Kākā

Kākā conservation

Flocks of boisterous kākā gather early morning and late evening to socialise – their amusing antics and raucous voice led Māori to refer to them as chattering and gossiping.

When Europeans first arrived in New Zealand, they found kākā in abundance throughout the forests of both islands, but by 1930 the birds were localised to a few areas.

Today, they are still reasonably common in the Whirinaki and Pureora Forest Parks, the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project area, along the Milford Track, and in the Eglinton Valley in Fiordland National Park where there is effective predator control. Where there is no pest control, numbers are thought to be declining. Many large forested areas are almost empty of kākā.

The North Island kākā, nevertheless, can be found in good numbers on some offshore islands, especially Tiritiri Matangi, Aotea/Great Barrier Island, Kapiti Island and, increasingly, within Wellington city.

The South Island sub-species is still widespread, becoming progressively more common from Nelson (where it is relatively rare) down the West Coast to Fiordland. South Island kākā are also found around Halfmoon Bay (Stewart Island), Ulva Island and on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island.

The extinct Chatham islands kākā was only discovered in 2014, identified by DNA analysis of fossilised bones.

Threats

Kākā require large tracts of forest to survive. Habitat loss from forest clearance for agriculture and logging have had a devastating effect.

Browsing by introduced pests such as possums, deer and pigs has reduced the abundance of food. Possums also eat the same kind of food as kākā, most significantly, high energy food types such as endemic mistletoe and rātā.

Introduced wasps compete with kākā for the shimmering honeydew (excreted by scale insects) which forms on the barks of beech trees. Both the mistletoe and honeydew supply sugary food which is an important part of the bird’s diet, and may be essential for it to breed in some beech forests.

Having evolved in the absence of mammalian predators, kākā have many characteristics that make them easy prey. Kākā nest deep in hollow trees, where there is no escape if they are cornered by predators such as stoats, rats and possums (which eat chicks and eggs). Young birds often leave the nest before they can fly, making them vulnerable to predators. Nesting females are the most vulnerable to stoat attacks, resulting in populations with severely skewed male/female sex ratios.

National recovery project

DOC and community partners have established several projects to promote kākā recovery. Many of these are community-based initiatives which use predator proof fencing and trapping to protect kākā from predators. Successful examples and places to see kākā include:

• Tāwharanui Regional Park, Auckland
• Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre, Wairarapa
• Zealandia, Wellington
• Project Janszoon, Abel Tasman National Park
• Orokonui Ecosanctuary, Dunedin

Call of the wild

In 1996, nine juvenile kākā were released into the Pūkaha Mount Bruce forest, in eastern Wairarapa, from where the species had been absent for nearly 50 years. They were a combination of hand-reared birds from the Pūkaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre and wild ones from Kapiti Island, near Wellington.

This was the first time captive-bred kākā had been released into the wild and the first relocation of wild kākā. The kākā project is part of pioneering species management work at the centre and has led to other successful releases at Zealandia and Orokonui.

The South Island kākā Captive Management Plan's goal is to support South Island ecosystem restoration projects, by providing captive-bred South Island kākā for release into the wild to establish viable self-sustaining populations. Read the South Island Kākā Captive Management Plan 2010–2020 (PDF, 145K).

To support this programme, practitioners and veterinary experts have come together and produced a kākā Husbandry Manual. This has been approved by DOC and will be used to establish standards and seek improvements for the care of captive kākā. Read the Kākā Husbandry Manual 2021.

In 2015 Project Janszoon and DOC began releasing kākā into Abel Tasman National Park. With the help of volunteers, the partnership plans to release and monitor up to 100 kākā in the future. At the time a few wild male kākā were believed to still be present in the area, but the females were typically killed by predators while on the nest. 

These kākā are intensively monitored and in 2019 at least three of the released birds mated with wild males, producing kākā chicks which successfully fledged in the Abel Tasman.

The population had another boost in spring 2019 when 24 kākā were released at Bark Bay/Wairima on the Abel Tasman Coast. Some of these birds were taken as eggs or chicks from wild nests in Nelson Lakes or Kahurangi National Park and hand raised in captivity.

Kākā is at risk from a predator plague caused by high levels of seed production ('mast' events). The National Predator Control Programme protects kākā and other native species from predators. As kākā are highly mobile, it is hoped that they will gradually recolonise areas of their former range wherever predators can be effectively controlled.

You can help

• Visit the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre
• Watch the Bandits of the Beech Forest (wasps vs kaka) documentary