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Topic/Objective	Author
Annual report Northland Pateke/Brown Teal Recovery Programme May 2002-April 2003. Whangarei Area Office, Department of Conservation	Emma Neill
Annual Report 2002-2003, Pateke � Brown Teal, Great Barrier Island, Auckland Conservancy, May 2003 DRAFT	Michelle Howard Halema Jamieson
Update for Recovery group Meeting 2003. Wingfat analysis, gut morphology, diet analysis. Ecology Group, Massey University, Palmerston North	Sue Moore
Brown teal recovery group meeting minutes 2002. Unpublished report. DOC, Biodiversity Recovery Unit, Wellington	Alison Davis Shaun O�Connor
Email request for recommended direction for pateke programme on Kapiti Island	Greg Moorcroft

Present

Date:	17^th -18^th June 2003
Location:	Quality Hotel, 9 Riverside Drive, WHANGAREI
Prepared by:	Jenn Falconer and Shaun O�Connor
Chair:	Shaun O�Connor
Scribe:	Jenn Falconer
Present:
Name	Location	Name		Location
Ray Pierce	Brown Teal Science Co-ordinator, Wildland Consultants, Whangarei	Richard Maloney		Kaki Recovery Programme Scientist, DOC Twizel
Emma Neill	Brown Teal Project Leader, Mimiwhangata	Nigel Miller		Brown Teal Technical Specialist, DOC Whangarei
Kevin Evans	Brown Teal Captive Co-ordinator, Ruawai	Ossie Latham		Ducks Unlimited Auckland
Shaun O�Connor	Brown Teal RGL, BRU	Zara Ngawaka-Walker	Ngati Rehua Trust Board, Aotea
Halema Jamieson	Ranger GBAO	Michelle Howard		Ranger, Brown Teal Monitoring, GBAO
Sue Moore	Massey Univeristy, Palmerston North	Jason Roxburgh		PM Biodiversity DOC HAO
Keith Hawkins	PM Biodiversity, DOC WAO	Tony Beauchamp		CAS, DOC Northland Conservancy
Jenn Falconer	CRO, Wellington	Shirley Jenkins		Pateke breeder Warkworth
John Gardiner	Area Manager DOC WAO	Ian Hogarth (part meeting)		DOC WAO

Expectations from participants

1. Agreed outcomes

2. Clear and agreed direction to follow for next 12 months��

3. Habitat requirements � identify how we meet them

4. Forum to ensure that we share ideas, not necessarily on agenda (generate ideas/brain storming).

5. Honesty for the meeting - particularly when speaking of the past year

6. Ratify progress � are we winning? Identify tangible recovery outcomes

7. Continual improvement of methods of operations

8. Work to role - provide high quality technical advice that achieves recovery of the species.

Meeting purpose � to develop technical advice that will achieve pateke recovery

1.� Review progress against recovery objectives (what have we achieved?)

2.� Develop solutions to issues emerged over the past year (what needs fixing/how?)

3.� Identify recommended actions for the year ahead (what/who/when?)

These actions will be included in a workplan in the meeting minutes (identify prioritised actions/accountability for coming year)

Minutes � Tuesday 17 June

Theme 1: � Outcomes at DOC intensive management sites (Okiwi/Mimiwhangata)

Topic 1: Pateke response to management against targets/key parameters - are we winning?

Ray Pierce � rationale

� Current phase is maximum practical management of key likely predators. Management of core predators to low levels. Four groups of core predators � mustelids, cats, dogs and pukeko. Objective is to take out all 4 and measure responses. First 3 impact most life stages, pukeko at egg and duckling stage. Some rats, kahu, hedgehogs, and possums have been taken out as by-catch.

� Next phase is refine management prescription - if consistent positive pateke response, consider dropping one or more target predator species from management and compare pateke response with that during maximum management.

Monitoring Pateke Response to management

Parameter	Management target	Performance target/site
Trend counts	establish inter-year trends	4 counts/annum
adult survival	80% annual survival	35 adults
Hatching success	determine success	20 nests
duckling survival	determine survival	30 ducklings
Juvenile survival and recruitment	determine survival	20
Individual cause of death of adults and juveniles	determine agents of decline	COD established for 50% of deceased sample
Dispersal	establish pattern	70% of dispersed or missing birds relocated.

� Abundance trend (flock counts) � include slides from Ray regarding trend counts. Each years response contingent on two years of counting. Suspect in one or two years birds have been missed or scattered. Unless doing several counts over a targeted period.

Emma: Mimiwhangata: Annual Report for Northland Pateke Project, May 2002-April 2003 (predator data results provisional, i.e. Tables 2 and 3) (hamro-79534) (hamro-79611)

1. Trend counts: (Annual report page 8.) Counts are done in Mimiwhangata park and nearby nearly every week.

2. Survival: adult 87% (Mimiwhangata), duckling 35% (egg membranes counted), juvenile and recruitment 43% (small sample to date).

3. Cause of death: 20% identified to primary cause (mustelid/dog)

4. Dispersal: some tx juveniles missing � but haven�t found them � maybe transmitters failed. Optimistic they may be still around or they have gone a long way.

Issue - 10 transmitter failures throughout year from approx. 60 overall, plus 11 harness failures.

� Measurement discrepancy. (Page 9 of report.) Monitoring birds for only part of the year is less accurate. Therefore high figure is more credible because of consistency in monitoring with transmitters.

� Trapping statistics/caught 32 cats, 67 stoats, 48 weasels � no ferrets for the year 1 May 2002 � April 2003. Also 1000 rats, 100 hedgehogs, 22 possums, 26 rabbits � small numbers of kahu, myna and magpie. (Map available of traps sites for Whananaki and Mimiwhangata).

� Is the predator trapping failing or is it an acceptable level of control?

o Caught almost twice as many stoats this year compared to last.

o Looking at survival figures � fledging survival down� duckling up.

o Outcome this year looks reasonable � however predator control cannot be less vigilant.

� Are there opportunities to trap in buffer zones? In Whananaki there is. Need to remain vigilant and ensure we do the best there, as Whananaki provides a partial �buffer� to Mimiwhangata.

� Seem to be more Norway rats compared to last year. Should identify all rats to species � potentially different response from ship rats and Norway rats with possible flow-on impacts - increase in Norway interesting as they could be a problem this coming year. Action - A day with trappers to train in rat ID during trap servicing (Ray)

� In the GBI and Mimi report need to talk about climate and weather correlations.

� More multiple clutching observed in 2002 than other years? Rainfall data is now being collected locally. Rainfall could impact on carrying capacity of birds. Soil type may also be an issue. Weather should be included in habitat monitoring. GBI rat numbers high. Habitat/climate - GBI birds in poorer condition over last season?

� Issue - Discrepancy in outcomes reported between the two management sites. Both had dry winters and springs. Was that important?

� Action � standard reporting template required in monitoring guidelines and peer review by SCO prior to report release to ensure consistency and coverage of all important factors (climate, habitat, etc) (Ray)

Michelle/Halema: GBI - Okiwi; Annual Report, 2002-2003, Pateke � Brown Teal, Great Barrier Island, Auckland Conservancy, May 2003

1. Adult survival: overall 71% (report p. 6).

� Issue - Continued problems with harnesses coming off making monitoring time really short. Also, a number of birds died within a month of having a transmitter installed.

