Author:
Basse B.,McLennan J. A.,Wake G. C.
Abstract
An age-structured population analysis is used to determine recruitment levels
and a condition for survival which can assist management decisions and hence
improve the viability of populations of northern brown kiwi,
Apteryx mantelli, in forests on the New Zealand
mainland. Currently, in the absence of predator control, recruitment rates are
less than 5% due to high levels of stoat,
Mustela erminea, predation on juvenile kiwi. Predation
levels on adult kiwi are very low. The analysis predicts that a recruitment
rate of 19% is required to maintain population stability. To achieve
this target, stoat populations have to be reduced by about 80% in some
years, and maintained at a critical residual density estimated to be a value
less than two animals per square kilometre for up to nine months until
immature kiwi reach a safe size of about 1200 g (50% of their adult
weight). Recent predator-control initiatives indicate that stoat numbers can
be reduced and maintained at low levels in relatively small areas of mainland
forest (up to 1000 ha). New techniques are needed to protect kiwi over larger
areas.
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
40 articles.
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