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Recoveries of paradise shelducks banded in the Taihape, Nelson, Marlborough, Waitaki and Southland Districts

Notornis, 28 (1), 11-27

Williams, M. (1981)

Article Type: Paper

From 1962 to 1974, 10,590 Paradise Shelducks (Tadorna variegata) were banded while flightless at moulting sites in the Taihape district of North Island and in the Nelson, Marlborough, Waitaki and Southland districts of South Island, and from 1970 to 1974, 2400 ducklings in the Southland district. The areas over which these birds dispersed after completing their moult or fledging were determined from the return of 1420 bands by hunters. Two-thirds of more of the birds shot after having been banded at moulting sites near Taihape, in Nelson, and near Manapouri in Southland were recovered within 40 km of their banding site, whereas birds from other moulting sites in South Island dispersed more widely. The dispersal characteristics of males and females banded at the same site were similar, except that two-thirds of the female Southland ducklings shot were recovered within 40 km of their natal site but only 40% of the males. The dispersal characteristics of Paradise Shelduck populations seem to reflect the topography of their habitats, those in irregular hill-country farmland being less dispersive than those inhabiting the flatter tussock grasslands.

South Island kokako (Callaeas cinerea cinerea) in Nothofagus forest

Notornis, 28 (4), 256-259

Clout, M.N., Hay, J.R. (1981)

Article Type: Paper

The location of a 1967 sighting of South Island Kokako (Callaeas cinerea cinerea) in beech (Nothofagus) forest at Mount Aspiring National Park was searched, without success, in May 1981. Early literature on South Island Kokako shows that they commonly inhabited beech forest and had ground-feeding and low-nesting habits which made them vulnerable to introduced mammalian predators. It is suggested that the dramatic irruptions of rodents and stoats (Mustela erminea) that occur after beech ‘mast’ years in the South Island may have contributed to the rapid decline of C. c. cinerea.
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