� Possibly putting transmitters on birds that were not in optimum condition.

� Adults had harnesses installed in March and May 2002. Down in weight compared with Mimiwhangata birds. Possibly bad time to catch them?

� No comparative data available about transmitter installation � 6 birds died (when?) out of 30 birds. (1 drowned)

2. Juvenile survival: overall 45%

� No transmitters on juveniles from monitored females. Either no ducklings remaining, transmitters failed, ducklings too small @ November 2002.

� Initially attached 9 transmitters to juveniles from non monitored females - 6 subsequently died, 5 within a month, and the other one 11 weeks later. Cause of death � wingfat analysis from Sue Moore suggests most died of starvation. No fat left in bone marrow. Weak, and maybe harrier predation, but starvation key trend.

� Another 2 juveniles subsequently transmitted (11 total). 5 survived overall to date.

� No results for recruitment � not monitored this season.

3. Productivity

� Six females (of how many?) did not appear to nest. No certainty that they were actually adult birds. i.e. young birds of preceding year may nest until following October.

� Eighteen females, 12 found nesting � 9 hatching at least one duckling. Membrane count suggested that 35 eggs hatched. Only 5 young actually fledged out of the 35, could have been more but the transmitter died on (how many) monitored females so difficult to identify.

� Hatching success = 67% c.f. 37.5% in 2001

� Duckling survival = 15%

� No data collected on dud transmitters (can Halema include some here?). Mostly they wouldn�t stay on � harness failure or in two cases actual casing of transmitters faulty/ gave way.

� Could beeping of the machinery disturbs them? Potentially a sensitive bird. Michelle: 2 nests were abandoned. Was it because of increased monitoring? Once knew where they were monitoring was held back, so unlikely to be because of monitoring?

� Interviewed Friday for a dedicated Pateke monitoring person for next 3 years.

� Transmitter attachment training - kiwi recovery plan has a written system for monitoring training - watch 10, assist with 10 (for fitting transmitters). With pateke a lot of judgement/experience is needed, particularly with juveniles to ascertain growth. Figure of 10 done intensively is good idea. Sign off of new operators should be up to approved trainer � another judgement area.

� We are not finding birds dead from badly fitted transmitters � monitoring problem is more an issue about the design failures (harness/weak-link/casing) of the transmitters.

4. Dispersal

� Juveniles: - (Missed comments. JF � Halema can you add key stats?)

� Adults: (how many/where/what sex??) West side of Hirakimata very dry � all dropped transmitters by damp vegetation. Disappeared round November last year as well. Maybe just a regular seasonal movement. One returned and we replaced the transmitter.

� Flock counts: 3rd week of Feb 615 birds (Okiwi total??). GBI flock counts involves kayaks and 6 staff for half a day to do entire island.

� Weather caused delay of count until end of March. Last opportunity to do it. Numbers down � feeding areas wet, birds had moved from flock sites � only 340 counted (Okiwi second count??).

� Overall trend for Okiwi for 2003 is stable. Other island sites trend was slight increase. Results not completely collated (will be in final report?).

� Suggest that if there were 3 good counts during the flock period, can ditch bad weather one

� Past data reveals only one number/ single count. Ideally mean of 4 counts � this year a mean of 3 for trend count assessment. Average should go up to about 550.

� Better to concentrate on targets using transmitters
Trend count not consistent with other measuring parameters � it�s the coarse measure of abundance over time and better used as �background measure�, whereas the telemetry samples are currently the key measures of effectiveness of the management effort. Juvenile survival sample reasonably encouraging.

� Get survival numbers from report (can Halema add them). Something going wrong around duckling stage. Sue�s research helps prediction of survival.

5. Cause of death/ Predator control

� Cause of death � not definitive, but close probably (sample size). Monitoring/capacity issue. Better system of preserving the birds for autopsy. Frozen, thawed, frozen not good - formalin better or chilled. Ray to include protocol in monitoring guidelines.

� Children found some intact dead ducklings (4-5) at Okiwi.

� Controlling cats and pukekos � monitoring rats, harriers, pukekos and rabbits.

� Pukekos: removing more -110 per month, not making a marked difference � still 6-8 per hectare on during counts, but significantly less than pre-control

� Cats: not many caught in spring � capture rate increase from January onwards � 23 cats last July. Mainly juveniles males and females � less adults. Regime has 81 live capture traps, 70 set 4 nights a week, rest continuously set?? More cats trapped after rain.

� Harriers: could be an average of 20 harriers in the basin. Not unusual where there are a lot of rabbits. They fly over flock sites � have seen them feeding at flock sites. Never seen them feeding on Pateke. Are there Falcons? No.

� Rats: need to start monitoring � need to monitor before consider control. Recommendation from last year � capacity issue � predator control person signed up. Action: implement recommended rat indexing this year ASAP (PM GBI).

� Rabbits: now monitored in the morning - more accurate count than evening. Consistency in monitoring time needs to be maintained for accurate data.

Summary across Mimiwhangata/Gt Barrier

� Message is that we are starting to get some initial return (e.g. adult survival) at managed sites. Management must be at least sustained, but also tweaked to address the poor performance parameters (e.g. duckling survival).

�Parameter	Management target	Performance target	Result for 2002/03
Trend counts	establish inter-year trends	4 counts/annum	Achieved/ rate?
adult survival	80% annual survival	35 adults	GBI � 71% Mimi � 87% +/- 0.14
Hatching success	Determine success	20 nests	GBI � 67% Mimi � 72%
duckling survival	determine survival	30 ducklings	GBI � 15% Mimi � 35% +/- 0.12
Juvenile survival and recruitment	determine survival	20	GBI � 45% (n=11) Mimwh � 43% (n=??)
Individual cause of death of adults and juveniles	determine agents of decline	COD established for 50% of deceased sample	GBI - ?? Mimiwh - ??
Dispersal	establish pattern	70% of dispersed or missing birds relocated.	GBI � ?? Mimi - ??

� Trend (flock) counts � significant increase at Mimiwhangata/Whananaki/Teal Bay; stable at Gt Barrier.

� Adult survival � good at both sites against 80% target

� Hatching success � high at both sites and a significant increase at Okiwi over 2001

� Duckling survival � poor at both sites. Action: Maintain status quo with predator trapping for another year at both sites, except change target figure for pukekos at Okiwi to half what they are now (currently 6-8/ha, aim for 3-4/ha).

� Need to get adult population up as a buffer against low productivity years.

� Starvation issue/habitat. Appears there is serious food shortage in a drought spring.

� Do we have enough adult numbers to sustain another bad year?

� Habitat quality in early 1990s as compared to now, data available? (Need to standardise habitat measurements as per grazing protocol, and try to get qualitative measures of early 1990s � Ray).

Issues discussions

1. Transmitter failure

Harness failures:

� Mimiwhangata lost 11 monitored birds to harness failure in a year. Solutions seemed to work only for a while. The present Sirtrack design doesn�t fall off when it breaks, causing risk to birds. Problem is knot with plastic sleeve + knot gets locked behind it.

