Endangered blue ducks released into the wild +Photos

Andy Glaser hands a whio to Korbyn Garland, nine, as his 12-year-old sister Chloe watches. Photo/Bevan Conley

Part of work to protect the native species

Twelve children held tight to 12 growling, whistling, struggling young ducks before releasing them into the Manganui O Te Ao River on Thursday.

"If it poops on you, it's good luck," the first child to grasp a duck was told.

The 12 whio (blue ducks) were released at the Ruatiti Domain around noon. That stretch of the Manganui O Te Ao used to have about 12 pairs of ducks but there have been none recently and no one is quite sure why.

The 12 released into the vacant territory were six males and six females. Whio Recovery Group leader Andy Glaser said they were likely to stay together at first, then form pairs and find their own territories.

About 40 people gathered to watch them being set free - a contingent from the Department of Conservation, children from Orautoha and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ngati Rangi schools, and neighbours.

Don Robinson and Rangi Bristol were among those to represent local iwi, and kaumatua Hune Rapana blessed the ducks and gave a karakia.

Also present was "whio master" Rufus Bristol, who spent years of his life in the valley looking after the birds. He lost his job last year in the DoC restructure, but said he was still keeping an eye on the endangered native ducks.

Mr Glaser said work to protect whio in the area involved DoC, Horizons Regional Council, iwi and landowners. Genesis has provided $2.5 million funding over the past three years.

"This place is one of the places I talk about around the country. It's a fantastic programme and there's nowhere else like it," he said.

There are less than 3000 whio left in New Zealand, and they need clean, swift flowing rivers to live on.

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"They are a national icon. If you don't have a whio in your river you don't have a complete river," Mr Glaser said.

The Manganui O Te Ao is one of eight security sites for whio nationwide. Thirty-three whio were released this year, at three of the sites.

Those set free at the Ruatiti Domain were raised in captivity from eggs taken in the area. The female ducks would then have gone on to lay another clutch of eggs.

Raising them in captivity is needed, because 91 per cent of ducklings die in the wild, killed by stoats, cats and dogs or swept away by floods. Floods also strip rivers of the water insects they eat, and drive them into tributaries where they are more vulnerable to predators.

Mr Glaser told the children how the rubbery flanges on their beaks help them scrape caddis and mayfly larvae off rocks, and how their webbed feet can fold, enabling them to paddle both backward and forward.

Male whio have a whistling call, and the females growl.

The ducks released on Thursday were raised in captivity at Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in the Wairarapa and Orana Wildlife Park and Peacock Springs Wildlife Park near Christchurch. They had a chance to get used to rushing water at Peacock Springs.