Rural Grassy Creek, four kilometres east of the Haast Visitor Centre and surrounded by mountains, forest and river flats, is home to Phil Tisch, team leader at the Department of Conservation’s Haast Kiwi Sanctuary.

Phil moved to Haast when the kiwi sanctuary was set up in 2000.  His was the first permanent position filled.  Before that he had spent the summer months working with kiwi near Franz Josef, in the Okarito Forest.

Phil’s role in Haast has two parts – a lot of time is spent in the office co-ordinating the day-to-day field work of his three permanent staff and any temporary summer staff, as well as co-ordinating the contractors who clear the stoat tunnels.  And Phil also gets involved in hands-on work, such as fitting transmitter harnesses on chicks and monitoring the nest cameras during the breeding season.

Six kiwi-cam are used in the Haast sanctuary.  Operated remotely, they allow Phil and his team to monitor how the Haast Tokoeka chicks are doing, without disturbing them.

Why Haast Tokoeka?
Phil has worked with the Okarito Rowi and Great Spotted kiwi species, but says he particularly enjoys working with Haast Tokoeka because they are such an “elusive bird”.   Haast Tokoeka are shy and very rarely seen.  “Its great sitting out there at night watching the kiwi-cam and hearing their haunting calls echo around the mountains.”

During the autumn of 2006, a comprehensive survey tried to find out how many Haast Tokoeka live outside the sanctuary.  Sixty-four sites were monitored at night - the first hour spent listening for kiwi calls, and a tape of kiwi calls played during the second hour to draw forth any birds holding their tongue.  Phil says it looks like more kiwi live way up the Arawhata Valley than previously thought.  “This is very exciting and opens up possibilities for including these kiwi in our management,” he says. 

High Point

Phil’s high point was returning four of Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi’s Operation Nest Egg chicks back into the Haast Tokoeka Sanctuary.  They are fitting in well after spending their first six months on a predator-free island in Lake Te Anau, growing to a size where they are better able to defend themselves against stoats.
 
Low Point

It is always disheartening to find chicks which have been killed by predators, says Phil.  During the 2005/06 season, only two of seven chicks are known to have survived. Of the five lost, one drowned and two were killed by predators.  The transmitters on the remaining two failed for some reason – which means their fate is unknown.

Although two from seven may sound low, Phil says a 25 - 30% chick survival rate is thought to be enough to sustain the population’s status quo.  He hopes that Operation Nest Egg may provide the tipping point they need in helping chicks survive.

For the Future

Phil’s hope for the future is that the Operation Nest Egg programme helps build the Haast Tokoeka population to a point where the kiwi can survive in the wild with no intervention.  “At the moment we monitor 30 breeding pairs.  When we come up with an effective sustainable means of controlling predators, we will be able to reduce the amount we interfere with the birds, and let them get on with it.”