� Nigel is suggesting a different design, aka kokako, which only has one join point and if it breaks will fall off � all 4 ends come away. But it will need to be constructed specifically for teal. Action: develop a prototype(s) (Nigel) and organise Sirtrack/independent to make at least 10 of each for trial (Emma/Shaun).

Transmitters:

� Holohil Units: Mortality 12 hours latch, pulse rate faster. Guaranteed 12 month battery life.� Better for bird � lighter and smaller � still under trial. Aerial base connection not secure � modification needed.

� Halema showed examples of Sirtrack transmitters with casing failure, chipped and broken, loose connections.

� Holohil units could be phased in over time if trial is successful.

� Sirtrack has a time since death function � is this not as relevant now? More information lost by failing transmitters than gained by time of death information.

� Does the 400g weight threshold still stand, if not what should it be? Should be a weight divided by body length. Don�t want to establish a weight so high that the transmitter goes only onto healthy birds. Might be that weak lightweight birds die soon after being handled. Be cautious about making weight threshold too high.

2. Starvation

� Sue has found that in general GBI birds in good health. Drought effecting things like clover, stomach contents reveal not usual food.

� Ray: evidence (lowest spring rainfalls at Matapouri to south of Mimiwhanagata and at Port Fitzroy in last 10 years) to say last spring drought was servere and contributed to bad year.

3. Parasite loading

� Deaths in stress time periods � starvation or high parasite loadings?

� Some precautionary management parasite infection may need to take place.

� However Sue suggests that this is not nature of parasites to kill their hosts. Observation of lot of parasites from GBI birds suggests that the real problem might be starvation or some other primary stress.

� Parasites usually opportunistic and ubiquitous � usually only become a problem when immune systems depressed by other primary factor(s). No further action reqired.��

Topic 2: Scale of DOC management/monitoring (when/how to shift)

Is the management prescription giving us the response we want?

� We now have some relatively robust data, in 2 years we may be able to say we expect the population to be at a certain level. Therefore can give indications of what level of monitoring will be required in the future. There are some simple models that can be used to help.

� Improvements to habitat might improve carrying capacity, minor manipulations from work of Murray Williams might provide greater nesting habitat. Difficult to estimate what the carrying capacity of these areas is. Grazing not constant.

� But consensus not to change habitat greatly � no evidence that more birds will settle accordingly, and/or extend management regimes.

� Draft of grazing management plan needs to become a working document. Quantify what is consistent grazing � needs to be built into the grazing lease.

� �We should be re-writing the recovery plan as the guiding document as to what we should be doing in the next 5 or 10 years. With a step-wise approach to the management prescription.

� Monitoring overall has not got to the intensity required to secure data. Two more years before we can change the management prescription with confidence. Then move on (step-wise approach), don�t change process half way through.

� Monitoring can be tweaked when we are confident about present regime.

� Trapping � at some stage (after species secured) we need to reduce effort, and monitor response against that.

� Need a strategy beyond DOC�s level of management effort and resourcing when we are at the point of having secured the species against extinction and making the transition into broader-scale recovery effort. Outline strategy in the recovery plan.

Topic 3: Specific monitoring/management issues

1. Grazing

� Long grass issue has been managed now � matter of working with whoever gets grazing lease. �Long� is judged presently by monitors� eye.� Need a consistent background to compliment predator control.

� Optimum pasture � write into lease recipe for sward length and percentage.

� Consistency is that grazing regime has been inconsistent.�

� Increased pressure from graziers to meet their needs or pay them for meeting ours.

� Mimiwhangata lease coming up for renewal. Farmer advises us as to what we can expect and we factor in the needs for pateke. Problem we don�t have a farmer on site. Day to day getting stock into areas we want can occur, but at cost.

� Write into lease that animal health and care � good husbandry.

� We have the right to increase the number of stock � even to the point of getting in another grazier to meet shortfalls. We also have the right to reduce the amount of stock to meet required levels. Depending on weather conditions, predictions can be made.

2. Grazing and pakete in natural habitat

� Do we know what it is?

� Essentially, full recovery is about establishing them into their historical habitat � e.g. Okarito.� The classic quote - �duck walked through wet forest with its bill open and got a feed�. However Okarito isn�t the pristine environment it was pre-history. Pragmatically speaking, we can�t realistically emulate/ recover the pre-history food biomass in wet forest/ swamp-land habitat. The suggested (Worthy/Holdaway) rates of seabird fertilising of these systems pre-history are huge.

� We have identified primary feeding sites.

� Provide sensible approximates for grazier. Need it for key areas.

� Advice provided last year. Implement Nigel�s draft grazing report.� Tabled last year.

� Fertilising, fencing and water advice needs to be included in Nigel�s SOP or farm management plan for teal�s benefit

� Currently there is a plan to put fencing in, we don�t have resources to do this.

� Trend in health of farm going down based on resources we are putting into it. This is over and above teal requirements.

� Fertilising is also an issue. Lime is fine - super phosphate not. Applying fertiliser might interfere with present regime of monitoring.

3. Flock counts: time frames linked to tidal cycles

� Maybe start count in preceding tidal cycle (10 days earlier) on GBI. Other option is to drop one of the counts.

� GBI counts occur at low tide, as opposed to high tide for Mimiwhangata.

� Different tidal descriptions for each site on GBI. Might have to consider looking at individual site variability.

� Need to use present prescribed regime in order to get consistent trend.

4. Using plumage characters to add value to trend counts

� Mimiwhangata most likely site to conduct research in flocks. Ray has approached Northland Polytechnic about this. Start late spring/early summer working through to the autumn � might need $2000 for this priority monitoring.

� Could use large data set already available to assist this before hand. Richard to talk to Phil Seddon, Otago University, about collation and interpretation of data.

5. Duckling predators

� Pukeko control maintained or intensified? Maintain at Mimi, intensify at Okiwi

� Cat traps: analyse data as to which traps catch the most cats.

� Need to determine how many transmitted birds were killed by cats.

� More likely they were killed by harrier. Poor condition of duck makes them easy to catch.

� Increased risk by allowing rabbit numbers to increase � more harriers. May have to consider targeting harriers as well. But it would have to be a decision to get all the harriers � because pf the territorial nature of harriers.

� Farm management issue � lamb docking, cut off rather than rings � tails no longer around to attract harriers.

6. Trapping SOP - fenns and modified Coney Bear

� Best Practice often needs to be programme-specific and our approach needs to be consistent, so status quo maintained.

� Freeze dried/fresh bait experiment at Whananaki � freeze dried considerably better. Employ the baiting regime that is most effective. Freeze dried bait expensive.

� Applied for funding from STAG for a trial on site as been made, follow up required. (hamro-75069)

� Predator trapping efficiency: Possum trapping at Mimiwhangata, from a funding point of view, needs rationalising.

7. Site-based management initiatives

� Touches on habitat/environment and values associated with them; i.e. reduce the number of habitats but concentrate more effectively on those we choose to work on.

