The end of the translocations

March marked the final translocation (for now) of kākāriki karaka to the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. All up, 125 birds have made the transition from captive breeding facilities to their introduced-predator-free original beech-forest habitat.

The reaction of the birds to their sudden freedom varied somewhat from release to release (and amongst individuals). Roughly, it went as follows:-

• Release 1 - They spread far and wide initially. I put this down to the fact that there were no other parakeets in the sanctuary on release, they perhaps went looking for members of their own species. When they found none some returned to the aviaries (and feeders), some paired off where they settled (e.g., the Upper Valley) and got on with nesting.

From Release 2 onwards, translocated birds had the advantage over the Release 1 birds of knowing prior to their release that they were in a parakeet-friendly location. They had spent their two days in the aviaries seeing and hearing the wild, resident parakeets outside chatting and using feeders. 

• Release 2 - They paired off quickly and got on with nesting.
• Release 3 & 4 - They were reasonably well grounded to the vicinity of the aviaries, but were a bit slow to pair off and nest.
• Release 5 - This group of birds were the most grounded of all. They were quite happy to stay in the vicinity of the aviaries/feeders.

The summer of 2022/2023 involved a partial beech mast, almost all of the regular feeder users from previous releases departed the feeders for a few months and ate plentiful natural food in the beech canopy.

• Release 6 & 7 -  These birds had little interest in feeders. Likely they went straight into the canopy and fed on plentiful natural food alongside the established population.