April 20, 2016
Hapu help in bird return
Ngati Kahungunu hapu are getting behind and effort to restablish beeding colonies of the korure on mottled petrel on their whenua.
The Department of Conservation is resettling korure from Whenua Hou-Codfish Island near Rakiura-Stewart Island to Maungaharuru, about 60 kilometres north of Napier.
The maunga was known as the "mountain that rumbles and roars" because of the huge numbers of the birds that used to fly in in and out at the start and end of each day.
So far 177 of the chicks have been resettled in three loads behind a predator proof fence stretching almost 2 kilometres.
Hapu members helped DOC staff settle the birds into artificial burrows.
The success of the project will only be known if the chicks return to the burrows after they first leave and spend four or five years flying the Southern Ocean.
Tania Hopmans, who represents three northern Hawke's Bay iwi on the Poutiri Ao o Tane project, says it gives them the opportunity to practise kaitiakitanga and get involved with a range of experts.
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