Time to think about kea

Published in Greymouth Star 3/9/19

By Dr Jo Pollard, BSc (Hons), PhD

The kea, NZ’s unique mountain parrot, needs urgent consideration. This spring, poisonous food baits are being spread by air over of much its habitat by the Department of Conservation (DoC). Twelve per cent of resident kea are expected to die within a few days of the poisoning, according to DoC’s studies. Debilities such as damaged wing muscles and reproductive defects are expected in those that are sub-lethally poisoned.

Thus the few (possibly 1000-3000 ) remaining kea in NZ face major genetic loss and suffering. DoC needs a strong argument to justify this mayhem.

DoC has taken to sheltering behind pro-poisoning freelance journalist Dave Hansford. Recently, Hansford repeated DoC’s message to the public that kea will be better off after poisoning. He argues that filling our forests with toxin will stop stoats from ravaging kea nests. Hansford went on to soften us up claiming that a death rate of up to 22% of kea will be ok this spring – by DoC’s reckoning.

Copy of Greymouth Star newspaper article

Ever since DoC finally recorded that many kea were dying in aerial poison drops (as people had been telling them for decades) it has been on a desperate search for evidence that poisoning somehow benefits kea, in an attempt to prove that these awful losses might be somehow justified.

DoC chose to argue that stoats endanger kea and that poison will solve this. But DoC’s own scientists, and research before them, had already concluded that stoats were not a problem to kea.

In vain, DoC has been trying to amass evidence that stoats are endangering kea. DNA tests, attempts to analyse bite marks and thousands of hours of videos of kea nests have yielded very little. This is despite the videoed nests being made known and vulnerable to any predators, by disturbing the birds thoroughly (including volunteers, dogs and others hunting for nests; visiting repeatedly; taking blood samples; marking sites; attaching harnesses to adults and chicks.)

But Hansford says there is evidence that 1080 helps kea; in a paper written by DoC staff, published 2018. That document rests its case on an experiment in Westland, which DoC had previously self-criticised as unreplicated and lacking objectivity! Not only is the study unscientific, the results are presented in a fraudulent manner. A stoat plague that followed aerial poisoning at Okarito, shown in the original report, was truncated from the published graph!

Another incorrect statement, repeated by DoC, Hansford and other poison supporters is that kea in remote areas, that are unfamiliar with people and being fed, will be relatively safe in poisoning operations. DoC’s own results do not support this: 9% of monitored kea died at Kahurangi, a site chosen by DoC for its remoteness.

Kea are in fact extremely curious and resourceful regarding food, willing to try anything. This trait is thought by scientists to be a response to living in a very challenging nutritional environment, where starvation typically kills off many juveniles in an average year, as well as many adults in poor seasons.

Before poisoning, “pre-feeding” with normal, unpoisoned baits is carried out to build up animals’ confidence. This will encourage kea to eat the bait regardless of their background. In this year’s toxic deluge, some baits will be coated with blood, in an attempt to repel deer. This practice is normally prohibited in kea habitat because it is likely to attract kea even more.

DoC pretends that aerially spreading 1080 poison is good at controlling pests. The truth is mice don’t normally eat it, rat numbers often rebound ferociously, and stoat numbers can escalate when either of these previous two rodents flourish. DoC’s (and pest control company ZIP’s) response to this is to use more dense, and more frequent poisoning. This is madness when up against the rat, considered by at least one biologist to be so hardy that it will be the last animal on earth when all else is gone.

DoC also pretends that 1080 poison doesn’t kill many animals other than the ones it wants dead. The toxin interferes with respiration so it affects all creatures that breathe air. Kea are one of very few native animals whose deaths have been monitored with any reliability. The death toll of many other creatures may also be large.

Entomologist Mike Meads found severe effects on invertebrates, in a study that was initially supported by peer reviews but later discredited by DoC, and which has never been followed up with a comprehensive, replicated trial. A study on stream invertebrates also showed negative effects of 1080 but was also never followed up. Fernbirds died at a rate of 9.4% per poison drop. Kakariki parakeets are known to be killed in 1080 operations yet, incredibly, the baits are to be sown at double density where the last remaining orange-fronted kakariki in Canterbury are clinging to existence (only 100-300 birds left).

