Getting to know your neighbours: Stronger community connections, protected weka and thriving tourism
Local volunteers and staff often find themselves needing to visit private properties to run rat and possum traps, monitor native species or provide advice … and in the process develop friendships, build a strong neighbourhood and contribute to the economic wealth of Stewart Island/Rakiura through attracting the interest of its 35,000 tourists.

As part of the Restoration Project five volunteers have ‘adopted’ a Stewart Island weka, after these endangered birds returned to the main island of Rakiura in 2005. Each bird has a radio transmitter, smaller than a matchbox, which is fitted like a backpack and can be tracked down using an aerial and receiver.

The monitored birds have not quite grasped the concept of human land ownership or property boundaries!  Volunteers are never sure where they will wind up when they set off each week. Matt Jones’ story of tracking ‘his’ weka is a great example of local project ownership and of the relationships forged out of crossing property boundaries.

Matt said “One week we thought we’d try tracking him on our own and started at Nicol Road, assuming he’d be in the same place.  Wrong!  We tried Trail Park and Observation Rock, but found nothing.  Petersen Hill rewarded us with a faint signal towards Ringa Ringa.  As we walked through the Deep Bay Track the signal got stronger and led us past three houses.  The beeps were strongest somewhere near Nancy & Murray Schofield’s.  How often do you get disturbed in the middle of the afternoon by two rain-soaked English people carrying a bright blue TV aerial, asking if they can follow a weka onto your land?  Thank you, Nancy and Murray for kindly switching off the electric fence and allowing us to continue our quest!”

Keen to get into a routine, Matt decided to track him once a week.  So our next search began at Ringa Ringa.  Ronnie –  Matt’s name for ‘his’ weka - was anything but routine and of course was not there!

“We pointed the aerial towards the house of someone we didn’t know and the signal went off the scale.  So we introduced ourselves to Coral and asked if we could try to find Ronnie in her garden.  She was both delighted and amused to hear the story about Ronnie and we agreed to pop in for a chat afterwards.”

Tracking Ronnie has never been boring and his pièce de résistance came while Matt was leading a bus tour later that same week.  Mid-sentence his commentary came to a complete halt as Ronnie strolled out of Ringa Ringa Golf Course trailing three tiny, black, fluffy chicks!

The chicks were soon dubbed “The Ronnettes”.  Ronnie and his family have a growing number of guardians.

“We know we shouldn’t anthropomorphise the animal kingdom, but it’s hard not to be caught up in the excitement – success for both the SIRCET’s weka project and the continuation of Ronnie’s genes”.

Kari Beavan

Pictured: L - R: Ronnette, Ronaldo, Ronet, Runty and Ado-Run-Run.
Ronnie himself can be seen with the transmitter just visible in his feathers.