Great Stories of New Zealand Conservation by Alan Froggatt

Author:Alan Froggatt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: White Cloud Books
Published: 2023-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Five

Teamwork achieves great things

Cape Kidnappers is a sandstone headland about a 30-minute drive east from the city of Napier. It was named by Captain James Cook after Māori allegedly tried to abduct one of his crew there on 15 October 1769. Since 1952, from September through to the end of April, visitors have been able to stand on the east side of the headland within a few metres of the world’s largest accessible mainland gannet colony and watch more gannets on nearby rock platforms.

Visitors can observe adults flying and landing, chicks nesting, birds preening themselves, and performing courtship dances, and distraught young males carrying bits of kelp trying to catch the eye of females.

Cape Sanctuary was established in 2006 and is being sponsored by the two headland families who share similar visions for their land that extend beyond 50 years. They want to restore the coastal communities of sea birds, land birds, reptiles, and invertebrates that once lived there and achieve this within a highly modified farming and multi-use landscape including forestry, tourism, and recreation. It is the largest privately owned and funded wildlife restoration project of its kind in New Zealand and is being supported by the Forest Life Force Restoration Trust, Victoria University of Wellington, Kiwi Encounter, DOC, and, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

What little remnant bush that once remained inside the fence had long been cleared for farming. It now has its own nursery where volunteers grow a huge number of different species for planting out. These are supplemental to the large number of trees that continue to be sourced from commercial nurseries. One passionate volunteer has led the plantings of a grove of kauri to provide food for kākā in a remote area on the sanctuary unaffected by kauri dieback (this is the disease that is having a devastating effect on kauri trees and the forests that support them.)

Since planting on the sanctuary began, more than one million trees have been planted, with the bulk of these being on steep hill country and on steep rock faces, and other areas difficult to farm commercially.

Early plantings consisted of nursery crops to provide a habitat for podocarps to grow, which in turn will shelter lower growing species. While the planting system is now almost self-sustaining, planting will continue as more land is retired from farming, and significant plantings are planned for future winters.

Two staff are employed full-time to routinely check 1,200 traps for stoats, ferrets, and weasels and 2,500 bait station for rodents and mice. Fortunately, a small army of volunteers ably assists them.

The construction of the 10.6km predator proof fence across the neck of the peninsula started in 2005 and, as this was not secure at the road access points, continuous intensive trapping was introduced and carried out in these areas to capture and kill any pests trying to sneak through.

Once, the land would have been home to thousands of burrowing sea birds who only come to land and breed, but these are no longer present. The owners want to restore breeding colonies of these native and endemic land and seabirds.

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