The deaths have been “deeply disappointing”, Conservation Division director Andrew Baucke stated in a press release.
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The endangered birds, a native species of New Zealand, were shot by members of New Zealand Deerstalkers Association-which protects hunters’ rights-during a cull of a different, non-endangered bird, the pukeko.
The deerstalkers were contracted by the government to carry out a cull of the common pukeko bird in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf but the blundering marksmen killed four takahē birds.
DOC was in talks with the association, which is said to be “co-operating fully” with inquiries.
Before the shootings there were 22 birds on Motutapu Island, one of the conservation department’s predator-free “security sites”.
Culling, the reduction of a population by selective slaughter, is not an unusual practice in New Zealand, nor a stigmatized one.
He says DOC has put a halt to any future operations to cull pukeko near takahe populations while it conducts its investigation and a review of procedures for such operations.
The hunters were carefully briefed on how to tell the difference between them, including instructions to only shoot birds on the wing, he said.
“We’re very conscious of the fact that the birds are an endangered species and that was the goal of the cull on pukekos because of the damage that they do to nests and to eggs”.
There are about 300 takahe in the world, he said. Their arrival and expansion continues to threaten native birds like the takahe-a species that’s been slowly recovering since the birds once thought extinct were rediscovered on New Zealand’s South island in 1948.
“I share with the department a concern that the deaths will affect efforts to save an endangered species”, Mr O’Leary says.
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said she’s “disappointed and deeply saddened” and Labour’s conservation spokeswoman, Ruth Dyson, is demanding a full explanation.
“I apologise to the department and to the country at large”, he said.
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The president of New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA), who were responsible for the culling, said he was appalled by the error.
