Rowi Project Blog

Over the last week, Ieuan, Anna, Mike and I spent three days on Motuara Island performing health checks on this year’s chicks. We were pleased to see that all these chicks are doing well and putting on weight quickly with the smorgasbord of bugs available to them on the island.

Anna holds one of last year's juveniles ready to return to Okarito Kiwi Zone.

While on the island, we also screened the remaining juveniles from last year’s breeding season, for diseases in preparation for their return home to Okarito Kiwi Zone. This involves taking a blood sample and a faecal sample and sending these off to the lab to be analysed. When the results come back we look for any abnormalities that could indicate disease, parasites, or infections. Anything that shows up must be treated before returning to Okarito as it would be devastating to introduce something into the ‘whanau’ population that could threaten the species.

A couple of highlights from the trip:

During the trip we were treated to some beautiful Marlborough weather and our nights were spent sleeping outside under the stars after winding down with some music from Ieuan and his guitar.

After a bit of foraging, Mike provided an entrée of paua, kina and mussels which didn’t last long when put in front of four hungry DOC workers.

Anna and Ieuan carry out disease screening.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 10:59 am by Iain – BNZ Operation Nest Egg Ranger (Rowi) and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.