Haast’s beauty lured Patrick Liddy to this remote and tiny township in southern Westland.  Arriving in August 2004, he says he was pulled there by the mountainous country, the beautiful beaches, forests and tussock tops, and by the potential for adventure.

Patrick joined the Department of Conservation after earning a Bachelor of Science at Otago University, doing a short stint in the Conservation Corps, and then graduating as a trainee ranger.  One of his first posts was in Canterbury Conservancy, where he got to sample a wide range of DOC’s work – working with different species (including penguins, fish, geckos and skinks), controlling all kinds of weeds, and helping with track and hut maintenance.  By the end, he knew he wanted to work in species conservation so, when the call of kiwi came through, Patrick headed west.

Today Patrick is a ranger on the four-strong kiwi team that manages the Haast Kiwi Sanctuary. Each week the team tracks down Haast Tokoeka that are wearing transmitters, and try to tell if the birds are breeding.  With luck the answer is “yes”, and they then catch chicks to monitor their progress.

As well as the estimated 200 birds inside the Haast sanctuary, the kiwi team recently surveyed a second population up the Arawhata River.  Helicopters flew them onto the mountaintops, where the team set up camp and listened for kiwi calls at night.  At least four new pairs were discovered which means there is now better knowledge about the distribution of this variety of kiwi, Patrick says.

An important task for the team is to assess the success of predator control work done so far.  “We need to know whether trapping stoats inside the sanctuary is helping enough chicks to survive to increase the Haast Tokoeka population, or if different management is needed,” he says.

Why Kiwi?
Patrick finds the Haast Tokoeka mysterious and intriguing, "There's a lot we don't know and so much we have to do to help them."

High Point
Something Patrick enjoys is seeing is sitting in the lush West Coast forest at night, and seeing a kiwi's white bill and feet illuminated in the starlight as it pokes around looking for grubs.

For the Future
“I’m excited about the future of this project as there are several new developments planned which will change the work we do to help save the Haast Tokoeka.”

First, new, more sophisticated transmitters are being made that will tell the kiwi team if a bird is nesting.  “This means we won’t have to physically track them down, which will save us a lot of time and money and let us get on with other work that needs to be done.”

Second, it is planned to trial 1080 to control predators and replace the cordon of stoat traps.  “Using 1080 means we can cover a larger area and create a buffer zone around the sanctuary which will make it harder for stoats to reach the kiwi.  And we believe it will also control rats and mice, and that will allow kiwi food in the form of insects to thrive, which means the chicks will grow fatter faster.”

Up until now, Patrick says far fewer chicks have survived than are killed by stoats, even with the support of Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi’s Operation Nest Egg, which takes eggs and chicks from the wild and protects them in a safe haven until they are large enough to better defend themselves. “The challenge for us is to work to control stoats to a level where enough young birds are surviving.  That’s the way we’ll save the Haast Tokoeka from extinction.”