Zealandia Eco-sanctuary Update

Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne is an eco-sanctuary in Wellington, New Zealand that’s 225 hectares of fenced, pest free land (though mice do live inside the fence). Here we have North Island kākā, with a population that was established from four releases of fourteen parent-raised, captive birds between 2002 and 2007 (Aug/Sept 2002, 6 birds; Nov 2003, 3 birds; Mar 2004, 2 birds; Nov 2007, 3 birds). Two of the founder birds have been lost from the population within one year of release one dispersed and other evidence shows a small number of birds naturally mixing between Zealandia, Kāpiti Island and Pukaha/Mt Bruce. It is known that some of these birds established in the breeding population at their chosen site.

In Zealandia we have seen natural cavity nesting from kākā, and we also provide man-made nest boxes for them to breed. These have proven successful, having banded over 1200+ birds onsite.

Since release, the kākā population in the sanctuary has been growing and folks living around the city don’t even need to come into Zealandia to see the birds anymore, because they are often seen flying over suburbs or heard waking up the neighbourhood at early hours of the morning with their loud calls. A lot of the time, you can get a better view of kākā inside the sanctuary and cheek out their cheeky, playful behaviors at the feeding stations where we feed them your pellets! 9 times out of 10 when walking past a feeder there will be visitors gawking at and taking beautiful photos of the kākā, so your food has created an awesome opportunity to feel that special connection with a very amazing manu/bird. Thank you! As you can see, we can’t leave the kākā pellet containers out without the cheeky birds trying to get into them.