Another kiwi lost to dogs at Waitangi

Signs have been erected at the Kerikeri Inlet Rd entrances to Waitangi Forest calling for information about a kiwi-killing dog. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A senior DoC ranger is again urging dog owners to keep their pets out of Waitangi Forest after a kiwi was fatally mauled, not far from where a spate of kiwi killings occurred two years ago.

Signs have been placed at the Kerikeri Inlet Rd entrances to the forest calling for information about the attack.

The adult female was found by a cyclist just inside a forest gate opposite Sommerfields. Staff from Northland Forest Managers retrieved the bird, a Massey University vet confirming dog bites as the cause of death.

Dog DNA found on the bird has been added to a database established by the Department of Conservation in 2015, when at least eight kiwi were killed on nearby Wharau Road.

DoC ranger Adrian Walker urged people to keep their pets out of Waitangi Forest, which had the highest kiwi density of any plantation forest in the country. The birds were vulnerable to dogs being walked in the forest or allowed to wander, he said.

The forest had been the site of major predation events in the past, most notably in 1987, when a dumped dog was thought to have killed hundreds of kiwi over a six-week period, but numbers had bounced back since then, helped by pest control work carried out by hapu-led community group Iwi Kiwi and Northland Forest Managers.

The 2200ha Waitangi State Forest and the adjoining 570ha Waitangi Endowment Forest were a model of how plantation forestry and kiwi could coexist, Mr Walker said.

On September 1 an adult male kiwi was attacked by a dog as it was being walked along a road at Kaeo. The bird was still alive when it was taken to the DoC office in Kerikeri, but was so badly injured that it was euthanased.

A possum hunter was spoken to by DoC this month after a leg-hold trap left on the ground caught a kiwi near Russell, and a bird was run over at Dove's Bay, near Kerikeri. It survived, and is being cared for at the Whangarei Bird Recovery Centre. It was one of 70 kiwi hit by cars in the Dove's Bay/Rangitane area since 2000, Mr Walker said.

* If you have information about the Waitangi Forest kiwi death, or see a dog in the forest, call DoC on (09) 407-0300 or Northland Forest Managers on (09) 407-7115. After hours call the DoC hotline (0800 DOC HOT).

Dogs are not permitted in the forest without a permit.