Feeding Kea

Source Author Year Title Quote
Greymouth Star 2014 Laura Mills 2014 More kea poisoned in 1080 drop “Kea are particularly inquisitive and DOC has been researching ways to minimise the loss of individual kea in 1080 operations”
Otago Daily Times Online News 10/02/14 Mark Price 2014 Kea-resistance on pellets “In his experience, kea in the “back blocks” of the beech forests that has little human contact tended to ignore the unnatural “junk food” and there was “zero” evidence of those particular kea dying from eating 1080 pellets. For that reason, 1080 pellets dropped in beech forests this year would not contain a repellent.”
DoC 07/05/2014 DoC 2014 DOC code of practice for aerial 1080 in kea habitat “We restrict the prefeed sowing rate in order to limit kea encounters with prefeed pellets. Kea consumption of prefeed pellets could increase the likelihood that kea eat toxic bait.”
New Zealand Birds online – The digital encyclopaedia of New Zealand Birds Anon. 2014 Kea “Fats and proteins scavenged from the carcasses of deer and sheep may have boosted productivity among the reclusive breeding adults.”
New Zealand Birds online – The digital encyclopaedia of New Zealand Birds Anon. 2014 Kea “Adaptivity is part of kea ecology. They have benefitted from some human-induced modifications in their habitat, including scavenging from dead deer, chamois and thar shot by hunters”
Tbfree New Zealand Ltd AEE TBFree 2014 Assessment of Environmental Effects for Possum Control in the Barton Arthur Area May 2014 “For 1080 operations, dull green dyed bait has been shown to be the least attractive colour to birds. Cinnamon-lured baits instead of fruit lures helps to reduce attractiveness to most birds (Udy & Pracy 1981). Ensuring bait meets all quality specifications is considered the best way to avoid adversely affecting birds.”
Tbfree New Zealand Ltd AEE TBFree 2014 Assessment of Environmental Effects for Possum Control in the Barton Arthur Area May 2014 “One Kea (Nestor notabilis) was found dead approximately 60 metres away from a No Possums 1080 Gel Bait station with beak slash marks in the bait….in pen trials at Orana park….kea ….were offered BB13 and BB16 paste for two days…kea…ate appreciable quantities…non-toxic cut apple bait…Four kea spent over an hour feeding on the bait”
Kea Conservation Trust updates 16/12/13 Kea Conservation Trust 2013 Kea Conservation Trust (KCT) Update “Kea are naturally attracted to human areas which provide both high energy foods and interesting objects to play with.”
Scientific American 21/01/13 Cristy Gelling 2013 BrainiacParrots Threatened by Widespread Lead Poisoning “Many juvenile kea do not survive their first winter, and to avoid starvation they must be willing and able to eat almost anything they find.”
Scientific American 21/01/13 Cristy Gelling 2013 BrainiacParrots Threatened by Widespread Lead Poisoning “They spend so much of that childhood exploring their environment. “They do that by nibbling on everything, just like kids go around and stick everything in their mouths,” says Reid.”
www.keaconservation.co.nz 22/11/2013 T. Orr-Walker 2013 Nest Monitoring “Kea are opportunistic feeders, living predominantly on the roots, seeds and flowers of plants as well as other bird’s chicks, insects and lizards. With the event of human settlement they have adapted to eat almost anything.”
Stuff.co.nz 06/09/2013 Alastair Paulin 2013 Pesky kea shifted to new hilltop home “Mr Kemp advised…once they had sniffed out any sort of food reward, such as food scraps in an unsecured outdoor rubbish bin, it was hard to get them to leave… “Its always very tempting to feed kea, especially if you’ve got kids”.”
Nestor Notabilis 6 Dr Lorne Roberts 2012 Education and advocacy in Conservation- What’s the measure? “For those of us lucky enough to visit the South Island frequently or live there, there is very clear evidence to suggest that visitors still feed kea, sometimes directly in front of the very signs that tell them not to. It is therefore clear that, although the signs may have a positive impact on reducing the number of humans feeding kea, quite what that impact is, nobody knows”
Nestor Notabilis 6 Matt Charteris 2012 Research Projects “…the issues impacting on this species; specifically predation, unintentional pest control by-kill, lead poisoning, feeding of kea by tourists, on-going persecution, sheep flagging and damage to human property”
Nestor Notabilis 6 Adrian Currie 2012 Kea cognition – a remarkable case of convergence with primates “Keas are curious (what scientists call ‘neophilic’, literally loving the new)….their ability to raid bait stations…is an onging headache…both kea and monkeys will try to eat almost anything…”
Kea Conservation Trust Updates Dec 2012 T. Orr-Walker 2012 Kea killed on roads in Arthurs Pass “Road-associated injuries and deaths have become a serious issue in areas like Arthur’s Pass which sees high traffic numbers moving through the area particularly through the summer and winter months. Many of these visitors to the area are encouraging kea down to feed around roadways placing young kea in particular in an extremely vulnerable position”
Wellington Zoo Sarah 2012 Part Three – Learning on the road “Forest creatures are very nosey, and like to know what you are doing…”
Research and Innovation, European Commission 2011 Studies highlight intelligence of birds “The Kea is highly curious and famous for its urge to examine and disassemble novel objects.”
