Northland's keen duck hunter who helped saved NZ's brown teal from extinction

Ruawai fire chief and conservationist, Kevin Evans, has committed 24 years to the captive breeding programme to halt the extinction of brown teal in New Zealand. Photo / supplied

The Ruawai fire chief - admittedly a keen duck hunter - isn't quite sure why his 12-year-old self took to the conservation of brown teal like a duck to water.

But Kevin Evans' lifelong allegiance to save the country's rarest waterfowl species from extinction saw him become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year's Honours for 2022.

"God knows why this little duck has become a passion," the volunteer firefighter of 28 years said.

"I always wanted to help conservation and give back...It's a bit like being a firefighter. At the end of the day you join the fire service for whatever reason and it gets in your blood and really just becomes part of who you are and what you do."

The 47-year-old gave a short laugh when the Advocate asked if people were surprised to learn that the frankly spoken, keen duck hunter was a devout conservationist for the species.

"How I got involved in brown teal was basically I've always been a keen duck hunter and have always bred birds – parrots, budgies, pheasants, ducks, everything else – over the years.

"When I was 12 the parents took my sister and I for a trip around the North Island. We called into the Mount Bruce wildlife centre, the national wildlife centre at the time...we saw these little brown ducks and dad and I were fascinated about what they were. We'd never seen them before."

Conservationist Glenys Hansen worked there at the time and told Evans all about brown teal and the captive breeding programmes focused on their survival.

"Learning about them being at risk and getting all of the information from Glenys, she was fantastic/ It inspired me to think one day I'm going to get involved in this conservation programme..."

Pāteke (brown teal) were listed as "Nationally Endangered" until 2008 when the conservation status was changed to "Recovering". Photo / NZME

And 10 years later Evans joined the captive breed-for-release programme.

"The ironic thing is our beach house was in Ohawini Bay in Whangaruru, which is one of the key strongholds for brown teal."

Evans's conservation efforts extend beyond his role of 24 years - and counting - as a brown teal captive breeding programme co-ordinator. He served five years as a Fish and Game councillor and 13 years on the conservation board, where he was chair for five.

"Little did I know it would turn into a full-on role, which then encompassed my life and took up all my annual leave.

"It turned into something way, way more than but has been way, way more rewarding," he said.

When you learn how much Evans appreciates the brown teal's "tenacious" and "immense character" – all traits he himself possesses - it starts to make sense why he's committed more than a day a week for 24 years to save them.

"I do around 600 hours a year for brown teal, on top of the fire service...how I lucked out with brown teal, being a little small duck with immense character. They're quite amazing. Not a gregarious flocking bird, like mallards.

"And I can say, hey if I died tomorrow I've actually been an instrumental part of stopping a species from becoming extinct, and a part of bringing them back."

Evans said the population of teal had been considered stable even though their existence had been reduced back to the mid-80s levels.

"They went from being common species, non-threatened, to nationally endangered overnight in 1999.

"It was predicted that the species was going to be extinct on the mainland in 2012, and by 2014 on Great Barrier Island. That was the real motivation to turn things around."

Fortunately, technology evolved and a slight shift in conservation funding priorities helped the brown teal repel extinction.

Evans said between 1968 and 2000 only around 1700 brown teal were released into the wild.

"At that stage in time, releases weren't something that were common and technology was very limited."

Kevin Evans releases brown teal back into the wild as part of the captive breeding programme. Photo / supplied

Of the 10 to 12 birds released yearly from 1997 to 1999, only one or two were fitted with transmitters "because we had a very small budget," Evans said.

However, around $300k from the Biodiversity Condition Fund "made a huge difference" to the fate of brown teal as they could increase the number of transmitters used and trap predators in the wild.

Between 150 to 200 captive-bred brown teal are released into the wild each year. More than 2600 brown teal were released in the past 24 years into eight sites nationwide.

Sixteen captive breeding facilities across the country produce the teal for releases. Evans said without them, it wouldn't have been possible to halt the extinction of brown teal.

"Hand on heart, we average about 70 per cent survival of our released birds a year after they're put into the wild, which is pretty phenomenal."

The highly successful programme in 2014 meant brown teal exited the nationally endangered list and is now considered "at-risk - recovering", said Evans, who commits much of his annual leave to preparing the birds for releases in Christchurch.

The evolution of predator trapping from "throw a few traps out and pray" to it becoming a "real science" has also made a crucial difference to brown teal.

"Now you get sightings of teal all the way along the Ngunguru estuary, Tutukākā, Matapōuri, and up to Whananaki."

However, despite the successes, Evans says the programme is "still miles away" from the recovery target of 10,000 birds in the wild.

There's a lot more work ahead, he said.