On Thursday 28 April, ZIP field rangers returned to their tent in the Perth River Valley to find that kea had reduced it to shreds. The Perth River Valley is a remote and rugged 12,000 hectare site within the footprint of the Predator Free South Westland project area. ZIP has been working to eliminate possums, rats and stoats from the site since 2018, and the area is now effectively predator-free.
The large tent, located at the confluence of the Perth and Barlow Rivers and affectionately referred to by the team as the ‘Content’, has been a permanent fixture in the Perth River Valley field site since late 2020. While the field team have enjoyed frequent encounters with kea at the Content, this was the first encounter in which kea in this part of the field site had lived up to their reputation for mischief and destruction – and they certainly made up for lost time!
During the weekend of Saturday 30 April, the team returned to remove the damaged tent, and found a mob of eight unbanded juvenile kea on, and around, it. As gear was removed from the tent, the birds amused themselves by climbing over the neatly stacked equipment, undoing packages and opening boxes.
The tent, wooden base and all, was removed from the site and returned to the ZIP field base in Franz Josef, where it will undergo some sorely-needed repairs and maintenance. Fortunately for the team, the tent fly appears to have sustained most of the damage, so with the purchase of a new fly the Content should live to fight another day – perhaps at another location within the Predator Free South Westland project area.
ZIP Chief Executive Al Bramley says, “While certainly inconvenient for our rangers, this encounter is another positive sign that kea in the area are continuing to do very well in the absence of possums, rats and stoats. The team is thrilled to be seeing the results of our work with Predator Free South Westland to protect these charismatic, cheeky birds, and we look forward to seeing what hijinks they get up to next!”