January 27, 2023
Kākā start rebuild in Te Tau Ihu
Kākā are coming back to Te Tau Ihu.
Iwi and conservations have been working for the past decade on Project Janzoon, a plan to increate the native parrot population in Abel Tasman, Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes National Parks.
Initiatives include pest control and bringing in females from other areas.
Project director Bruce Vander Lee says 11 females were released in 2019 to pair up with existing males.
“We had six chicks come out of two nests of those pairings and then we followed that up later by releasing 24 birds along the coastal track along the Abel Tasman and since then we’ve had eight nests and 14 chicks come out of those nests so what we are seeing is a population right at the beginning but it’s going to grow into the population we want to see in that place,” he says.