Source: Department of Conservation
By Jana Beer
The tūturuatu / tchūriwat’ / shore plover is a bird in need of urgent PR. With just 250 individuals left in the wild on a handful of predator-free islands, it is one of the world’s rarest shore birds, facing issues related to real estate, genetics and a pandemic.
Through collaboration and cooperation with tangata whenua, tchakat henu, community groups, and other stakeholders, the DOC-led Shore Plover Recovery Programme aims to turn the tide on this bird’s fate. This ‘Tūturuatu Telegraph’ we talk to Rose Collen about her time as the Shore Plover Captive Management Coordinator as she hands over the reins.
One of our earliest forms of self-expression are the posters we put on our walls. Sure, that puppy-in-soft-focus might be ripped down in teenage angst, replaced with your favourite music idol / movie / heart throb (Luke Skywalker, guilty as charged). But you can’t underestimate the impact of those early posters and their subliminal messages as you drift off to sleep. For a young Rose Collen, that poster, titled ‘Children of Tāne’, depicted forest birds of Aotearoa New Zealand, leading to a fascination with birds on the brink of extinction and the predator-free islands they were protected on.
It is no surprise then, that after leaving Uni, she was drawn towards volunteer work on predator-free islands to support endangered forest birds. This adventure saw her island-hop from Hauraki Gulf islands Tiritiri Matangi and Te Hauturu-o-Toi / Little Barrier, to Mana Island, Whenua Hou and even the Kermadecs, all of which have been captured beautifully through the lens of her camera. Asked what she enjoyed about this island work, Rose replies, “It’s hard to explain, but when you get off the boat you leave the ordinary world behind, knowing that you have this finite landmass in front of you to discover and explore”.
One thing always leads to another, and in 1996 she was offered a job with the Department of Conservation (DOC) in the ‘Bird Team’ at what is now Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre, a captive breeding facility for endangered bird species. This role gave Rose her grounding in captive management by working across a variety of species, including the tūturuatu, which at the time she had never heard of. At this point in the Shore Plover Recovery Programme, the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust (ICWT) had also joined the captive breeding programme and the first releases on to predator-free islands were underway.
As the facilities gained experience in managing tūturuatu, Rose could see the need for a document that could be a repository for their learnings and to set the minimum standards and best practice. So she compiled a Shore Plover Husbandry Manual which detailed everything from egg incubation to how to hand-raise a chick, weed control in aviaries to daily health monitoring. This allowed teams to avoid reinventing the wheel in isolation of the other captive facilities or when a team member moved on, and put their time and energy towards the important mahi. The manual is a living document, added to as more is learnt, and continues to be a vital part of the recovery programme.
This kind of thinking made Rose the obvious choice for the Shore Plover Captive Management Coordinator role in 2014. Essentially, the role coordinates the captive breeding and release programme across the facilities, which now included Cape Sanctuary. But it also includes maintaining the programme’s records of breeding, output, transfers, deaths and necropsy reports; working with geneticists to minimise inbreeding; coordinating research projects such as the avian pox vaccine trial; updating the Recovery Team, and running annual meetings and audits of the facilities.
Asked what a day in the life of the Captive Coordinator looks like, Rose replies it can be quiet for weeks, then suddenly a WhatsApp conversation will erupt prompting a flurry of activity. A team might need advice about pairings that don’t seem to be working out well, requiring the expertise of the geneticists at the University of Canterbury’s School of Biological Sciences. Or a bird might develop an injury, requiring a trip to see Brett Gartrell and his team of wildlife veterinarians at Wildbase Recovery.
The highs for Rose have been seeing the fruits of everyone’s labour when there are stable pairs breeding well, combined with the right release site. This includes the success of Waikawa Island in the Hawke’s Bay, an island that is now almost at capacity with a stable population. The lows included seeing ten years’ worth of hard work disappear with incursions of a single rat, a fate that occurred on both Waikawa and Mana Islands. It took another ten years to rebuild the population on Waikawa, but the same efforts on Mana were thwarted by a recently established kārearea with a taste for tūturuatu.
As far as the future goes, Rose is incredibly excited about the new aviaries being built at Pūkaha which will improve housing capacity and increase the number of birds for release. Ultimately this requires finding more predator-free islands with suitable tūturuatu habitat, something she will help with as an advisor in the recovery group.
Asked what she loves about tūturuatu, Rose pauses. “I’m trying to think of something that isn’t about how cute they are,” she laughs. “But I guess what amazes me is their adaptability to captivity. Give them the right conditions – fresh clean water to forage in, a safe predator-free environment that mimics their natural habitat, a good diet – and they thrive, producing up to nine chicks a year. Some other bird species are wild to the core and are often looking for ways to escape captivity. In contrast, some tūturuatu we have released into the wild have flown all the way back to their captive breeding facility and asked to be let back inside. They’re lovely to work with and hard-working little dudes!”
The role is now in the capable hands of the ICWT Wildlife Assistant Manager, Leigh Percasky, whom Rose has worked with for eight years. Asked what he’s looking forward to, he says, “It’s an honour to contribute towards the recovery of tūturuatu. It’s no easy task to follow on from Rose, but I’m looking forward to the challenge! Luckily, she will remain in the recovery group so I can pester her for advice. I’m especially looking forward to being involved in other non-captive parts of the programme, and working more closely with the other captive facilities.”
Of Rose he says, “Rose has made a massive contribution to the Shore Plover Recovery Programme – her perseverance and resilience during some difficult periods over the years is both impressive and inspiring. Tūturuatu are lucky to have Rose fighting on their behalf and are much better off as a result!”
With some more free time on her hands, Rose is looking forward to a holiday then getting back to more fieldwork, starting in Fiordland with mohua / yellowhead. After that, hopefully some monitoring on an island or two. After a long stint having done so much to improve the outcomes of our favourite shorebird, Rose is coming full circle back to the children of Tāne and island life, camera in hand. On behalf of the Shore Plover Recovery Team and our partners, thank you for your incredible mahi Rose.