� Mimiwhangata a site to consider. If all the groups corroborated with site based management across values at Mimiwhangata (pateke, kiwi, dotterel, restoration, etc)

� Fundamentally fantastic reasons why holistic approach is good. We should put an action forward to say we support this approach.

8. Rat ID

� Action for Ray/Emma/Halema to ID difference between Norway and ship rat kills. Length of ears and tails a good clue.

9. Habitat

� Need to provide small areas of protected roosts to prevent the birds going to flock sites.

� Group thinks a few protected roost sites created in the wetlands is acceptable and do not threaten the present monitoring regime.

� Nest boxes regarded as intervention management.

� Could fence off some triangles but they don�t get the cover for a good next site. They like dry sites, plant all around a nest box. Toi toi suggested. Kikuya considered if there is nothing else � but only inside a fence. Nail box, or netting covered in hay as box.

� Recommendation - small planting and fencing initiatives OK. No nest boxes.

1. Existing regime

� improve infrastructure

� fencing

� minor manipulation

2. Review - are we doing enough?

3. Experimental manipulation - major

� ensuring duckling survival is 35% pa or above

� densities are maintained at a defined level

� fertilisers

� Riparian strip management

� measure existing regime

� Maintain status quo, with minor tweaking of habitat. But plan/decide which sites would reap best results with habitat management when present predator regime/management strategy due to change.

� Need to ask the question whether birds actually need changed habitat management to nest successfully, and is so, to what? Current monitoring will help answer this question.

� Riparian plantings becoming compulsory as part of dairy farming best practice (Fonterra).

10. Starvation

� Sue: in general GBI birds in good health. Drought effecting things like clover, stomach contents reveal not usual food.

� This is reassuring considering rainfall records indicate driest spring in 10 years

Recommended actions for theme 1	Accountability
1. Implement Nigel�s draft grazing SOP (tabled last year.) as soon as possible. Fertilising, fencing and water advice will need to be included.	Area Manager Whangarei
2. Include the number of post mortem examinations undertaken, identify trends and issues arising from annual reports. Add to annual reporting to recovery group for reporting to 2004 recovery group meeting.	Emma/Joanne/Jason
3. Develop new transmitter harness prototype and field test on adequate sample size over 2003/04.	Nigel develop Emma/Shaun organise manufacturer, Emma test
4. Recommend that Holohil modify pulse rate and reinforce the aerial base on their transmitter design before any further units purchased. Trial on Mimiwhangata and GBI (They need 6 months advance notice). �	Emma/Joanne
5. Liaise with Sirtrack to ensure quality of their transmitter product improves, by 31.8.03.	Emma/ Joanne/Jason
6. Consult James and get extra indexes for identifying threshold for tx attachment, over and above weight. Establish a measure/index of body condition for birds and include in monitoring protocol, by 31.8.03.	Ray
7. Review historical information about bird weight when transmitter attached, plus time to death after fitting. Identify trends, by 31.10.03.	Emma/ Joanne
8. Use headphones on TR4 during close approaches to nests and birds, after the first association with nesting � ongoing from July 2003. (Near or close is 10 metres.)	Emma/Joanne/Jason. Ray add to protocol.
9. Consider exceeding sample size protocols for telemetry by 10% (as per current Mimiwhangata approach) as a contingency to ensure adequate monitoring sample sizes/ precision is achieved and pateke response to management determined annually with confidence. Include as a recommendation in monitoring guidelines, by 31.8.03.	Emma/Joanne/Ray
10. Schedule capture/transmitter effort across operators, by 31.8.03. Alert operators to the time period we would need them for, so they can fine-tune before hand.	Emma/Joanne/Jason
11. Contact Phil Teale re banding/sexing birds training (Waikato Fish and Game), by 31.12.03.	Emma/Joanne/Jason
12. Reassess GBI flock count regime/ methods by 31.12.03 (Ray/Joanne). Could utilise larger dataset already available to assist this before hand.� Talk to Phil Seddon, Otago University, about collation and interpretation of data, by 31.12.03 (Richard).	Ray/Joanne/Richard
13. Modify one aspect of predator control regime on GBI to target current poor duckling survival rate. Increase pukeko control in Okiwi Basin from August 2003 to reduce average count to3-4/ha , and measure duckling survival response.	Joanne
14. Establish a rodent monitoring line in Okiwi Basin by 31.9.03.	Joanne
15. Train trappers in Norway/ship rat ID at Mimiwhanagata, by 31.10.03	Ray
16. Refine existing non-target monitoring of rabbits in Okiwi, by 31.10.03 (consistency-counts in morning and move to year-round).	Ray/Joanne
17. Develop standard annual report template for pateke management sites (Mimiwhangata, GBI, Moehau) and include template in monitoring guidelines, by 31.12.03. SCO peer review each report before release to ensure consistency and coverage of all important factors.	Ray
18. Establish small-scale nesting sites at Mimiwhangata at appropriate sites (small scale planting and fencing initiatives, but no nest boxes), by 10.6.04	Emma/Nigel

Theme 2: � Establish 3^rd large managed population (Moehau)

1. Objectives/ site/ predator regime

� Objective is to establish a protected breeding population of greater than 50 breeding pairs

� Kiwi sanctuary established in 2001. 2000 hectares. Approx 2000 traps set on 500k of track. Trapping regime follows the landscape � ridges and spurs. Moehau steep with bluffs and waterfalls. Trap density 1 to every 6.5 hectares, every trap set costs 10,000.

� Caught about 500 stoats, 50 weasels, 60 cats, many hedgehogs and rats.

� About 25% of sanctuary is private land.

� Brown teal decision to go with Moehau as a release site made in April 2003. Further 2000 hectares, 200 set traps. Intensive cat and stoat trapping around Port Charles is run by local landowners. Their land is part of the kiwi project.

� Live catch cape traps around Port Charles itself. Family cats have a named collar with a bell � about 15 cats. Note recent research at a Chch wetland shows belled vs unbelled house cats have no significant difference in diet

� No cat kills on kiwi to date.

� 20 Coney-bear cat traps to be set further out from the houses. Have put all local pet and farm dogs through kiwi aversion training. Successful with pig dogs. One kiwi killed by dog who hadn�t done training to date.

� What consultation with community? Employed local, Patrick Stewart and Thomas, to visit every landowner on eastern side of Moehau and tell them about the release. Similarly with 5 iwi. This is on top of standard community consulting.

� Port Charles has a handful of Pateke already.

� Dispersal: Stoney Bay, Waikawau, Waiaro are likely sites. Two elderly locals can remember 100s of teal being there during their childhood and up until the 1980s.

� Pukeko control taking place for past three seasons. Can�t notice difference. To protect wetland plantings.

� May have to set up some monitoring lines similar to GBI pukeko regime.

2. Supplementary feeding

� 10 feeders set at 100m intervals all the way up the creek. Feeders that are not being used could be moved. 10 kg goes out a day. Service for 30 days (see translocation proposal wgncr-43824). If they start to drop condition or odd ball weather event would continue to feed them for a week. If the food runs out earlier � put more in. There is flexibility in the regime, important to record what was done for repeatability/consistency in release design.

