Photo: ODTSouth Island kaka have made an extraordinary comeback in a Fiordland forest since pest control started just over a decade ago, the Department of Conservation says. The turnaround is shown in a study of the parrot population in Waitutu Forest in 2005-07 and again last year. In the mid-2000s kaka, were ravaged by stoats and possums. Female birds and chicks were the prime victims as they nested, and monitoring showed males outnumbered females by six to one. A population sample taken last December indicated female kaka numbers had rebounded - the margin had fallen to 1.7 times more males - and young birds were on the rise.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 08, 2017 03:28 UTC