So is it really all rosy for kiwi conservation?

According to this article in Wanderlust it is.

Or you can read this article in Northland's Northern Advocate for a different perspective. Please do click on this link and look at the photograph of a pile of dead kiwi.

We need facts and hard truth here.  Too many people in the travel industry are eager to pick up on positive news and then move on, comforted by the knowledge that everything is going to be okay.  Grim, depressing reality and tourism don't usually mix and I just do not buy into the whole "take only photographs, leave only footprints" thing. Both tourists and those within tourism need to be leaving something a bit more useful than footprints. 

This story is about the Northland brown kiwi and, as The Northern Advocate tell us, "The unique Northland brown kiwi lays more eggs per year than other kiwi, and can start breeding at 3-4 years."   In addition, "Northland kiwi are phenomenal breeders, and can withstand reasonably high chick losses yet still have a growing population."

So what about the great spotted and the little spotted, the tokoeka and the rowi?

Or the fact that the little spotted kiwi can only survive on predator-free islands or behind predator-proof fences?

Or that once you would have found it almost impossible to wander through a New Zealand forest without hearing if not seeing a kiwi?

Or that since 1930 the population has seen a cataclysmic crash from 5 million birds to about 60,000?

This is the harsh reality of kiwi conservation and the danger of an article like Wanderlust's, albeit a completely inoffensive one, is that it gives false hope or encourages a misplaced belief that things are just fine and bypasses the fact that there is an environmental war raging in New Zealand.  And it is largely a guerrilla war being fought by a handful of "little" people who care such as Fergus & Mary Sutherland, Joyce Kolk & Johan Groters, Zealandia and Orokonui.

When the population is up to a good million or so, which is still less than 10% of the original population, then I think Wanderlust will be fine to go ahead and publish an article entitled "Kiwi's future could be looking up". 

Wairaurahiri stoat trap 7

And Wendy & Graham add a little bit of Macclesfield to Fiordland.

Wairaurahiri stoat trap 6

Thank you Marion & Keith, excellent work.

Close encounter with Maui's Dolphins

The critically endangered Maui's Dolphin is the smallest and rarest dolphin in the world, with a population of around 79 according to a recent estimate.

So to see four at once is a significant proportion of the population, about 5%.

Put into context, compared to the whole of the UK, that's the populations of Greater Manchester + Liverpool combined!

Responsible tourists

We already have a handful of stoat traps hiding in the forest along the Wairaurahiri River in Fiordland but the initiative is really starting to move up a gear now.

With our friends and partners in Auckland, ID New Zealand, we are arranging jet boat trips with Joyce Kolk and Johan Groters on the Wairaurahiri River on a not for profit basis with our commission being donated to their stoat trapping programme.  This will fund one new trap for every couple who take a trip down the river and over time we believe it will make a huge difference to the numbers of birds in that part of Fiordland. And maybe the idea will spread...

Stoats are the single biggest threat to New Zealand's rare and unique birds.  Introduced in the 1880s to control the plague of introduced rabbits, even way back then against expert advice, this has proven to be one of the most infamous examples of the foolhardiness of interfering with a balanced ecosystem, especially one as unique and fragile as New Zealand's.  Rather than chase rabbits, stoats find it much easier to hunt birds and chicks with no evolved mechanism for dealing with such a predator and as a bonus the stoat has no serious predators to worry about itself.

The stoat is a beautiful animal and I am always very happy to see them here in the UK but they have no place in New Zealand and they need to be controlled.  It is brutal and unpleasant and it isn't their fault, it's ours.

There are many disturbing statistics related to the stoat but this particular line from New Zealand's Department of Conservation pretty much tells the story:

"Stoats kill an average of 40 North Island brown kiwi chicks per day - this adds up to 15,000 per annum and accounts for 60 per cent of North Island brown kiwi born."

Joyce from Wairaurahiri Jet emailed the above photo overnight and it shows Wendy Houston and Carole & Ray Harris with their very own stoat trap, primed and ready to go out there to do its grim but vital work.

The harsh truth about conservation in New Zealand...

Can't say that I'm actually happy to be helping to kill stoats as they are truly beautiful animals.  That said, they do have their place and it isn't in New Zealand - http://www.newzealand-indepth.co.uk/stoat-traps.htm.

Strip and save energy?

As the summer heats up down in Chile, men are being urged to cast off their ties in a unique government bid for offices across the country to use less energy on air conditioning.

An advert is being aired in which the Economy Minister Pablo Longueira and several other government officials casting off their ties and urging others to do the same.

We just wish it was anywhere near that warm here in Buxton....

Free Willy eat your heart out

In Oamaru (just up the coast from Dunedin) a jet ski has been set free to roam the ocean.

Usually something people do with endangered whales, dolphins etc, a woman 'accidentally' forgot to tie her wrist strap to the jet ski she was riding (apparently this triggers a kill switch when you get/fall off) and it sailed off towards the horizon to live happily ever after.....

at least until it runs out of petrol......

Things are on the up!

After we highlighted last months football dreamland for Guyana at the expense of Wales, things are looking good for our next door neighbours, and not just in sport!

Wales are improving at football, (up 27 in the latest FIFA rankings) and are doing their bit to help save the rainforest.

Through donations to a cause named 'Size of Wales' run by the The Waterloo Foundation, the Welsh are striving to save an area of rainforest the size of (... you guessed it) Wales. The project area includes parts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania (a TID destination), Mozambique, as well as some offshore islands.

So far 400,000 trees have been planted, and sustainable projects set up to help earn an extra $65,000, though initiatives such as eco-tourism, herbal products and selling honey.

A kakapo and conservation story to inspire us all

Just read this kakapo story about a 13 year old girl in Los Angeles who has never been to New Zealand but already seems to understand what conservation is all about.

Let's be honest, with so few kakapo left and with its natural habitat seriously compromised throughout New Zealand, in the grand scheme of things the survival of the species, or any species really, is neither here nor there. Doesn't matter, it is about principle and conservation is simply the right thing to do.

It all comes down to money and will again. Natalie's donation is but a drop in the ocean but the will is there and even if she'd only received and given $100 the principle would be the same. Imagine if the people with the real money took inspiration from her and got the will as well.

Hmm, my daughter Maddie was 11 last week and I think it is time for a chat about what she should be doing with her birthday money...