� We could set up a time line video to watch one of the feeders for seven days. Mallards like to eat at any time. Teal more likely to feed at dusk. With Mallards difficult to assess how much teals eat.

� Birds will have been conditioned to the feeders before release. There will be some that are not immediately territorial.

� Recommendation is to always have feed in the feeders for at least 1 month, but keep a record of what is going out. Practice adaptive management.

3. Monitoring

� Undertaken by Thomas Jehly. Got very experienced radio telemetry people in the kiwi section but they are not used to birds that fly.

� Monitoring will follow Ray�s monitoring protocol.

� Part of Thomas�s job will be to watch the supplementary feeding. Keen landowner, duck shooter, wants to assist. Some advocacy has been done with duck shooters and they know what and where not to shoot.

� Mortality - need to work out why quickly � inform community accordingly. Community part of the release programme, can be part of the solution. Teal easy for people to take ownership of � more visible. Not a reason to stop � reason to regroup and adapt. Might take a couple of years for them to �take�.

� What do we do if they breed - do we need to put transmitters on the juveniles? There is not many people to take on to do extra work. Recommendation � target two juveniles per brood with transmitters. See release strategy for baseline requirements. Suspect birds from GBI have turned up at Port Charles. If we are required to monitor juveniles from the first release might have to contract someone to do it. (i.e. get James in to do it � provide the money).Unless they all breed its not going to be a big job.

� This is the first time we have had a well resourced attempt to set up a teal population.

4. Support

� Good community support. Good telemetry skills in-house. Good air skills. Good dog skills.

� Skills needed � no experience of captive teal. No transmitter attaching experience.

� Habitat requirement advice required. Local teal are enjoying artificial wetlands created by Area Manager. Need advice as to whether they are all ideal for teal. Some are quite big. Need to be able to recommend � these types of wetlands are likely to get more teal on them.

� A possum proof fence was mooted. Locals didn�t agree. Now council has re-raised the issue. Seen as a good idea and Landcare group has prime objective to create an �everything exclusion fence�. Won�t happen for between 1-4 years.

� General ecological advice on Pateke is also required.

� Determining cause of death � determine predator sign from carcass/ inspection of site/scene where recovered on-site via kiwi staff skilled in this area. Nigel to provide a list of common things to look for. Then send to Massey IVABS for necropsy. Communication essential when sending things off to Massey. Courier them - protocol already set in monitoring protocol. Emma to send death certificate protocol to Jason. Also standard Wild Life health form. Plus Massey website.

� Colour banding. Individual colour banding preferred to cohort.

� Another release February/March? Logistically in wild it�s an easier release if there is just one group.

� If we release again next session � do we stop monitoring the first release? Yes if the population establishes.

5. Small populations/experimental releases

Request from Kapiti Area on recommended strategy for teal on Kapiti

Dog survey recommended (annual or every 2 years)

Other baseline recommendations in monitoring guidelines. Kapiti listed as B1 for population establishment. Sixty eight birds were released there in 1968.� Overall status quo is recommended for Kapiti.

Consider that with weka , who is such an aggressive bird that ducklings would have survival difficulties.� Lost a lot of habitat in past 20 years. Supplementary feeding not recommended unless want to initiate it as a monitoring tool aka Karori.

Sue concerned about pateke in Waikanae. Very keen volunteer who may assist there.

Tony has knowledge of a small population on Kawau. Does the group want to investigate these small sites further? Trickle of feedback on Kawau birds coming in via Warkworth Area is sufficient for now. Revisit when Tawharanui fence is up and Kawau pest eradication completed.

Recommended actions for theme 2	Accountability
1. Recommend status quo pateke management on Kapiti Island (annual or every two year dog survey), from August 2003. Supplementary feeding not recommended unless the Kapiti team want to use it as a monitoring tool and can manage the weka/pukeko use of feeders effectively.	Greg Moorcroft, Kapiti Area
2. Provide a list of common things to look for in diagnosing predator sign to Jason for Moehau project, by 31.8.03.	Nigel
3. Send death certificate protocol, standard Wild Life health form and Massey website to Jason, by 31.8.03.	Emma

Minutes - Wednesday 18 June

Theme 3: � Research outcomes

Topic 1: Diet and releases (Sue)

1. Releases on Kapiti and Mana in 2001

� Didn�t know why several birds died post release. A lead into wingfat analysis from Guillermo on western sandpiper research. Noted some of his references where he looked at fat in outer wing. Dead ducks from GBI measured whole bird. Chose birds with differing amounts of fat. Experimented with different parts of the wing � dried them in an oven and calculated how much fat was in the wing. Compared this data with the initial measurements. Ulna fat is the last fat to go.

� Created three measures: starved: no fat or muscle; poor:� muscle only; good: healthy condition.
Starved 0-1% fat, poor 16% fat, good 20-40%.

� Starvation cause of death for 25% of Kapiti released pateke.

� Work in Europe has found that if ducks are fed on soft food their gizzards soften/shrink. Captive pateke have shorter small intestines than wild pateke, about 18 cm.

� Increasing fibre in pellets might effect what happens in the gut. Changes can take place within 5 days. Mallard experiment proved changes after 25 days.

� Is it fibre that is missing? Not necessarily fibre more indigestible stuff.

� Kevin: ostrich comparison � diet should be changed gradually to give flora a chance to adapt.

� Don Thomas is quite amenable to change the �pateke pellet�.

� Sue: not an issue to change all the pellets to high fibre. Wondering about changing their diets to make it more like a natural diet. Adding grit to food needs to be studied.

� How long would it take for the gut to lengthen out? About a month � 5% a day.

� Clover: need to talk to Don.

� Campbell teal being fed high lay chicken mash proved a disaster. Issue to be raised within captive breeders.

� Suggestion to run new diet by batch and test on a future release, collect the data and present it next year.

� Important to analyse any birds that die within a month of release. Villi height measure � trial on one GBI bird and one captive bird. Interesting to compare wild and captive birds. Action: Get report from Sue for instructions for post mortem requests.

� Need to get a process in place by release date � Feb/March - about dietary needs.

� With captive diets generally � make a change and then test it.

� Breeder pellets, need to raise birds on good quality diet initially and then introduce them to maintenance mix pellets.

� When changing diets need to ensure little stress to animals by doing it slowly and in conjunction with grains and other food.

2. What do Pateke eat?

� Fruit and seeds � mingimingi, Coprosma (Little Barrier birds), all seeds have been sent for identification to Colin. Ian Henderson from Massey helping with freshwater invertebrates. Found an amazing variance of things that they eat. Surprise is that slugs and earthworms are not dominant, seeds, fruits, insects, clover leaves � large variety.

� Would this diet analysis research be useful to take to Don so that he could better formulate the captive diet to emulate what they eat in the wild? Yes.

� GBI pateke feeding cockles also � open with bill.

3. Transport of dead birds for post mortem

� Some couriers won�t take them, especially if formalin, try Chemcourier Services (1994) Ltd, 04 568 3687.

� New Zealand Couriers, 0800 800 841, will take live birds.

Topic 2: Progress with papers in preparation

1. Tony: DRAFT Impact of switching on and off predator control on survivor ship and productivity of brown pateke at Mimiwhangata

� Two year experiment on Mimiwhangata investigation.

� Flock count: April 1996 � January 2000.

� Do birds return to same flock sites?

� Tables 2-5 using telemetry and banding produces different levels of information.

� Pateke don�t use flock sites consistently therefore they can�t be used alone for assessment of trends

� Peak flock sites use only occurred in some years between Jan to March

� The time of arrival and presence of different age and sex classes of the birds at flock sites was not constant each year.

� Pateke flock at sites near to their breeding range but not necessarily the closet site.

� Reasons for pateke returning to flock sites are not clear.

� The need for flock sites within all catchments, and the occupation in early summer to facilitate juvenile retention (Williams 2001) needs to be better understood.

� We need to understand how populations are actually working.

� Flock sites are not useful in defining population health. Except that most birds at flock sites return to natal areas.

� Do flock sites move? Yes � notion of historical flock sites, is us viewing the environment that has existed in recent times. Suspect majority of adults never came to flock sites.

� Are we just wasting our time counting flock Sites? Tony has limited confidence in flock site counts.

� Richard: Argument to say that mating/social systems may explain some of the activities of movement within birds.

� Tony: Here a good number are paired who survived periods of time when they were not together.

� Shaun: Notion of a pair on GBI is not necessarily correct. Monogamy a big assumption.

� Report: (DRAFT) Flock, roost and breeding area used by brown pateke at Mimiwhangata farm 1996-2000, Tony Beauchamp.

2. Collation of predator control data for cats and mustelids monitored for 2 years. The predator control was then abandoned

� Problem measuring effort in any zone or particular area. Areas which held low numbers of pateke or on margins of area that got less attention.

� 9 % of target pests were taken in first 6 months. Rat hedgehog and by catch stuff not available.

� About 80% of adults survived through controlled period � to 57% in uncontrolled period.

Conclusions

� predator control cessation didn�t significantly affect numbers

� overall it appears that turning predator control off is not a good idea.

3. Pateke research objectives (Ray)

� Diet and releases � gut morphology, diet, feeding behaviour, release recommendations (SM PB)

� Predator lures � improving trapping efficiency (NM) � pukeko control � active management needed more than research

� Mimiwhangata research � responses to past management (TB, JF)

� Okiwi � responses to past management (SF)

� Dispersion � (MW)

� Okiwi breeding biology (DB)

4. Research needs

� Alternative means of measuring populations, productivity, age structure

� Meathods used in flock site counts needs to be documented.

� Habitat use � what is optimum pasture etc management?

� Improving predator control

5. Important we are aware of work done in recent past

� NOTORNIS, Journal of Ornithological Society of NZ, Inc. volume 49, part 4 December 2002, page 199 Breeding of brown pateke (Anas chlorotis) at Okiwi GBI. Dave Barker�s work 1997-99 in key findings on population parameters. Difference with now � we have implemented predator control. Spring rainfall in some years 400-490 mm. Low duckling survival at that time. Dave considered that pukeko were the problem.

� Ferreira SM and Taylor S, in press. Population decline and non-persistence on GBI title of draft, � accepted for Notornis?

6. Feather collection

� Michelle: unable to get feathers from both male and female for MW as requested.

� General issue is that we should collect them and store them. It is a lost opportunity � value to have the collection. Only need one from each individual.

� What happens when I send them to Murray? Does the info get stored, and then do they go back into the bank?

� Murray is saying collect it so that some time in the future I can use it. Message is keep collecting � get 2 or 3 initially and hang onto them (store ziplock plastic in fridge with date collected, band number, site, person who collected).

Recommended actions for theme 3	Accountability
1. Develop a decision tree for post mortem analysis and include in monitoring guidelines to guide appropriate priorities and methods for processing recovered dead pateke, by 31.8.03	Ray/Sue
2. Liaise with Don Thomas regarding reformulating captive and pre-release pateke diet, by 31.8.03.	Shaun/Sue
3. Source a lot of reprints of Dave�s paper and distribute to group, by 31.8.03	Tony
4. Review feather collection rationale/methods in monitoring guidelines and pass to GBI staff/all site managers/workers, by 31.8.03.	Ray
5. Confirm and document needs/methods for further disease baseline surveillance with Richard Jakob-Hoff, by 31.8.03.	Shaun

Theme 4: Captive management

Topic 1: Online database/ website (http:/www.brownteal.com/)

� Largely Hayes documents as yet. Is it a useful place to put updates about what is happening at Moehau? Yes, and if I can get permission to put Mimiwhangata and GBI on there that would be good.

� Shaun also has provided some updates, yet to be loaded.

� Breeders are putting baseline information straight into the net. When birds are released they are transferred to a different database. Very comprehensive record system; all details of each bird recorded till death. Cause of death recorded as well.

� Present documents for inclusion as pdf or word format.

Topic 2: Best practise manuals/review and support

Thirty nine birds from Otorohanga Kiwi House, Hamilton Zoo, Auckland Zoo and Ron Munroe Esplanade Gardens in Palmerton North.

Two birds from GBI to enhance captive breeding. One blind. The other preen gland stunk.
Seven wild birds from last year flock mated � three birds. Single male also flock mated.

Lost two birds � plus Hamilton Zoo�s old birds died. Otorohanga only have 15 birds at the moment. Lost five through aggression while being held together � a result of the late holding because of shift in release programme from Okarito � Moehau/stoat plague.

� Should be able to get 40-60 birds next year for transfer. Next Moehau release Feb/March 2004.

� Port Charles (Moehau) locals are saying that they have seen birds coming in from GBI � will please them that the release birds are of GBI stock. Information will be included in website.

Disease screening has been completed. Meeting with Richard Jakob-Hoff produced revised disease screening protocol. To be documented/ distributed. Issue about who will pay for it � some consensus reached. Now whenever the birds are ready, after screening process, they will be sent to Peacock Springs, Christchurch for conditioning before release.

Salmonella infantus found in Russell Langdon�s birds (scaup not teal).

Husbandry manual on track, decision whether to include Campbell Is. teal info as well to be made first. Good and lean needs more detail in Shaun�s view. Repeat of last year�s recommendation / process.

Review of Brown Teal captive facilities: visit checklist (Wgtn and Ak facilities visited to date):

i. Photo/date/personnel

ii. Size/height

iii. Review provisions/ surface use/ cover - extent type

iv. Food: maintenance/ breeding supplements/ volume

v. Health: disease management practices

vi. Supporting documents: handbook, release strategy

vii. Support they would like to see/issues concern for them

viii. Staff experience

Recommended actions for theme 4	Accountability
1. Review husbandry manual by 31.7. 03 (Richard), and complete manual by 31.8.03 (Kevin).	Richard/Kevin
2. Prepare egg transfer proposal (wild-captive) for consultation/approval, following sign-off of husbandry manual	Shaun

Other parked topics

1. Improvements: we are doing reasonably well. Improvements are required to ensure we sustain effort

a) Getting to sample size for telemetry before the end of May cut-off (risk to gravid females). Exceeding sample size initially is one contingency � Emma�s approach at Mimiwhangata. Recommendation: exceed sample size by 10% Strategy

b) Continuity of predatory control. Last two years gaps in control at both sites. If you think ahead in planning you can see bottle neck coming � set out well in advance. Contingency planning for pest control

c) Transmitter design improvements � follow recommendations to solve each issue

2. Issues

� Alternative captive teams: James; Dave Barker; Chris Smutts-Kennedy (still going through certification), Cambridge; Andrew Smart, (still going through certification), Burwood. Better to pay extra to get a duck specific dog

� Skills development (e.g. tx fitting). More interaction between Mimiwhangata and GBI needed. RG budget can be used to facilitate skills development between workers.

