Pim de Monchy

Pim’s academic achievements include a Bachelor of Resource Studies (ecology) from Lincoln and a subsequent diploma in software development.  He is particularly interested in finding ways to achieve kiwi recovery more efficiently, and ensuring the lessons learned at individual sites are transferred and applied nationally.  

Pim’s first involvement with kiwi, other than voluntary surveys around Mount Ruapehu, was a two-year posting on Kapiti Island in the mid-1990s to help eradicate rats. While there he took the opportunity to learn about little spotted kiwi from Hugh Robertson and Rogan Colbourne, and has been fascinated with the birds ever since.  Pim has been involved with the Moehau kiwi sanctuary since it was planned in 1999, including a stint as its manager from 2004–2007.  He has also worked as operations manager for the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust, where he helped create a new kiwi population in the 3400-hectare predator-fenced sanctuary.  Currently Pim is in Tauranga, working on the Bay of Plenty’s coast care programme as a land management officer for the regional council, and enjoying the challenge of a whole new ecosystem.    

Why kiwi?

When John McLennan and many others identified stoats and dogs as the key reasons for kiwi decline, and then demonstrated that it was possible to manage their impacts, Pim realised that kiwi could realistically be saved from extinction.  That, combined with the birds’ iconic status, opened up his interest in the species and its fate.

High point

High points for Pim were figuring out that all the mustelid trapping and dog training at Moehau were contributing to an annual increase in kiwi numbers of more than 10%, and the day WildTech began improving transmitter technology.  

Low point

The low point has been the occasional price of scientific discovery. ‘Although having kiwi wearing transmitters has helped us learn a lot about how to manage the species, and given us some invaluable data, the transmitters on some kiwi became entangled in wiry mangemange fern and starved to death.’  

Thoughts for the future

Pim acknowledges the huge role that BNZ Operation Nest Egg™ has played, and continues to play, in our collective plight to save the kiwi.  However, he looks forward to the day when all kiwi taxa are protected in-situ without any hands-on management, as part of healthy natural ecosystems.  Specifically, he would like to see kiwi so numerous that recreational forest users up and down the country see and hear them regularly, and start to expect kiwi in their local bush.