Source: Radio New Zealand
Shore plover fledgling banded on Pitt Island. Supplied / Department of Conservation
The Shore Plover Recovery Group has confirmed the first fledgling of the bird from Pitt Island in 150 years.
Pitt Island is the second largest of the Chatham Islands, which the shore plover – also known as the tūturuatu in te reo Māori, or tchūriwat’ in ta rē Moriori (Moriori language) – are native to.
There is a population of 250, which live in Māngere and Rangatira, as well as on Portland Island – south of Māhia Peninsula in Hawke’s Bay.
A shore plover in Māngere. Supplied / Department of Conservation
The fledgling is a result of a feral cat control programme to increase the population by the community living on Pitt Island.
Chairman Dave Houston said feral cats had eliminated the population on Pitt Island, as well as the mainland of New Zealand, in the 1870s.
But the programme allowed the shore plover to breed and for their chicks to survive after hatching, Houston said.
“The community were really engaged in that during the Jobs for Nature period after Covid.”
Shore plover. Supplied / Department of Conservation
Houston hoped for another fledging next year.
“It really depends on the cats on Pitt Island.
“We need sustained cat control to continue, or even better, to have the feral cats eradicated from the island.
“That’s a bit of a long term project, but it’s sort of a glimpse of what could be if we could have cats eradicated and get double the shore plover population, so go from the current 250 birds in the total world population to maybe 500 or more. That’d be great.”
Shore plover fledgling banded on Pitt Island. Supplied / Department of Conservation
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand