Conservation of kakerori (Pomarea dimidiata) : report on a visit to Rarotonga, August/September 1999 / Hugh A.

Abstract

Since 1987, I have assisted the Cook Islands Conservation/Environment Service and, more recently, the Takitumu Conservation Area Project and the Avifauna Conservation Programme of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to plan and implement a recovery programme for the kakerori, a critically endangered forest bird endemic to Rarotonga. In 1989, the kakerori was one of the 10 rarest birds in the world, and classified as 'critically endangered' (Collar et al. 1994) with a population of just 29 birds. I calculated that there was a 50% chance of kakerori becoming extinct by 1998 unless nest predation by rats was significantly reduced. During each breeding season since 1989, rats have been poisoned in the 155 ha of forest occupied by kakerori (Robertson et al. 1998) and the effectiveness of this work has been measured by- recording breeding productivity (Saul et al. 1998), and by undertaking an annual census the following spring (Robertson 1998, 1999).