Mysterious Barrier duck deaths another blow for DoC

By ANNE BESTON

The deaths of nine critically endangered native ducks remain a mystery, despite efforts by a special dog and handler team to track the killer.

The Department of Conservation raised the alarm late last week after a weasel or stoat was suspected of killing nine of Great Barrier Island's brown teal, despite the island traditionally having no mustelids or possums.

But after two days of searching, with extra traps and a dog specially trained to track mustelids, no sign of an invader has been found.

Great Barrier-based DoC officer Jim Flack said a lack of suitable food, with drier-than-usual pasture making it difficult for the brown teal to forage for insects and worms, may have made them more vulnerable to attack by other predators, including cats.



Brown teal conservation has been a long and difficult battle for the department with each population recovery followed by another setback.

At last count there were 300-350 birds at Okiwi, up from a low of 210 in 2000.

Other populations are established in Northland and at Moehau, at the far northern end of the Coromandel Peninsula, with a few smaller populations on other off-shore islands.

The ducks are regularly run over by vehicles on Great Barrier and pukeko kill ducklings.

More than 1700 pukeko have been culled at Okiwi by DoC over the past two years.