T-GEAR Charitable Trust is a private charitable foundation that

The Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust: Grant from OSNZ Lindsay Rowe Postal address: PO Box 58 Kaikoura 7340 Phone number: 03 319 7211 Email address: [email protected] Web page: www.huttonsshearwater.org.nz The Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust (HSCT) was established in 2008 by Geoff Harrow to encourage and promote the preservation, conservation, research, public education, and sustainable management of the Hutton’s shearwater. The Hutton’s shearwater is considered endangered because numbers have declined significantly over the last 50 years and there are now only two breeding areas left in the Kaikoura Ranges, both with threats from unstable geology and predators. Since the formation of the Trust we have obtained funds to build a predator proof fence around the new Te Rae o Atiu colony on the Kaikoura Peninsula, removed rabbits, stoats, rats and mice from inside the fence, increased the number of artificial burrows, deployed nearly $100 000 of geolocators, gps trackers, PIT tags (microchips) and monitoring loggers at the Kowhai River and Te Rae o Atiu colonies, carried out two additional translocations each of 100 chicks in 2012 and 2013 to enhance the returns of chicks from previous translocations, and monitored the development of the Te Rae o Atiu colony. The more we work with these birds the less we realise we know and that impinges on our ability to manage the Te Rae o Atiu colony. We are finding that our current observations at Te Rae o Atiu of the behaviour of shearwaters are at variance with our perceptions from previous reports and this is reflected in our bird management. For example, the first chick hatched at the Peninsula from translocated, returning first‐time breeders was severely undernourished and would have been managed differently if we had the knowledge we now have. Hence, we have started research at the Kowhai River to gain more knowledge of the birds’ normal activities. During 2012‐13, we trialled the installation of loggers on 8 burrows with birds with implanted PIT tags to follow their movements. What we did learn was that to get good records we need to know which burrows have breeding birds, that following birds seen entering burrows is no guarantee that they belong to that burrow, that keas can pull out antennae coils, and that solar panels on the loggers can be covered in dirt by birds excavating burrows and the batteries go flat. This year, and for the next 2‐4 years we will have 30 loggers on study burrows following the movements of the adults and fledging chicks. Early in the season, as soon as the snow is off the ground, we will PIT tag the birds from and install the loggers on study burrows. We plan a follow up visit in late December to check the equipment and redeploy any loggers without tagged birds present, visit again in late February to check equipment and PIT tag chicks, and finally in late March when the chicks have flown we will go up again to retrieve all the equipment and data. The information gained in the Kowhai will give us a better understanding of the breeding activities of Hutton's shearwaters which will allow us to manage Te Rae o Atiu colony better. The welcome grant from OSNZ helps makes this essential work possible by covering helicopter and operational costs for the volunteers working in the Kowhai colony. 1
Three dataloggers that record times that PIT tagged Hutton's shearwaters enter and leave their burrows, Kowhai River. Note the antenna coil pulled out by keas. Another of the hazards of field recording in remote areas – a datalogger solar panel covered in dirt by a Hutton's shearwater excavating its burrow, Kowhai River 2