What benefits will there be from spreading 1080? Poisoning documentation for the Arthurs Pass area states “the overall net effect on the ecosystem will be one of profound benefit”. Not surprisingly this claim is unreferenced! DoC has scrambled for credibility recently and published several studies (on birds), which all suffer from poor scientific methodology and fall well short of demonstrating overall benefit to any species, let alone ecosystem-level benefits.

Kea expert Paul van Klink complained last year that there was no management plan for kea and that DoC and its volunteers were knowingly killing kea in traps set for stoats. Further investigations by reporter David Williams painted “a picture of a department that is unsure of the risks, or efficacy, of the traps it’s using, managers that make decisions while seemingly ignorant of trap trial results, and decisions being made about positioning traps seemingly with little scientific basis.”

So the senseless, science-less poisoning is only one symptom of DoC’s incompetent management.

Thinking people need to stop swallowing the outrageous propaganda emanating from DoC, and look at how things stack up for the kea. It is currently facing an extremely bleak future.

Publics responses to above article

DOC and 1080 science

Published in the Greymouth Star, 9, September 2019

Why does DOC refuse to listen to real scientists like Jo Pollard but instead quote propagandists like Dave Hansford, who has no qualifications?

And why do they feel justified at the same time labeling anyone opposed to the use of 1080 as ‘unscientific’?

These are real questions that I would like DOC to answer publicly.

Jean Rodgers, Cobden.

DOC’s management of kea

Published in the Greymouth Star, 11 Septmeber 2019

Great to see the article by Dr Jo Pollard on the demise of the kea. (‘Time to think about kea’ Greymouth Star, September 3). It is about time the truth about DOC’s mishandling of management of kea was told. Your courage in printing this article is commendable.

Those of us who oppose 1080 use only ask that the truth be told and not be the subject of an orchestrated litany of lies by DOC and Tb Free from the propaganda teams, as we have been to date.

DOC are struggling and are desperately searching for any evidence at all that 1080 benefits kea. There is none and that is why kea are ahead of the field in the race to extinction by many native species

Such is the desperation of DOC they resort to having a journalist to spew DOC propaganda.

Twelve per cent of the kea lost each drop along with major genetic loss and suffering, yet My Hansford miraculously claims the birds are benefiting from 1080. It is time Mr Hansford stopped believing in fairytales.

No doubt the chatter I hear is the keyboards of the DOC propaganda team drumming up a rebuttal of the excellent article by Jo Pollard. Just for a change, do not print the rebuttal DOC provides. Those of us who oppose 1080 have had to endure the continual stream of DOC stories of miracles from cruel and slow acting poisons such as 1080 and brodifacoum on saving native birds. In 99% of cases the other side of the story has never been allowed to be told.

Geoff Guenole, Wellington.

The horror of 1080

Published in the Greymouth Star, 11 September, 2019

Jo Pollard reminds us that DOC’s defence of its poisoning policy is now reduced to the mouthpiece of David Hansford. Mr Hansford, talking on the radio, claimed that he had visited three poison sites after 1080 drops and never found a single dead bird.

Mr Hansford’s three site visits took place on the days following a drop. No wonder he could not find a dead bird.

Did he find a dead anything?

After a 1080 drop has finished and the helicopters have gone home, all the poison action happens that same night. By the following morning the baits which landed in the streams have long since leached their toxin into the water. Mr Hansford comes along next day and takes a sample of the water: “Hey look it’s clear. What’s the problem?” as if the flood of 1080 solution the night before has never happened. During that first night most of the toxic baits may be eaten up and most of the toxic animals will have been eaten by a morepork or a pig.

At the first light the hawks have already pulled any remaining carcasses out of sight. It is astonishing how little evidence remains the following day of what has gone on during that first night.

If, like Mr Hansford, you do not go into a poisoned area until the following day you are unlikely to observe any of the violent effects of the night before; like Mr Hansford, you can imagine any kind of scenario presented to you and believe it true. Only if you were in the zone during that first night will you be sure of what has really happened.

Very few New Zealanders have been present during that first night after a 1080 drop; so very few New Zealanders really understand what goes on.

So it is, through mouths like Mr Hansford’s, that conjecture and invention have, for many, become fact. Alas the invented benefits of 1080 are not actually helping the kea in real life.