� Moehau will have to employ a worker. Hopefully Thomas will want to stay. Again getting field workers together on site is invaluable for operational issues � workshop on site scene. One to three people from each site getting together at one of the sites for 3 days. Contact Phil Teale/Waikato Fish and Game re banding/sexing birds training

� Problem this coming year regarding transmitter attachment � not enough trained personnel available. More comprehensive use of scheduling James� time. Dave Barker � an option, but at the other end of the country? Season staggered, Mimiwhangata and GBI, helps scheduling

� Reporting on data. Improvements for historical consistency. Develop standard process to accurately do this and include in Monitoring Guidelines. Peer review essential � monitoring guidelines includes report of key outcomes and key parameters

� Excellent Brown Teal data being collected � deserves publication � even an internal department series � particularly monitoring programmes.

� Reports could go onto Brown Teal website.

� Monitoring guidelines are minimum standards. Emma�s report to be used as a template.

Theme 5: Partnerships, Public Relations, Advocacy and Sponsorship

The national picture: what�s needed/how do we get it? Strategising for writing the recovery plan

1. Partnerships (communities, Landcare, etc)

� Partnerships currently being fostered by AO

� What other opportunities are there that will help us get more birds on the ground within the next 5 years plus?

� Lot of land currently being bought by very wealthy people who are speaking about discontinuing farming (Northland, GBI, Coromandel).

� Nothing like success to gain interest. Let landowners know and they are keen to come on board.

� Get an overarching Landcare rep involved in the recovery group � we can learn how they go about it. Inflation proofing. Sustainable NGO and community involvement better than separate individuals.

� Recovery Plan to have a strategic objective i.e. within 5 years we will have achieved X.

� Essential we get the NZ Landcare Trust involved with this group. People living on site have a more holistic view of the approach required. They seem to have good relationships with local community. Compliment and enhance DOC effort.

� Becoming obvious that DOC won�t be able to resource beyond securing species at secure sites.

� Ducks Unlimited moving to a habitat focus. Questioning usefulness of belonging to recovery groups.

2. Tools

� Work-shopping/Technology transfer

� Direct approach to Northland Regional Council

� Predator guidelines/survival guide

Tools	Partners/ownership
Best practice (holistic or species-specific)
Work-shopping � predator etc	Landcare Trust representative in Northland, Helen Woody, Auckland Lindsay Chalmers, Waikato Nick Greenslade.
Technology transfer	Other prospects could be Regional Councils, DU, Brown Teal Conservation Trust � vehicle outside DOC to tap into funds
Survival guide (predator guidelines)	DOC internal integration (NHMS)/site based, multi species RG
Pateke zones	Tourist operators

3. Sponsorship

� Two strategies within and outside the department.

Ossie:

a) You�ve got a duck

b) Discover your audience images of this duck will appeal to a market segment.

c) Then go to the market segment (businesses) and sell the idea. Be clear about what you need and they can make a commitment

d) Market very competitive. Hubbard bought over a bloke to talk to the �do good� business council. Ossie has offered to talk about chasing some dollars to do the market research/business plan. Shaun to take it through ERD at DOC.

e) If you had some money where would it be best spent � sponsor will want to see something/plan for his dollars

4. PR/advocacy

a) First step to follow the above.

b) Then develop a communications strategy

c) Identify publics (Landcare etc) and put them in a priority of needs.

� Different audiences� exposure � general public last.

� Good Northland audience, good Auckland audience �people interested enough to push the case

� Ensure Brown Teal article in Forest and Bird, Flight (Air New Zealand), NZ Geographic

� How well is DOC (particularly those who allocate resources) aware of Brown Teal ? Need to keep profile up within DOC.

� use partners to keep minister informed

� need strategy to keep all DOC middle/senior management aware

� progress review report, requirement of new SOP (a vehicle)

� Recognise good journalism � i.e. Ann Betson (NZ Herald) story

� Press release, TV and national press should be fostered

� Need an advocacy strategy, kiwi and kaki have dedicated HO/AO teams.

� Ossie: We need to say, what we want to do, when we want to do it, how we want to do it, why. �Juliette Oliver of �Flight� is a good person to foster. Still need to work out who our publics are. Explore AUT � year out, DOC, CCS � also a year out.

5. Context for future - Phases of recovery (Jansen)

1. ID cause and key agents of decline

2. Secure species at key sites � testing prescription now; change/refine prescription until delivers outcomes that secure the species

3. Recover the species

4. Ongoing maintenance (management/monitoring)

� DOC focus on phase 2 � prevent extinction and develop successful management prescription

� Partnerships key to achieving outcomes beyond phase 2, with partnerships between DOC/stakeholders

��

Recommended actions for theme 5	Accountability
1. Develop project brief for survival guide for landowners (predator guidelines/prescription), by 31.12.03.	Kevin/Shaun
2. Scope sponsorship opportunities (1^st phase market research/business plan). Shaun to take it through ERD at DOC prior, by 30.9.03.	Ossie/Shaun

Meeting expectations revisited

1. Summarise outcomes/ where to from here in an executive summary � in minutes or progress report

2. Haven�t looked at how we are performing against the audit. Shaun is working on progress report against audit now.

3. Rat monitoring � little behind timetable � recommended same actions as last year.

4. Certainly some actions from last year not checked off. Double-check against actions. Some may need to be carried over.

5. Discussion outside the square � not entirely covered.

6. Group working together better now. Agreed direction.

7. Standardised recapture analysis for flock site discrepancies.

8. Outside of DOC effort � what happens in the interim � what are we saying to landowners and Landcare groups, how do we support them? On an ad hoc basis appropriate � let�s focus on securing the species first before we branch into focusing on broader-scale recovery initiatives.

9. If we find our releases go really well. What is our ability to increase the captive breeding output? Let�s focus on getting Moehau right first. Okarito postponed until there is a solution to the predator equation there. The objective is a new large population as fast as possible over and above experimental work.

10. Captive display bird breeding has created the potential to be a potential semi captive-breeding backup population.

13. One thing missing on this project is use of research. Suggestion is that we should make better use of student researchers. Carefully managed there could be significant gains. The main research focus is to test the efficacy of the management prescription.

� An example is plumage study. Couple of sites on GBI which maybe OK for study � but Mimiwhangata possibly better?

� Research can also be used as support in monitoring pateke response to management.

