The Department of Conservation is appealing for public help after a young kea was deliberately shot near Tākaka in Golden Bay, an injury so severe that vets had no choice but to put the protected alpine parrot down.
The kea was found last week at Motupipi, on the edge of Tākaka, after a local resident spotted it grounded and clearly in distress. Its left wing was drooping and it could not fly. When a ranger reached the bird, the cause was unmistakable. An open gunshot wound had torn into the wing, and an x-ray later showed a bullet still lodged inside, surrounded by broken bones.
“Its left wing was drooping and there was an open gunshot wound which looked a few days old,” said Luke Easton, a DOC biodiversity ranger based in Tākaka. “We knew there was serious damage and broken bones. It was really upsetting to see.”
The bird was taken to Wildbase Hospital at Massey University in Palmerston North, one of the few places in the country set up to treat native wildlife with injuries this complex. After assessing the damage, the veterinary team decided the kindest course was to euthanise the kea to end its suffering. It had most likely been carrying the wound, in pain and unable to feed properly, for several days before anyone found it.
“This is a tragic outcome and we want to know who has shot this bird,” Easton said.
What makes the loss sting in Golden Bay is that kea have only recently started returning to the coast in any number. They are mountain birds by reputation, the cheeky, long-beaked parrots that raid car parks and tramping packs in the alpine south. Seeing them drift down to sea level around Tākaka is a relatively new and welcome sight, a sign that a struggling population is slowly clawing back ground.
“We’re lucky to see these charismatic birds popping up in coastal Golden Bay,” Easton said.
That recovery is fragile. Kea are listed as nationally endangered under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, and the world conservation body BirdLife International rates them endangered too. Nobody knows the exact number left because the birds range across vast, rugged country and are hard to count, but the working estimate sits somewhere between three thousand and five thousand. For a creature that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, that is a steep fall.
Much of that decline is a wound we inflicted ourselves. For roughly a hundred years high country farmers blamed kea for attacking sheep, and a government bounty paid out for dead birds. More than 150,000 kea were killed before the bounty was finally lifted in 1970. The species was granted full legal protection in 1984. The shooting near Tākaka is a reminder that the old habit of reaching for a rifle has not entirely died out, even though the law and public sentiment have moved on decisively.
Harming a kea is not a minor matter in the eyes of the law. Killing a protected bird under the Wildlife Act 1953 can carry a fine of up to 100,000 dollars and as much as two years in prison. DOC describes deliberately harming protected wildlife as both unacceptable and illegal, and the department has prosecuted kea shooters before. In 2017 a Nelson man was convicted and sentenced over the shooting of a kea, showing the cases do sometimes end in court when the public comes forward with information.
This is also not the first kea to turn up injured in the area in recent months. In February a juvenile bird was found at Ligar Bay with a shattered leg. That one was lucky. It came through treatment and was released back to the wild. Last year a kea found with a serious gunshot wound in the Cobb Valley recovered after a long rehabilitation and was set free again. The young bird from Motupipi will not get that second chance.
Beyond the obvious cruelty, every kea lost is a real dent in a small and slow-breeding population. The birds do not reach breeding age quickly and they raise their young in ground nests that are already vulnerable to stoats and possums. Lead poisoning from old building flashings and roofing nails, vehicle strikes and predation all chip away at their numbers every year. A single bullet removes a bird that conservationists and volunteers have spent years trying to protect.
DOC is now asking anyone who knows anything about the Motupipi shooting to get in touch. The case is being investigated under reference number CLE-11977, and information can be passed on by calling the conservation hotline on 0800 DOC HOT, which is 0800 362 468. Even small details, a description of someone seen with a firearm near the area, or talk overheard around town, could be enough to help rangers piece together who pulled the trigger.
For a region quietly proud of having its mountain parrots back, the hope now is that the same community that raised the alarm over an injured bird will help make sure whoever shot it is held to account.
Have you seen kea returning to coastal Golden Bay, or do you have a view on how we protect them? Share your thoughts in the comments below. We read every one.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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