John Veysey, Coromandel.

Dave Hansford and DoC’s Response

‘Time to think about kea’

Cherry-picking and misinformation

Published in The Greymouth Star, September 2019

Once again Jo Pollard (Time to think about kea’, Greymouth Star, 16 September 2) tries to advance her anti-1080 agenda by misrepresenting peer-review scientific research.

Dr Pollard attacks a feature written by me, and published on The Spinoff that reports research finding that “front country’ kea – those used to investigating handouts from humans as food – are almost seven times more likely to die from 1080 poisoning than kea living in remote areas.

Her response to eight years’ worth of meticulously gathered data on kea survivorship and mortality through 1080 operations was to get it wrong.

She claims that 9% of monitored kea died during a 1080 drop in Kahurangi, even though the paper clearly shows that just two birds out of 71 died – that is a mortality rate of less than 3%. This makes a nonsense of her claim that evidence does not support one of the most important findings related in my piece.

And yet again she fails to disclose to readers that she profits from pet food business that sells possum and venison products – in my view a clear conflict of interest that readers would have every right to expect to be declared openly.

Instead, she continues to present as a scientist, even though she had not held a scientific post for 15 years. Given her penchant for getting statistics wrong, cherry-picking the research for snippets that appear to support her agenda, making baseless claims without evidence, and resorting to personal attacks on the integrity of people who have devoted much of their professional lives to studying kea, perhaps we should not be surprised by that.

It is breathtaking that Dr Pollard continues to accuse others of duplicity, even as she practices this masquerade.

Dave Hansford, Wellington.
Author of Protecting Paradise: 1080 and the Fight to Save NZ’s Endangered Wildlife.

Time to help our kea

Published in The Greymouth Star, 16 September 2019

Along with Jo Pollard (Greymouth Star, September 3), the Depatment of Conservation and many others are concerned about kea, New Zealand’s unique alpine parrot, which is in serious trouble.

The department’s work is focused on reducing threats to kea, and part of this work is measuring results and using this information to improve our predator control.

While we share concern for kea, DOC wished to correct several of Dr Pollard’s claims, which are untrue and not backed by evidence. The independently peer reviewed scientific papers published in the NZ Journal of Ecology speak for themselves, but we want to clarify why predator control is boosting kea numbers.

Copy of Greymouth Star newspaper article

Kea nest and forage on the ground and are vulnerable to being preyed on at all life stages, from eggs and nestlings to juveniles and adults, Stoats and feral cats are the most significant killers of kea.

The science is clear, introduced predators are the main reason for kea decline, but the cumulative impact of other human-induced causes such as lead poisoning, accidents with cars and deliberately killing by people, also take their toll.

Research shoes that in most years where there is no predator control, 60% of kea nests fail, mostly due to predation. But nest failure climbs to more than 90% the year after a beech mast (mass seeding events that drive rodent and then stoat population explosions). Only about one in 10 nests produce chicks in these years.

This year’s massive forest mast will put kea at greater risk than usual when high rodent numbers lead to a big increase in stoats next year.

East of the main divide, the plentiful rodents also bring feral cats into the forests from adjacent grasslands. Without predator control most keas nests in 2020 will be preyed on and virtually no young birds enter the population. Life expectancy of adult kea will also drop from where there are feral cats.

Aerially applied 1080 is the most effective method we have for controlling rats, stoats and possums over large remote areas where kea live. The research shows when predators are controlled with aerial 1080 and/or traps, more than 70% of nests are successful.

The healthy kea population of up to 100 birds seen this year in the Perth River valley in South Westland, an area with a long history of predator control including five aerial 1080 operations, is evidence of this.

We are not shying away from the fact that kea interactions with traps and 1080 cereal pellets has unfortunately resulted in deaths in some areas. However, the loss rate of individual birds is very low with 1080 predator control operations in remote areas and is outweighed by improved kea survival and breeding success.

It is not true, as Dr Pollard claims, that 12% of kea are killed in aerial pedator control operations. The risk that keas will eat 1080 cereal pellets is low in remote areas where DOC does most aerial 1080 operations, but is higher in areas where kea have learned to scavenge for human food, overriding their naturally cautious behaviour.

