Feral activists are worse than pest 1080 fights

Just came back from the Poulter where there had been a 1080 drop in August. Plenty of birdsong heard while we were there, including Kakariki karaka chattering and we saw a ton of wee birdies flitting about and hanging around when we took breaks.

That's certainly consistent with my views, but unfortunately at face value it's just an anecdote. One of the key elements of 1080 arguments, especially on the anti-1080 side, is that people are intensely convinced that what they're seeing is true. Visit any anti-1080 group (eg "1080 eyewitness." on Facebook) and there are ongoing reports from various people who are absolutely certain that the forest they've entered is dead quiet after a drop. Maybe it is, too, or not, but the anecdotal nature of the claims makes it impossible to judge in any verifiable way firstly if the perception of silence was correct and secondly if 1080 has anything and/or everything to do with it. All hail scientific measurement! Unless it contradicts your own strongly held beliefs, in which case it wasn't really scientific and was carried out by paid shills of an untrustworthy government. http://i.imgur.com/knVc0Tu.png (From https://www.facebook.com/groups/1080.eyewitness/permalink/1798961027029222/?comment_id=1798967563695235&reply_comment_id=1799169937008331¬if_t=group_comment_reply¬if_id=1477373245583891 -- membership possibly required.)

There was an interesting talk given by scientist Graeme Elliot in the run up to this years Battle for the Birds programme - he had a sort of travelling roadshow round all the communities near the drop areas. In it he discussed the research for the effect on the main bird species in the drop zones. From my recollection - Kea certainly came out worst of all the bird species - mainly due to slow reproduction rates and inquisitive nature meaning they're more likely to investigate bait and slower to take advantage of better nesting success in the window of low nest predation after an operation. The key point he made was that if you run the study in area where kea are used to humans and used to scavenging around developed sites then kea deaths could be high enough to result in net population decline. But in backcountry areas where kea had little interaction with humans and had not learnt to scavenge then deaths were very low. Or that's my recollection of his message, anyway.

That's consistent with something I once heard from Kevin Hackwell of F&B (only hearsay in the context of this thread!). It's the Kea that have most interaction with humans that are most at risk. It's all the more reason to not go out of your way to feed kea.

How do you go out of your way to feed kea? If they want your food they will do whatever they feel necessary to get it. Was at Porters ski field and the keas there would be sitting on your shoulders trying to get your sandwich. And yes they bite if you shoe them away

Yes. I was more thinking of this type of advice: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/9134443/Pesky-kea-shifted-to-new-hilltop-home 'He said kea were "New Zealand's bears" and once they sniffed out any sort of reward, such as food scraps in an unsecured outdoor rubbish bin, it was hard to get them to leave. "It's always very tempting to feed kea, especially if you've got kids. You may say ‘just this once' but that once may be once too often."' Once a kea's been fed by someone, it'll remember.

Keas in places where they know people are productive pickings are a very different bird to those you see in the wild. A kea in the backcountry will keep a healthy distance until it sees something it wants and then will try to get it with stealth. The keas at Porters were noisier and more obnoxious than a bus load of school kids at a fizzy drink taste off. When we got there they were playing with a tennis ball but it broke so they found someones gym shoe. That was fully dissected in 10 minutes. But lunch time they were on the tables while others were trying to distract you so they could obtain by deception. Keep the lid on your lunch box and the clips done up. There was a group of asian school kids there and they were quite frightened by the keas. Of course keas thought this was fun and made full advantage of it

Oh yes, some more anecdotal evidence from our Poulter trip. It was quite exciting to hear a kaka but I was relieved not to hear any kea!

Good interview / writeup on the subject of why we never seem to be able to win this debate (or even have a reasoned debate): http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/201821216/1080-and-science-denial-an-our-changing-world-summit

@Izogi There are Kea around Haast, you just have to get off your derrière, leave your shop selling possum fur clothing and possum fur gloves and Graf brothers hunting DVDs, and get up onto the mountains around Haast to see them. http://www.southernalpsphotography.com/Tramping/Haast-Pass-to-Mt-Cook/Mataketake-Range/i-MM34cTX/A Applying the logic of typical anti's Fiordland should be crawling with Kea as, other then the northern corner along the Milford Road, around the Waiau River, and right at the bottom around the Waitutu River, it hasn't been 1080ed. Kea are in decline everywhere, correlation is not causation.