Proposed translocations of riflemen

[Dave Houston]

According to Brent Beaven the following is a list of riflemen translocations that are proposed or being thought about:

• To Ark in the Park from Little Barrier.  Still in early planning stage, no proposal or set date (Contact = Mark Hauber).
• To Tiritirimatangi Island from Little Barrier Island.  Transfer proposal submitted to DOC.  Planned for March/April 2009.  (Contact = Mark Hauber)
• To Dancing Star Foundation Preserve from Ulva Island.  Planned for August 2008, with follow-up in Feb 2009 (Contact = Kari Beaven)
• To Ackers Point, Stewart Island from Ulva Island. Planned for August 2008, with follow-up in Feb 2009 (Contact = Kari Beaven)

[Rhys Burns]

Translocation of riflemen has taken place recently (February 2008) from Boundary Stream, a DOC Mainland Island in Hawke's Bay to Cape Kidnapper's, a recently predator-proof fenced peninsula.

This was undertaken by Tamsin Ward-Smith with input from a variety of other people. It appears to have been a very successful translocation - a large improvement over initial translocations. This may be due to minimising the time from capture to release - a few hours at most, and not held overnight.

Here are Tamsin's comments a few days post-release:
"We have now finished catching with a total of 37 birds caught (about a 2:1 ratio of males to females).  One bird has since been found dead; he appeared to have lost his tail (not that they have much of a tail) during transit and although was lively on release just couldn’t fly.  All the others survived the transfer which is an excellent result given their very stressy nature. 
"We are very grateful to Andy Lowe for use of the helicopter to fly the first 20 birds – the quick journey certainly appeared to make a difference to their behaviour when released compared to those that endured the two hour bump down the road".

[Jonathan Miles]

Hello all, I am interested in electronic copies of translocation applications for Tamsins application to the Cape, and Brent your stuff down South. Mainly interested in the Methods, Monitoring, and Disease Sections.

Assistance soon would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Jonathan

[Peter Gaze]

  All very interesting.  I look forward to reading the detailed proposals and transfer reports on the Translocation database