Dear Mr Thomas

On behalf of the Director-General of the Department of Conservation, I confirm receipt of your below request.
Your request has been forwarded to the relevant business group for processing. You will receive a reply in accordance with the requirements of the Official Information Act 1982.

Kind regards

Emma Wolff
for Director-General

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Hi Mark

 

I am writing in response to your Official Information Act request
regarding information on every known kiwi death in the last year.  This
information is not held in a central database, and kiwi deaths attributed
to mustelid predation, misadventure, disease, dogs, cars and other causes
are collected at a local District Office level.  Due to the scale of the
request which entails collation of information that is spread in various
datasets both formal and informal throughout multiple offices, I am
touching base to determine whether it would possible to refine your
request so that we can best answer your question. 

 

If you could please let me know what information would be of most interest
to you by the end of next week (or sooner), I can work towards assessing
how we can progress delivering the information to you.

 

Best regards

 

Jess Scrimgeour                     

Technical Advisor Ecology - Mātanga Mātai Hauropi

Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai 

37 Motutaiko Street, Taupo, 3330

 

Conservation for prosperity Tiakina te taiao, kia puawai

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Hi Mark

The issue we are encountering is that where the Department has dedicated kiwi monitoring programme with transmitters, there is readily accessible information we can send you, although this still requires some time to contact those sites. It's the informal information that would be difficult to obtain, where members of the public may have handed in dead kiwi that have been hit by cars, killed by dogs etc.. Events like these occur sporadically and may be recorded in various formats at the local District level, either in our file system or on excel spreadsheets sitting on local drives. Without seeing that information I cannot tell how much information is available through that element, and would require a significant amount of time and effort to gather it.

I am asking whether we can refine the request to birds tracked with transmitters by the Department in the last two years that have died. Would that adequately answer the questions that you have?

Best regards

Jess Scrimgeour                     
Technical Advisor Ecology - Mātanga Mātai Hauropi
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai 
37 Motutaiko Street, Taupo, 3330

Conservation for prosperity Tiakina te taiao, kia puawai
www.doc.govt.nz

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Hi Mark

I would say it forms a very small percentage - at a guess maybe 5% or less. I'd be surprised if we have more than a couple of records for the South Island since there is so little opportunity to come across kiwi that are not monitored, and from my own experience I can say that the central, southern and eastern North Island has very little in the way of random dead birds handed in. I'm a little less familiar with Coromandel but suspect it's the same. Northland is probably the only region due to the frequency of encounters with dogs that might have a few records, but in comparison with the radiotracked information, it would still be a small aspect of the overall dataset. Are you comfortable for me to exclude this element and refine the request to radiotracking studies managed by the Department?

I'll continue the process for collating any known deaths of birds for the radiotracking information from projects managed by the Department in the meantime.

Sincerely

Jess Scrimgeour                     
Technical Advisor Ecology - Mātanga Mātai Hauropi
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai 
37 Motutaiko Street, Taupo, 3330

Conservation for prosperity Tiakina te taiao, kia puawai
www.doc.govt.nz

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Hi Mark

We can certainly provide our best guess of kiwi population by kiwi region rather than geographical region (i.e. western, eastern, Coromandel and Northland brown kiwi, Great Spotted Kiwi, LSK, Rowi, Haast tokoeka, North and South Fiordland tokoeka and Rakiura tokoeka). These estimates are just that - a bit of a rough guess based on the surveys and modelling we've done within these regions, but it'll give you an idea.

We can give a collation of kiwi deaths by project per annum from the last two years as per your original request, and to some degree this could be extrapolated to the entire region but not always. As an example, we've had ferrets cause a lot of kiwi deaths in Tongariro Forest over the last few weeks, which isn't necessarily reflected elsewhere.

In terms of monitoring undertaken by groups external to the Department, we do recognize those results where we have them. Reporting can be sporadic, and similar to the incidental records, can be stored in various places and forms (e.g. mostly in local repositories at local offices). We'll endeavour to include those results where we are aware of them, but it won't encompass all the work that is being undertaken outside of the Department. Hopefully what we can provide will answer the questions you have.

We'll be in touch soon

Best regards

Jess Scrimgeour                     
Technical Advisor Ecology - Mātanga Mātai Hauropi
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai 
37 Motutaiko Street, Taupo, 3330

Conservation for prosperity Tiakina te taiao, kia puawai
www.doc.govt.nz

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Good afternoon Mr. Thomas

 

I am writing in response to an Official Information Act request you
submitted to the Department of Conservation on 12 May 2018.  The
Department has supplied a time limit extension letter which has been
provided to you, attached to this email.  You should expect a follow-up
response from the Department no later than 20 July 2018, or earlier if
possible.

 

 

Regards,

Laura

Laura Mansfield
Personal Assistant
Julie Knauf, Director Terrestrial Ecosystems Unit
Department of Conservation—Te Papa Atawhai
DDI: +64 027 408 3525

National Office
Conservation House 18-32 Manners St | PO Box 10 420, Wellington 6143

Conservation leadership for our nature Tâkina te hî, Tiakina, te hâ o te
Âo Tûroa

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Dear Mark

 

Please see the attachments provided as a response to your Official
Information Act request to the Department of conservation:

 

‘I'd like to request a detailed dataset on how every known kiwi death has
occurred in the last two years.

 

This dataset should be by kiwi identifier if known, and include location
of death, region, park or reserve in which the bird died, cause of death,
date of death, age and any evidence available to support the claim as to
cause of death.’

 

 

Regards,

Julie

 

Julie Knauf, Director – Terrestrial Ecosystems- Kaihautû, Pûnaha Taiâo

Biodiversity Group - Kâhui Kanorau Koiora
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai
18-32 Manners St.
P.O.Box 10-420, Wellington 6011

Ph: 027 408 3528                    E: [1][email address]

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Caution - This message and accompanying data may contain information that
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