On the contrary I think it is irresponsible to do it as a private initiative. From a genetics and disease point of view.
Yes I agree......
There uis no way that the wild stock from the barriier can be garrenteed as pure breed, there is no way any wild stock in NZ can be garanteed as not hybrid.....there have been too many hybdids illegally released over the last 100 yrs..on the other hand over several generations the purity can get to very high levels that are of acceptable , and more than likely higher than what is already in the wild.....
This is where in my submissions, any hybrids in captivity should be destoried, not grandfathered out.
Disease, a you are awhere 12 of our birds where genetically cleared, sutiable for surrogate parents for the orange captive breeding program....and are also in many of NZ zoos.
And if disease was such a huge issue why are release programs of pheasant and game not also included?
The 80% is a speling error, cant read whayt is being typed....meant to be 50% which was reported in a news item sometime back, cant find the reference.
There are several issues,
1/Your program has been a huge move forward after yrs of beuroctatic delay and hassles, and very positive results...breedersoverseas have a huge experiance in mass production of kakariki, and these methods as far as I can establish have never been used or researched as far as reintroduction goes
2/That Anywhere else in the world, and it is estimated that there are more kakariki in capitivity in the rest of the world than NZ, they can be kept as pets, which cant be done in NZ since the 1980s...yet our children, schools cannot do so in NZ.
3/Even if reintroduction using captive stock was limited to city bush researvers, parks, and if they do not reproduce due to nesting places,(unlikely), and there is a high attrition rate, kakariki are a very adaptive bird, (yor own research)and they do live for many yrs anything from 12 to 20 odd yrs ...There is still a good chance they will establish themselve in NZ backyards, as do fantails, tui, wood pidin, kingfisher, white eye.
Surely the over aim of reintroduction of species is to eventually to have them back in our backyards as they do in other countries..and to do so means a lager scale than relocation of a species to isolated every few months.
You say monitoring is very expensive...what is the the purpose of research, to gain information on the species..what is the ulimate purpose of conservation, reintroduction...the reestablishment of the species or the reseach? If releases of captive species into towns was able to take place, this is a great opportunty for students, 5 /10 yrs down the line to then study.
