Hello

At the South Island Kōkako Charitable Trust's recent AGM, we asked ourselves - as we do at every AGM - whether we should carry on the search for the South Island kōkako. After all, when we launched the Trust in 2010, we gave ourselves five years to confirm the kōkako's survival. This year, as in previous years, the answer was a resounding yes to continuing.

One Trustee remarked that this was the most interesting time for the Trust. Another said we are entering an exciting new phase.

And it's true. We are collaborating with Otago and Victoria Universities on eDNA and bioacoustic projects. There was a great deal of interest in a recent recording from the Heaphy Track.

Our optimism fuels our enthusiasm to succeed. We hope you too will keep the kōkako in mind as you plan trips for the times ahead when eventually we're allowed out to enjoy the kōkako wilderness. Please stay alert wherever you are in South and Stewart Island forests. Encounter reports are received from many locations, some while in a car at the side of the road or driving.

If you see or hear something unusual in your forest, please try to capture it on phone or camera. Sound engineers and IT experts can do marvellous things with recordings. Read on for more on that.

Happy searching!

Inger Perkins

Manager, South Island Kōkako Charitable Trust

Excitement following Heaphy Track recording

Is Flanagan's Corner, the highest point on the Heaphy Track, home to South Island kōkako?

Searcher Bruce Reid shared a recording from Flanagan's Corner with us. When we posted it on Facebook, we invited people to listen for themselves. We reached over 11,000 people and generated heaps of interest.

Along with Bruce's recording, others made in January by trampers have some listeners excited, others puzzled, others adamant that the calls are kaka ... It just goes to show that we really need an image. But recordings may still pay off. Sound engineers, IT wizards and maths experts are learning fast how to make more sense of ambiguous bird calls.

Can environmental DNA help find the kōkako?

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is very similar to the process used today to look for traces of COVID in public wastewater systems. We believe it has the potential to intensify our kōkako search. We're teaming up with the Pirongia Te Aroaro o Kahu Restoration Society to calibrate eDNA methods against known populations of North Island kōkako. Are our environmental sampling practices sensitive enough to detect the DNA signatures of South Island kōkako in vast forest catchments?

Our generous Pirongia colleagues have kindly taken a water sample for us. At this stage, Wilderlab's analysis did not detect any North Island kōkako DNA. Project leader at Otago University, Dr Lara Urban, explains that bird DNA may be there one minute and not the next - the signals will be highly temporal within the ambient biodiversity signature of the waterbody itself. So both the Restoration Society and the Trust teams will be trialling longer sampling methods. Fingers crossed!

Latest possible encounter reports

Winter is usually a quiet time for kokako reports. We hope alert levels will drop soon and allow us all to get out and about further afield, safely.

The reports from the Heaphy Track are encouraging and follow another report from the Flanagan's Corner area back in December, another near Aorere Shelter in November and again from the shelter itself in January, followed by a report of a possible sighting not far from Gouland Downs Hut, and a report of unusual calls resembling those of a kōkako 4km from Aorere Shelter on the way to Mt Brown hut in June.

A couple of possible other sightings have been reported since our last newsletter.

The Nina Valley has been of interest for a while and a report from the track walking from the hut back to the road in early April grabbed our attention:

"I saw a bird about 5m away ... Immediately it seemed odd as it was about the size of a falcon, but it was on the forest floor ... Also the bird wasn't the brownish colour of falcons, rather it was greyish. It moved very quickly along the forest floor away from me beside the stream. It paused briefly on two occasions. As it did so I saw that its wings were partially extended as if the bird was poised to take off. The humorous and radius of the wings was extended but beyond the 'wrist' the wings appeared not fully extended. This struck me as odd, with hindsight I believe that the section of the wings beyond the wrist was very short. The final time the bird paused it was probably about 30m away and I was struck by its bluish colouration, unusual wings and rounded head and beak."

We received a very interesting report recently from Marlborough a year ago. A slim grey bird was seen from Northbank Road beside the Wairau River and this was the description:

"Bird flew and landed on the branch end of a willow only about 5 metres away. Seen clearly from truck window, for between 2-5 minutes. Streamlined skinny bird, grey in colour. Variable sheens of grey. Different shape to tui that is plump in comparison. Long skinny black legs and glossy black area around its eye. Under chin had orange area, with some blue on it. Long tail feathers."

What else could these two birds have been?!

Other reports of unusual calls have come from the Old Ghost Road (March), Gillespie Stream in Mount Aspiring National Park (May), Lake Christabel Hut not far from the Nina Valley (June), the Waiatoto River in South Westland (2017), and a little longer ago, Yankee River in Stewart Island (1971).

None of these reports can be confirmed of course, but they are interesting and encouraging.

As you plan your next adventure into possible South Island kōkako country, please consult our interactive map. Then keep your camera or phone handy to record unusual calls when you get out there ... and of course what we really need is a photo or video!

Have a look at our interactive map here.

Kōkako poem

A young man, enthralled by the haunting melody of the North Island kōkako, wrote a poem to celebrate this precious bird. After his untimely death, his parents passed the poem on to DOC, along with his drawing of a kōkako. They shared it with us recently.

There is a New Zealand poetry magazine entitled 'Kokako', but I could not find any other poems about the kōkako on the internet. If you would like to share one, we would love to hear from you.

Read or listen to Peter Hitchens' poem here.

Using eDNA to find a missing golden mole

Here's an interesting story from Re:Wild and the West Coast of South Africa where scientists are using eDNA, as we are, in an attempt to find a missing species, and they are adding a trained detection dog, as happens in NZ for penguins for example.

Re:Wild are working globally to protect and restore the diversity of life on Earth through innovative collaborations among individuals, communities, Indigenous peoples, governments, scientists, and businesses to drive the most pressing nature-based solutions to our planet's urgent crises.

Read the story here.

(Image of Namibian Golden mole borrowed from Epic Enabled blogspot.)

There are many ways you can help

In addition to actually looking out for the South Island kōkako, we need your help in other ways to conserve this ancient indigene of Aotearoa New Zealand.

I'd like to give a shout out to Sheila Wilson. Sheila paints gorgeous paintings of birds and makes them into cards, which she sells and raises money for our work in the process. A huge thank you to Sheila!

Is there a way that you could help us out with a donation? A regular annual donation as a 'Friend' of the Trust would be wonderful!

Don't forget, when we have enough new Friends, we will be drawing a winner from our Friends for a beautiful painting of the South Island kōkako by Jos Browning.

Why not become a Friend now or make a one-off donation here.

Thank you very much.

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There's plenty on our website including all you need to know and our Search blog

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