By Dan Parker
Duck and hunters don’t usually have the most peaceful of relationships, but a group in the lower South Island are helping save the endangered blue duck from extinction.
Numbers have been dwindling due to a number of pests.
But, the Department of Conservation and a group of hunters are proving quite the team.
Hatching may be hard work, but when you’re endangered it's just the start in a battle for survival.
And it’s a fight the Blue Duck, or Whio Whio, isn’t facing alone.
DOC ranger Andrew Smart’s spare bedroom has been converted into a makeshift incubation room.
Thirteen ducklings have successfully hatched so far and it’s made for a late night.
“One at 10 o’clock, one at 2 o’clock in the morning, one at 5 o’clock in the morning and one at 8.30 in the morning – I wasn’t getting much sleep unfortunately,” he tells 3 News.
But if it’s not hatchlings keeping Mr Smart awake – it’s the thought of them not hatching at all. Stoats have pushed the Blue Duck to the brink of extinction.
But DOC’s breeding programme in Te Anau has given hundreds of ducklings a head start.
They spend 11 weeks there in the safety of purpose built aviaries. They’re then returned to head of Lake Te Anua.
The ducks’ home is being managed by a group of hunters from the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, who maintain traps and help rid the area of pests.
For the foundation it is progress like this which makes it all worthwhile.
“Hopefully next year or in two year’s time, we’ll start having ducklings coming out our ears,” says Mr Smart.
“They’ll start fledgling and dispersing into the other valley the Wapiti Foundation are looking at clearing.”
A set of small transmitters will monitor the ducks’ progress, and they’ll have monthly visits from hunters clearing their habitat of pests.
3 News
source: newshub archive
