to 131 after the sucessful hatching and survival of 11 chicks, has now dropped back to 129 after two kakapo bodies were found this week. Both of the dead were young females.

The first was Purity who was hatched during the bumper season of 2009. She died on Codfish Island and had been dead for about 10 days.

The second was Monoa who was found on Anchor Island. She was born
in 2002 so had recently reached breeding age. She had been dead for some time. The deaths are not related and the bodies have been sent to Auckland to be autopsied.

The results of this year's chicks' DNA tests will be available this month and once the sex of each chick is determined they will, at long last, be given names. Lets hope there is a few females among them.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I hope so. And I hope the deaths weren't caused by anything that may effect the rest of the population. It would be unrealistic to expect that every single one of the kakapos to survive and breed, but this is still a shame; I hope we get some more babies soon.