Similarly, Dr Pollard’s figures of a 9% poisoning rate of kea in Kahurangi is wrong. The published paper records two deaths of Kahurangi kea from 1080 out of 71 individual monitored birds – a death rate of less than 3%.

What the research shows is that kea in remote areas away from human interaction are almost seven times more likely to survive than the kea that are used to scrounging for human food. Kea populations in remote areas are predicted to grow under sustained predator control.

This year the Kea Conservation Trust (KCT), which has people working all around the South Island, reports seeing significantly more kea than previous years and large flocks of young birds in South Westland, Arthur’s Pass and Fiordland. It looks like the ample beech seed food from the ‘mega mast’ has been a boon for kea breeding, and predator control is helping local populations to grow.

The KCT has caught and banded a record number of birds, including 88 kea in Murchison Mountains, an area with extensive trapping. This is the most birds recorded in a single survey period in more than a decade. The KCT says it has also had an upsurge in kea sighting reports from people through its keas sightings database (see www.keadatabase.nz).

Unfortunately, despite these gains, predators are still a major risk to kea, and it is DOC’s job to respond. This year we are controlling predators over more than one million hectares of public conservation land, including a significant amount of kea habitat. The goal is to protect kea and other at-risk native birds and bats as they nest and breed again this coming spring and summer.

Amber Bill, Director threats, Department of Conservation.

Jo Pollard’s reply to DoC and Dave Hansford

Reply to Hansford re Kea, by Jo Pollard, Greymouth Star September 2019

Dear Sir

If Dave Hansford (Letters, Greymouth Star 16/9/19) had any integrity as a journalist he would investigate his subject matter rather than just reading DoC’s propaganda handouts. At Kahurangi in 2014, at a study site chosen by DoC because of its remoteness from the influence of people, 2 out of 22 monitored kea died. That is 9%. Compared to DoC’s average figure of 12% of monitored kea dying within days of aerial poisoning. So Mr Hansford’s claim that the chances of kea in remote places being killed by 1080 are “vanishingly small” is not correct.

Neither is Hansford correct that my complaints are due to “vested interests” because I have recently started selling pest animal meat as pet food. It’s responsible, humane pest control. I have been reviewing and commenting on 1080 since its reassessment by ERMA in 2007, whose documents revealed an incredibly dangerous, cruel, broad spectrum toxin that is poorly understood and used without any scientific justification, in the hands of taxpayer-funded organisations who are not at all interested in scientific research because it would certainly stop their charades immediately.

As for Amber Bill’s (DoC’s) response to my comments (Greymouth Star 16/9/19), how tragic to hear that more kea than ever before are being caught by volunteers in the absence of any plan to help them. Hopefully this time they won’t attach harnesses, hunt them down at nesting time then repeatedly visit their nests in the misguided belief they are monitoring something useful and normal. Ms Bill’s untruths are glaring. For example compare her “Research shows that with no predator control, 60% of kea nests fail, mostly due to predation. But nest failure climbs towards 90% the year after a beech mast” with what DoC used to say “Kea nests appear to be relatively immune to predation from introduced mammals…Our results agree with a previous study of kea nesting at Arthur’s Pass, where no evidence of significant nest predation was found.”

DoC, TbFree, ZIP and others in the poisoning industry along with their favourite journalist are the ones with vested interests.

Yours sincerely Dr Jo Pollard (BSc (Hons), PhD, Oamaru

Videos showing the harm of 1080 on kea and the enivironment

Kea Killed in 1080 Poison Drops

Kea are one of the most endangered parrots on Earth. The New Zealand Govt agency – Department of Conservation – continues to aerially drop poisonous food directly into kea habitat to kill rats, possums and deer … but it’s not just rats and deer that are dying …

Jack Patchet experiences the effects after a 1080 poison drop

The Department of Conservation’s 1080 drop poisoned all kea on Jack’s property. The farm is 120 years old and the kea had been on the property for this long. DOC told Jack he was to emotional and to find the science before he makes any comments to them about 1080.

Poisoning Paradise – Ecocide New Zealand – Festival Version

This New Zealand film has won 4 international environmental awards – but here in NZ, TV channels refuse to play it. Why? Because if they did, there would be outrage and riots over New Zealand’s use of aerially applied 1080 poison. See for yourself …