{"id":7069,"date":"2023-08-08T13:20:09","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T01:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7069"},"modified":"2023-08-08T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T01:20:09","slug":"dogs-running-unleashed-for-exercise-potentially-behind-kiwi-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7069","title":{"rendered":"Dogs running unleashed for exercise potentially behind kiwi deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dog owners letting their pets out for exercise instead of walking them on winter evenings could be a factor behind the\u00a0recent spate of kiwi deaths in Northland<\/a>, a conservation group says.<\/p>\n

Figures from the Department of Conservation showed 20 kiwi have been killed in the Bay of Islands since May with 10 of those deaths caused by suspected dog attacks.<\/p>\n

Six have been killed in \u014cpua Forest, near Paihia, in the past fortnight alone.<\/p>\n

The figures showed eight kiwi were killed by cars in the same period while the remaining two died of unknown causes.<\/p>\n

DOC’s acting manager for P\u0113whairangi\/Bay of Islands Laura McDonald said kiwi were thriving in Northland in areas with good predator control and good dog control.<\/p>\n

The region was bucking the national trend of declining kiwi numbers because overall, its kiwi population was increasing by 3 percent a year.<\/p>\n

“So it’s a conservation success story for the most part, but the recent spate of kiwi killed by dogs suggests that we’ve slipped,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n

The dead kiwi were all wild-hatched, not released, and most were more than a year old and weighed over 1 kilogram.<\/p>\n

That showed community-led predator control groups were successfully getting kiwi through their crucial first year. By that age they were big enough to fight off a stoat.<\/p>\n

Stoats killed 95 percent of kiwi chicks in areas without predator control, she said.<\/p>\n

Three of the kiwi killed in \u014cpua Forest had been sent to Massey University so experts could confirm the cause of death.<\/p>\n

However, their injuries were consistent with being held in a dog’s jaws.<\/p>\n

Kiwi Coast conservation group coordinator Ngaire Sullivan said in general, kiwi conservation in Northland had been a great success.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just been let down in this case,” she said.<\/p>\n

One possible explanation for the recent spike in kiwi deaths was that dog owners were arriving home from work when it was cold, dark and rainy – so they were opting to let the dog out to get some exercise on its own rather than taking it for a walk.<\/p>\n

An increase in the number of vehicle strikes could have a similar seasonal cause.<\/p>\n

In mid-winter many people were driving to or from work in the dark, when kiwi were active and more likely to be on the road.<\/p>\n

“It’s a beautiful problem to have, and it’s because we have kiwi literally living in our backyards.”<\/p>\n

Dog attacks on kiwi were entirely preventable, Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Heads, which had large numbers of kiwi and dogs, proved the birds and pets could coexist.<\/p>\n

In the past 20 years, the number of kiwi at the Heads had soared from about 80 to more than 1100, she said.<\/p>\n

Kiwi Coast had set up a ‘Know Your Dog’ course for owners who wanted to learn more about how to keep wildlife safe from their pets.<\/p>\n

The course aimed to fill a gap for owners of pet and lifestyle dogs because the long-standing kiwi aversion training courses were only effective for working and hunting dogs.<\/p>\n

One of the worst spates of kiwi deaths in recent times occurred at Wharau Road, east of Kerikeri, in 2015, when at least eight kiwi were mauled to death.<\/p>\n

After a lengthy investigation, three dogs were destroyed and two owners were fined for failing to keep their dogs under control.<\/p>\n

Multiple kiwi were also killed on Hansen Road, on the Bay of Islands’ Purerua Peninsula, in 2018 and early 2023.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dog owners letting their pets out for exercise instead of walking them on winter evenings could be a factor behind the\u00a0recent spate of kiwi deaths in Northland, a conservation group says. Figures from the Department of Conservation showed 20 kiwi have been killed in the Bay of Islands since May with 10 of those deaths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7071,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions\/7071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}