Kiwi Monitoring 2022
Ian Wilson is supposed to have retired, but he kindly agreed to organise kiwi listening again this year. During May and June, twelve Trust volunteers and Dan O’Halloran from DOC monitored ten sites by listening, and another two sites were monitored by audio recorders. A summary of results for eight sites that have been monitored by people (recorders pick up calls but not their directions, so can’t tell us how many kiwi are calling) since the Trust began in 2003 is shown in the graph above. Last year the number of kiwi heard was the highest ever and call rates were the second highest. This year the number of kiwi heard was slightly lower at an average of nine kiwi per site and call rates were slightly higher at an average of 6.7 calls per hour. These results indicate that the kiwi population is maintaining at a healthy level, though less than some high-density Northland sites. It will be a few years before the effects of the pest control expansion begin to show in the call counts.
Many thanks to the volunteers who sat out in the cold to record this valuable data.