Conservation authorities and groups, along with Māori people, recently established a new population of the critically endangered kākāriki karaka, or orange-fronted parakeet, on a New Zealand island. Thirty-four kākāriki karaka (Cyanoramphus malherbi), raised in captivity, were released on the predator-free Pukenui, or Anchor Island, in the Fiordland National Park. The parakeet was once common across New Zealand but is now considered the rarest mainland forest bird in the country, with only 450 wild individuals remaining. According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC), the kākāriki karaka nest and roost in holes in trees, making them vulnerable to predators such as rats, stoats and cats as well as habitat loss. Declared extinct twice before being “rediscovered” in the 1980s, wild populations today survive in a few forests around New Zealand. The translocated kākāriki karaka were raised in the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust (ICWT) and Orana Wildlife Park, said Leigh Percasky, ICWT’s assistant wildlife manager. She told Mongabay that the captive breeding program consisted of 12 breeding pairs, many that had been collected either as eggs or young chicks from wild sites. “They are easily stressed and quite fussy, so it’s been [a] continual learning process since the beginning of this programme to develop husbandry techniques and provide the right environment to encourage breeding in captivity,” Percasky said by email. “We try and mimic a wild environment as much as we can.” In a statement, members of the local Māori council Ōraka-Aparima Rūnaka, which represents the Ngāi Tahu, accompanied the 34…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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