Curious Minds: Ngā motu Whānui Manumoana to help monitor seabird population

The Nga motu (Sugar Loaf) Islands. Photo/ Supplied

New methods of monitoring seabird populations on the Ngā Motu (Sugar Loaf) Islands will be discovered due to a new project.

Ngā Motu Whānui Manumoana is one of six recently announced Curious Minds projects.
The Curious Minds initiative is led by Venture Taranaki and funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Ngā Motu Whānui Manumoana is a collaboration between the Taranaki Mounga Project, Te Papa Atawhai, Ngā Mahanga, Ngāti Tāiri, Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa Trust, Te Kahui o Taranaki, Te Ara Taiao, and the Department of Conservation.

Taranaki Mounga project manager Sera Gibson says the motu is an important habitat for 19 species of seabird with around 10,000 birds thought to nest on the islands.

She says the new project is a flow-on from a previous project.

"For the previous project, we monitored the bird song on the islands and now we are moving on from that and counting the number of species of birds and the number of birds of each species."

Sera says the birds have previously been counted manually which is challenging for the counters and disruptive to the birds.

"We will change the way we monitor them by using drones to count birds, including at night with thermal imaging cameras."

She says the aim is to get accurate counts of bird populations with minimal human interaction.

A group of coastal Taranaki schools and hapū are also involved.

"They will be involved in the whole process, including the planning and the monitoring. It's a cool educational opportunity."

Sera says as well as finding a better way to monitor the birds, the project will also help the Taranaki Mounga project benchmark its pest control efforts.

"A lot of the science will help validate the predator-free status of these islands."