NZ Dept of Conservation Internal Science Series 181 Graeme Elliot & Josh Kemp 2004 Effect of hunting and predation on kea, and a method of monitoring kea populations “…we estimate that 25 kea were using the ski field”
NZ Dept of Conservation Internal Science Series 181 Graeme Elliot & Josh Kemp 2004 Effect of hunting and predation on kea, and a method of monitoring kea populations “Kea are too sparsely distributed and too variable in their conspicuousness to be reliably counted away from those places where they habitually gather”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Since 1989, a publicity campaign has been in force, aided at discouraging people from feeding kea. The objective of the campaign is to increase public awareness of the consequences of habituating kea to food handouts.”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “For example, baboons (Papio spp.) feeding on foodscraps at garbage dumps matured faster and produced more offspring and had higher cholesterol levels than those baboons feeding on natural foods…bears…that fed on anthropogenic foods were larger and had higher reproductive rates…dramatic increases in several species of gulls…have been attributed to rubbish dumps and availability of anthropogenic foods”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Kea are known to forage at the dump, and are documented to have done so since the late 1950s”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “At Arthur’s Pass, the number of kea also increased when food was present”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Food was not available to kea at this sampling station, and people were most commonly present in winter, but kea were found near the lodge all year. The lodge is situated on the edge of a car park and is surrounded by tall mountain beech trees, one of which was a favourite perch for kea.”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “It has also been suggested that inquisitiveness is an adaptive strategy for kea, and that they regard natural and manufactured objects as potential resources to be investigated (Diamond and Bond 1991). Kubat suggested that curiosity and the resulting manipulation of objects is part of the development of young kea. Kubat found that kea in captivity were attracted to novel objects, especially those they could manipulate”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Kea fed mainly on human foods at Arthur’s Pass and on natural foods at Craigieburn…The mean weight of kea banded at Arthur’s Pass was 836 g….nearly 100 g more than the mean weight of kea banded at Craigieburn”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “The two sites used in this study differed greatly in the anthropogenic foods available. At Arthur’s Pass such foods were available to kea year round. This was not the case at Craigieburn Valley…In the winter of this study no anthropogenic food was available…the differences in kea activity between the sites were small, especially for…foraging and manipulative play”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Kea reputedly investigate anything novel regardless of whether or not it is edible…Kubat (1990) suggested the kea’s inquisitiveness and the resulting manipulative behaviours are an adaptive strategy and an essential part of seasonally variable resources”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “These observations support the idea that kea manipulate any novel object, whether natural or human, regardless of food value”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “For kea, manipulative behaviours associated with exploration and exploitation of resources are considered part of the learning process of young kea as well as an adaptive strategy for the species”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Solidified frying fat, discarded in the creek adjacent to the local tearooms, was a major attraction for kea”
MSC Thesis, Linoln University R. Brejaart 1994 Aspects of the Ecology of kea, Nestor notabilis (Gould) at Arthur’s Pass and Craigieburn Valley. “Rubbish was distributed widely through the vegetation adjacent to the road, and kea were found foraging in these places”
Notornis 39: 151-160 A. Bond & J. Diamond 1992 Population estimates of Kea in Arthur’s Pass National Park “It seems likely that the Halpin Creek dump, indeed, the entire Bealey Valley, is a population sink for dispersing juveniles, providing a reliable food source for animals that have not yet developed adult foraging skills.”
Notornis 39: 151-160 A. Bond & J. Diamond 1992 Population estimates of Kea in Arthur’s Pass National Park “…we must keep in mind the possibility that the Kea that we see around car parks, ski fields, and refuse dumps are, in fact, a majority of the birds in the vicinity. If this is true, Anderson’s (1986) reckoning of the total population could prove to be fairly accurate”
Papers in Behaviour Biological Sciences Paper 45 1991 J. Diamond & A. Bond 1991 Social Behaviour and the Ontogeny of Foraging in the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “Fledglings explored and manipulated objects almost continuously…”
Papers in Behaviour Biological Sciences Paper 45 1991 J. Diamond & A. Bond 1991 Social Behaviour and the Ontogeny of Foraging in the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “…Kea are ecological generalists, feeding on over a hundred different species of plants and animals”
Papers in Behaviour Biological Sciences Paper 45 1991 J. Diamond & A. Bond 1991 Social Behaviour and the Ontogeny of Foraging in the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “…these factors suggest a complex ontogeny, requiring extensive learning about both the social and ecological environment”
Papers in Behaviour Biological Sciences Paper 45 1991 J. Diamond & A. Bond 1991 Social Behaviour and the Ontogeny of Foraging in the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “Adult kea are capable scavengers, particularly with respect to the discovery and exploitation of new resources”
Notornis IX: 39-58 J R Jackson 1960 Keas at Arthurs Pass “The first -year Keas at Arthurs Pass in winter have been drawn certainly from eight miles and perhaps from fifteen miles. The surrounding countryside is stripped almost completely of first-year Keas…they are almost all around the ski-huts or in the townships…Later when they disperse from Arthurs Pass they may fly out 15 miles in any direction, giving a possible movement of 30 miles. “
Trans, Royal NZ Inst. 39: 71-91 W.B. Benham 1907 Notes on the Flesh-eating Propensity of the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “There can be no doubt that the origin of the habit is traceable to the kea’s natural curiosity: its bump of inquisitiveness is very highly developed, and it will investigate any unusual object – turning it over, pecking at it, and so forth.”
Trans, Royal NZ Inst. 39: 71-92 W.B. Benham 1907 Notes on the Flesh-eating Propensity of the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “The burning-off of the alpine scrub and bush in gullies, as has occurred in many districts, would deprive the bird of its normal food during the whole year; while elsewhere, when the normal food is covered by snow in winter-time, the bird would be compelled to seek a new diet, or migrate, or die.”
Trans, Royal NZ Inst. 39: 71-93 W.B. Benham 1907 Notes on the Flesh-eating Propensity of the Kea (Nestor notabilis) “And the suggestion that the kea, on the disappearance, temporary or permanent, of its normal food, would proceed to investigate a fallen sheep…seems quiet in accordance with the bird’s general habit of enquiry and its catholicity of diet.”