Kea

Many thanks to Staglands Wildlife reserve in Upper Hutt for providing our two kea with a wonderful new home in a large walk through aviary at Staglands Wildlife Reserve in Upper Hutt. www.staglands.co.nz

Maori gave this parrot the name Kea, describing the sound of its raucous call “keeaa”. Kea were considered guardians of the mountains for the Waitaha Maori during their search for Pounamu (greenstone).

Kea are considered by scientists to be one of the most intelligent bird species in the world, a level of intelligence that has said to rival that of the most sophisticated monkeys. As the world’s only mountain parrot, Kea are a unique and endangered species endemic to the Southern Alps of New Zealand. It is estimated that they now number an estimated 1000-5000 individuals in the wild. Numbers of Kea were substantially reduced with the introduction of a bounty which resulted in over 150,000 birds being culled as late as the 1970’s.

Kea are predominantly vegetarian opportunistic feeders, although kea have been seen feeding on sea-bird chicks, insects and lizards. With the event of human settlement they have adapted to eat almost anything.
In past decades there has been increasing human activity in alpine environments and associated with this is the food scraps that accompany people. For kea, our food sources have become a welcome high energy food source and groups of kea frequent public sites around Fiordland like Milford Road car parks and at Milford Sound. However, because these kea do not have to spend a large amount of time foraging for low energy natural foods, they have plenty of spare time to explore the many and varied new objects placed in their environment by people. Juvenile male birds seem to make up the majority of these loitering groups.

Feeding young kea also discourages them from looking for and learning about natural foods. They can become dependent on human scraps.

Kea need your help to ensure their survival! The Kea Conservation Trust recognizes the importance of the wider community to help in conservation of species such as kea. This not only includes those people who share their environment with kea in the South Island, but all people passionate about the species both nationally and internationally. Visit www.keaconservation.co.nz for more information.