birding-aus

Kakapos

To: Kim Sterelny <>
Subject: Kakapos
From: John Penhallurick <>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 12:30:30 +1100
Kim has a good point, and I should have realised from the fact that one of
the females last bred in 1981 that it is very hard to distinguish breeders
from non-breeders.  But I hope that maybe in 10 years time, the population
might have increased to the point where my suggestion might be able to be
put into practice.
John
>Dear John
>
>One problem with this suggestion is that DoC do not know which are 
>the non-breeders. In the last successful breeding round (if I 
>remember right) two of the birds that bred are ones that had tried 
>and failed before, and one who had never shown any interest before. 
>It seems that some birds can go very long periods without making a 
>breeding attempt, let alone success, and then successfully breed. 
>Given the tiny numbers of living kakapo, you cannot take the risk. 
>That is especially true since the breeding system includes some of 
>the elements of a lekking system; the presence of other animals, even 
>if they are not breeding, is quite likely part of the social stimulus 
>that leads others (especially males) to "boom" - to undergo the 
>physiological changes preparatory to breeding.
>
>So your only chance is to spend time not money: DoC from time to time 
>call for volunteer nest guards to go to Codfish and spend a couple of 
>weeks guarding nests. But since (I gather) rats have been 
>exterminated on Codfish maybe this is no longer an option. if so, I 
>have bloody well blown it too, as I have always planned to tick my 
>kakapo that way.
>
>Greetings and bad luck
>Kim
>
>Until April 2002 visting at
>
>Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
>101-40
>California Institute of Technology
>Pasadena, California 91125
>USA
>
>phone: 626-3953608
>Birding-Aus is on the Web at
>www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
>To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
>"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
>to 
>
>
>
John Penhallurick
Associate Professor John M. Penhallurick<>
Canberra, Australia
Phone BH( 61 2) 6201 2346   AH (61 2) 62585428
FAX (61 2) 6258 0426        Mobile 0408 585 428
Snail Mail  Division of Communication and Education,
            University of Canberra,A.C.T.2601, AUSTRALIA 

OR (Private) PO Box 3469, BMDC, BELCONNEN, ACT 2617, AUSTRALIA

"I'd rather be birding!" 
"Vivat,crescat,floreat Ornithologia" Hartert,Vog.pal.Fauna,p.2016.

Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Kakapos, John Penhallurick
    • Kakapos, Kim Sterelny
    • Message not available
      • Kakapos, John Penhallurick <=
    • Kakapos, Bob Forsyth
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU