A young shore plover bird has successfully grown strong enough to leave its nest on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands, the first time this has happened there in about 150 years. The Shore Plover Recovery Group confirmed this information on Saturday.
The bird, known as the tūturuatu in te reo Māori and tchūriwat’ in the Moriori language, is native to the Chatham Islands.
Pitt Island is the second largest island in the group. Long ago, shore plovers lived there naturally. However, wild cats wiped out the birds on Pitt Island and also on mainland New Zealand during the 1870s.
Today, about 250 shore plovers exist in the world. Most live on the nearby islands of Māngere and Rangatira, as well as on Portland Island near the Māhia Peninsula in Hawke’s Bay.
The new chick survived thanks to a feral cat control programme run by the Pitt Island community. By reducing the number of wild cats, the programme helped the birds nest safely and allowed their chicks to survive after hatching.
Dave Houston, chairman of the recovery group, said the community worked hard on the project during the Jobs for Nature programme after the Covid pandemic. Their efforts helped create a safer place for the birds.
Houston hopes another chick will grow strong enough to leave its nest next year. He explained that the future of the birds on Pitt Island depends on keeping wild cat numbers low.
If cats were removed from the island completely, the number of shore plovers could grow much larger. Experts believe the world population could even double from about 250 birds to 500 or more.