� Shaun thanked everyone for their time and effort over the last year. Clearly there is solid effort going in. The main issues are about refining and sustaining that effort, and that�s where our focus should be from here. Need to keep on track/ follow the plan. Another impression gained is that there is good ownership of the project emerging from line managers and the recovery group members � once you have strong ownership, you are half way there.

Template 2.3:�� Business planning summary table

The following table, taken (and modified) from the recovery group �recommendations (wgnro-7) for your group, should be updated and the appropriate content re-installed above the previous year�s recommendations. See instructions on (wgnro-12898) for identifying priority levels. Include accountability in brackets alongside each action in this summary table. See Note 5 above in this section of the Resource Kit for determining the appropriate level for recovery actions . Append to recovery group meeting minutes .

Objectives and recovery recommendations for 2003/04	Existing funding/or new funding required	Priority Levels
Objectives and recovery recommendations for 2003/04	Existing funding/or new funding required	Level one	Priority	Level two
Recovery group (leader/ member) and Area Manager recovery actions �
Objective 1: Increase pateke population at Okiwi and Mimiwhangata (Audit recommendations 4/5/11/14)
1. Implement Nigel Miller�s draft grazing SOP (tabled last year.) as soon as possible. Fertilising, fencing and water advice will need to be included (Area Manager, Whangarei).	Existing	√
2. Modify one aspect of predator control regime in Okiwi to target current poor duckling survival rate. Increase pukeko control in Okiwi Basin from August 2003 to reduce average count to 3-4/ha , and measure duckling survival response (Joanne).	Existing	√
3. Establish a rodent monitoring line in Okiwi Basin by 31.9.03 (Joanne).	Existing	√
4. Train trappers in Norway/ship rat ID at Mimiwhanagata by 31.10.03 (Ray)	Existing	√
5. Refine existing non-target monitoring of rabbits in Okiwi, by 31.10.03 (consistency-counts in morning and move to year-round) (Ray/Joanne)	Existing	√
6. Establish small-scale nesting sites at Mimiwhangata at appropriate sites (small scale planting and fencing initiatives, but no nest boxes), by 10.6.04 (Emma/Nigel)	Existing	√
Objective 2: Determine pateke response to management at Okiwi and Mimiwhangata and refine management prescription based on results (Audit 17/18/19/22/25/26/28/30/42)
1. Include the number of post mortem examinations undertaken, identify trends and issues arising from annual reports. Add to annual reporting to recovery group for reporting to 2004 recovery group meeting (Emma/Joanne/Jason).	Existing	√
2. Develop new transmitter harness prototype and field test on adequate sample size over 2003/04 at Mimiwhangata (Nigel/Emma/Shaun).	Existing	√
3. Recommend that Holohil modify pulse rate and reinforce the aerial base on their transmitter design before any further units purchased. Trial on Mimiwhangata and GBI (They need 6 months advance notice) (Emma/Joanne/Jason).�	Existing	√
4. Liaise with Sirtrack and Kiwitrack to ensure quality of their transmitter product improves, by 31.8.03 (Emma/Joanne/Jason).	Existing	√
5. Review historical information about bird weight when transmitter attached, plus time to death after fitting. Identify trends, by 31.10.03 (Emma/Joanne).	Existing	√
6. Consult James and get extra indexes for identifying threshold for tx attachment, over and above weight. Establish a measure/index of body condition for birds and include in monitoring protocol, by 31.8.03 (Ray).	Existing	√
7. Use headphones on TR4 during close approaches to nests and birds, after the first association with nesting � ongoing from July 2003. (Near or close is 10 metres.) (Emma/Joanne/Jason).	Existing	√
8. Consider exceeding sample size protocols for telemetry by 10% (as per current Mimiwhangata approach) as a contingency to ensure adequate monitoring sample sizes/ precision is achieved and pateke response to management determined annually with confidence (Emma/Joanne). Include as a recommendation in monitoring guidelines, by 31.8.03 (Ray).	Existing	√
9. Schedule capture/transmitter effort across operators, by 31.8.03. Alert operators to the time period we would need them for, so they can fine-tune before hand (Emma/Joanne/Jason).	Existing	√
10. Contact Phil Teale re banding/sexing birds education (Waikato Fish and Game), by 31.12.03 (Emma/Joanne/Jason).	Existing	√
11. Reassess GBI flock count regime/ methods by 31.12.03 (Ray/Joanne). Could utilise larger dataset already available to assist this before hand.� Talk to Phil Seddon, Otago University, about collation and interpretation of data, by 31.12.03 (Richard).	Existing	√
12. Develop standard annual report template for pateke management sites (Mimiwhangata, GBI, Moehau) and include template in monitoring guidelines, by 31.12.03 (Ray). SCO peer review each report before release to ensure consistency and coverage of all important factors (Ray).	Existing	√
13. Develop a decision tree for post mortem analysis and include in monitoring guidelines to guide appropriate priorities and methods for processing recovered dead pateke, by 31.8.03 (Ray/Sue).	Existing	√
Objective 3: Establish a third secure breeding population of pateke at a managed location and investigate optimum release techniques via experimental releases (Audit 6/7/10/20/24/41)
1. Recommend status quo pateke management on Kapiti Island (annual or every two year dog survey), from August 2003. Supplementary feeding not recommended unless the Kapiti team want to use it as a monitoring tool and can manage the weka/pukeko use of feeders effectively (Greg).	Existing	√
2. Provide a list of common things to look for in diagnosing predator sign to Jason for Moehau project, by 31.8.03 (Nigel).	Existing	√
3. Send death certificate protocol, standard Wild Life health form and Massey website to Jason, by 31.8.03 (Emma).	Existing	√
4. Liaise with Don Thomas regarding reformulating captive and pre-release pateke diet, by 31.8.03 (Shaun/Sue).	Existing	√
5. Confirm and document needs/methods for further disease baseline surveillance with Richard Jakob-Hoff, by 31.8.03 (Shaun).	Existing	√
Objective 4: Write up and publishing of Okiwi and Mimiwhangata research programmes/ undertake demographic research to underpin key monitoring techniques and refine management prescription where appropriate
1. Source a lot of reprints of Dave�s paper and distribute to group, by 31.8.03 (Tony).	Existing	√
2. Review feather collection rationale/methods in monitoring guidelines and pass to GBI staff/all site managers/workers, by 31.8.03 (Ray). Send to Shaun in ziplock for storage.	Existing	√
Objective 4: Implement the Pateke Captive Management Plan (Audit 8/21)
1. Review husbandry manual by 31.7. 03 (Richard), and complete manual by 31.8.03 (Kevin).	Existing	√
2. Prepare egg transfer proposal (wild-captive) for consultation/approval, following sign-off of husbandry manual (Shaun)	Existing	√
Objective 5: Broaden the public constituency of support and involve all elements of that constituency in the recovery programme
1. Develop project brief for survival guide for landowners (predator guidelines/prescription), by 31.12.03 (Shaun).	Existing	√
2. Scope sponsorship opportunities (1st phase market research/business plan) (Ossie/Shaun). Shaun to take it through ERD at DOC prior, by 30.9.03 (Shaun).	Existing	√

Priority Levels