What happened to the riflemen near Kaikōura?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-11-16 03:00

New Zealand

PHOTO: Christopher Stephens - https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/112601837, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109891725

Efforts to protect birds usually focus on the most endangered species, but more common birds like the tītipounamu have also declined in number in recent decades. NZ and overseas researchers were curious to study NZ’s smallest bird at a field site near Kaikōura that’s traditionally known to be a reliable place to spot them, but whose population has declined to a “critically low level” in the past decade. Over the course of six breeding seasons, they most notably found that only 18% of juveniles on average were spotted as adults during the next studied season. The team says increased predator risk may be one explanation behind the low rates, but more research is needed.

Media release

From:

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Journal of Ecology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Canterbury, University of Sheffield, UK; Broome Bird Observatory, Australia

Funder: Data collection for this study was funded by Natural Environment Research Council studentships to SAJP and NK, and NK was supported by a Royal Society Marsden Fund postdoctoral position while preparing this manuscript.

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