Pukaha Wildlife Centre

As a complete contrast to yesterday's 30-something temperatures, today was grey, damp and cool.  I set off to Pukaha wearing a merino top and a rain jacket.  So off then to Pukaha.......a bird sanctuary.  Actually, it's full title is the 'National Wildlife Centre.

Don't get me wrong - I don't like or approve of zoos or wildlife being kept captive.  When I was in this area 2 years ago I made a conscious decision not to visit the Pukaha National Wildlife Centre.  I've learned a bit more about them since then - not least following the death recently of their resident white kiwi following surgery.  So this time I've decided to set my concerns aside and decide for myself whether or not birds held in captivity can be acceptable.

This montage contains a few of the more colourful and/or unusual and/or accessible birds I saw in my 3-plus hour visit (I was told at the entry that it would take an hour to walk round.  Haha!)  There were others who don't appear here.......tui, piwakawaka (fantail), kiwi, kaka, whio (blue duck), blackbird and thrush, as well as a range of other critters......eels, gecko and weta.  But the birds are the ones who hold my interest and concern.

Firstly, let me identify the birds for you.  They are:

Top row: Kereru, kokako, yellow crowned parakeet, kakariki (*red crowned parakeet/New Zealand parakeet)
2nd row: kokako, kakariki*, tieke (North Island saddleback)
Bottom row: kokako, tieke, korimako (bellbird)

Two birds in particular, appear more than once, mostly because I've never seen them before or, if I have seen them, I only glimpsed them - the kokako and the tieke.

My first ethical softening happened when I read the placard by the kereru's enclosure.  You'll notice from the image that he has a funky, punky hair-do.  It turns out that is the result of surgery on his head following a harrier attack on him.  Had he not been found and brought to the centre he would have died.  A life-long bad hair day seems a small price to pay to live.

Next along the way was the kokako, the bird I most wanted to to see.  Again, it was uncomfortable watching her in the (large.........approx 10m x 10m x 4m high) aviary, but when a ranger came past and told me her back story, I softened.  Before hearing the story I'd heard her making a very distinctive whistling sound and a song that sounded exactly like she was saying 'kokako'.  I figured this must have been how they got their name but nooooooooo.........I was wrong.  This bird was found as a chick on the ground having fallen from her nest.  The man who found her hand reared her and it was during that time that she learned the whistle and how to 'say' kokako!  Apparently their natural song is very different.  At some point she was brought to Pukaha by the man and now she's super-friendly whenever a man walks by and talks to her!  That was certainly the case whilst I was there - the guys got way more attention than I did, but at least that gave me an opportunity to try to get pictures.

The parakeets (I got confused over red, yellow and green headed or throated ones) - some were there as breeding pairs to sustain their dwindling numbers, some were juveniles who will be released into the wild when they're old enough.

The tieke or saddlebacks were in a similar sized enclosure and again, were held there as a breeding pair.  I was amazed at how at-ease they were with people being very close to them.  I've only ever seen these birds once before and they were very shy and retiring then.  They're not a common bird by any stretch of the imagination, but the efforts of Zealandia and Pukaha are certainly having a positive impact on their numbers.  

Finally, there's the korimako or bellbird.  All the birds I've mentioned so far were softening my stance on captive birds but this one, I'm not so sure.  He was in the 'walk through' aviary, a huge netted dome that humans can enter and be 'with' the birds. This bellbird seemed to clearly want out and continuously revisited and clung to the dome netting where outside, just a few metres away in the surrounding canopy, another bellbird seemed to be engaging it in 'conversation'.  Bellbirds are common, they're not threatened or endangered, so why was he (or she) kept inside the enclosure?  This was the only time I felt that the bird shouldn't have been captive as it was clear from other stories and information panels that the work Pukaha does is indeed very valuable and potentially species-saving work.

And to round off this (very pleasantly) cool day, I've returned to Eketahuna and have spent the afternoon/evening considering where my next adventure will go.  The COVID cases in Northland are a concern and I'm staying alert to the possibility that at any stage, I may need to just turn around and head south.  Until that eventuates though, I'm planning to continue north.