Dog alert on Maungatautari

Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust, 24 July 08, http://www.maungatrust.org/news/default.asp.

Maungatautari Trust staff have raced to the southern enclosure to check on the health of two takahe and eight kiwi after Trust volunteers reported seeing one couple walking three dogs and another couple walking two dogs in the wildlife reserve.

"I can't believe how totally irresponsible these people have been," said Trust chief executive Jim Mylchreest.

"They knew they were entering a pest proof fenced wildlife reserve and with all the publicity we have had about our efforts to remove all the introduced mammalian pests, including dogs, it just defies belief that someone would even think about taking their dogs onto the mountain."

“The signs say ‘no dogs’ and while the three dogs were reported to be on leads one of the other two was not. There are fewer than 240 takahe left in the world, two of which are in the southern enclosure. The prospect that one careless act could result in the death of a critically endangered takahe or a treasured kiwi is unthinkable," Mr Mylchreest said.

Maungatautari Trust fauna ecologist Chris Smuts-Kennedy said that the two takahe were unharmed and transmitters attached to all kiwi in the southern enclosure indicated that they were still alive including the young Huatahi - the first kiwi chick to hatch on the mountain in 100 years.

“Kiwi haven’t got a sternum, the bone to which the wing muscles are normally attached. One relatively soft dog bite or nudge can kill a kiwi. While a mature kiwi can fend off a stoat it can’t defend itself against a dog. Uncontrolled dogs kill many kiwi in New Zealand every year."

Mr Mylchreest stressed that the enclosures on the mountain had been left freely accessible for everyone's enjoyment. Actions of a few people may force the Trust to reconsider this privilege. Anyone seeing a dog on the mountain is asked to report the situation and collect as much evidence as possible so that a prosecution can be taken under the Maungatautari Scenic Reserve Bylaw 2007.