On a brilliant sunny afternoon on Friday 16 May on Waiheke Island, a visionary conservation project, 15 years in the making, finally came to fruition.
A murmur of anticipation went up from the crowd of several hundred waiting on the beach below Piritahi marae. A stock barge was sighted entering the bay. At the wheel was David Chamberlin whose family has farmed Ponui Island since 1852. On board were a team of kiwi field workers, scientist Dr Isabel Castro and 10 carry boxes containing a precious cargo.
The file of workers two-by-two, carrying the boxes crossed the foreshore and as the crowd respectfully parted, proceeded up to the marae. A powhiri was about to begin, hosted by Piritahi elders, led by Ngati Paoa and Ngai Tai. A lonely figure brought up the rear. It was David Chamberlin. I went forward to greet him.
Our kiwi story begins in 1964 when David’s father Peter requested the old NZ Wildlife Service release kiwi on Ponui. The ‘can-do’ service in the form of the remarkable Don Merton, famous in world conservation for saving from extinction the Chatham Islands’ black robin, quickly obliged, delivering 14 kiwi, six from Northland’s Waipoua forest and eight from Hauturu/Little Barrier.
Over the years the birds thrived to become arguably the most successful kiwi population in the country.
Fast forward to a Sunday morning, 16 May 2010, when I met Rob Fenwick and his wife Jennie (later Sir Rob and Lady Fenwick) at their Waiheke home on the Te Matuku peninisula where we discussed Rob’s quest to have kiwi introduced to his rural block. Rob was having difficulty getting consent from the DOC kiwi recovery group for kiwi from Coromandel, the nearest officially recognised population. Behind the Fenwick house there is a splendid view out over the Tamaki Strait. I pointed to Ponui, 2.8km away and suggested we try to get the kiwi from there.
On the Monday, wearing my ARC chairman’s hat, I phoned Peter Chamberlin, who responded positively.
The ARC natural heritage team swung in behind the idea and we decided to also include Whakanewha Regional Park. Soon after, I called a meeting with Rob, DOC and ARC scientists. All parties were in agreement.
Unfortunately, a few months later, the ARC was disbanded and with it much of my previous political influence. Despite initial optimism, year after year the project steadily lost momentum. In 2016 it came to a dead halt when DOC pronounced the Ponui kiwi due to their mixed heritage had “no genetic value whatsoever” and “no future conservation value.”
North Island brown kiwi are managed in four subpopulations or taxa. Northland, Coromandel, Western and Eastern. DOC feared that moving kiwi off Ponui could mean their eventually breeding with kiwi from a ‘pure’ taxon. It was a rather extreme position.
Now officially exiled like little Napoleons, the Ponui kiwi were exceeding the island’s carrying capacity, with chicks dying from starvation especially during droughts. Sir Rob tragically passed away in early 2020. Our last phone conversation was about the kiwi. Lady Fenwick resolutely carried on the mission working with ‘Save the Kiwi’.
Ponui kiwi for nearly 20 years have been the subject of extensive research by Massey University’s Isabel Castro. In 2021, her student Swedish geneticist Malin Undin and colleagues published research challenging the official position, noting the ‘hybrid vigour’ of the Ponui kiwi. Late in 2022, DOC relented – kiwi could be moved to Waiheke after all.
In the gathering dark at Te Matuku Bay, Jennie Fenwick and I carried a kiwi box to the preselected release site. It was a magical moment in an unforgettable day, exactly 15 years since that day Rob and I stood on the hilltop and made our plans. Kiwi can now be heard at night calling across Waiheke’s bush clad hills. May they call there forever more. (MIKE LEE)
www.mikelee.co.nz/rediscovered-ponui-islands-lost-tribe-of-kiwi
www.mikelee.co.nz
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