Blog | Kea Database

To date, 1.5 tonnes of lead has been removed from buildings in the Golden Bay and Takaka areas alone. Not all of the builders weigh their scrap lead, but the estimate is that approaching 6 tonnes has been removed in total in the South Island. The Kea Conservation Trust’s (KCT) lead removal project runs until … Continue reading Lead Removal Update: October 2023

The Kea Conservation Trust’s lead removal project has been continuing in the Arthur’s Pass and Matukituki/Mt. Aspiring regions. Here’s a short update copied from an email by the Trust’s project manager, Peter Fraser, about the work completed in the Arthur’s Pass area. Rob plans to finish another 4 properties this season before the weather closes … Continue reading Update: KCT lead removal project

Since our project launched to the public in mid–2017, we have had thousands of observations from across Te Waipounamu/the South Island. From tourists crossing the Great Divide, to trampers traversing the furthest reaches of our wilderness; hunters in the backcountry to community conservationists, we are lucky to have had such great engagement in our project. … Continue reading 10000+ kea observations!

You may notice that from today the Kea Database loads much faster than before, and that’s because Kea Database data is now hosted in New Zealand! Courtesy of the open source experts at Catalyst, it’s now living on the powerful GIS Core platform, using the Catalyst Cloud. Founded in Wellington and now spanning the globe, … Continue reading Kea data moves to New Zealand!

This season I’m a hut ranger at Luxmore Hut on the Kepler Track in Fiordland. Some people ask me what it’s like working alone for 8 days at a time. But the truth is, I’m rarely alone. There are plenty of trampers, either arriving at the hut for the night, or passing through on their … Continue reading “The Kea Blues” – a guest piece by Janine Martig

Peak summertime can feel like a wonderful place in the South Island mountains. This year it feels alive, almost burgeoning with young kea fledglings in some places. Twin Stream valley (near Glentanner), for instance, has had a group of at least 12 young kea through January 2020. Some of them are shown in this incredible … Continue reading Summer in the mountains – return of the kea gangs

Here at the Kea Sightings Database, we are honoured to receive dozens of kea sighting contributions every day. We also get lots of folks sending us in brilliant photos of kea in a large range of situations. We rely a LOT on the photos sent in to us by all of you, for using on … Continue reading Photo of the Month (Dec ’19)

It’s that time of year again—Forest & Bird’s annual bird of the year competition is now open for votes (closes 5pm Sunday 10 November)! This year you’re able to vote for your five preferred birds. Our first preference is always going to be the kea, but we’re also keen to support our bird friends such … Continue reading It’s Bird of the Year time again!

Myself and Laura Young were fortunate to be featured in a recent episode of RNZ’s fantastic “Our Changing World” podcast, superbly produced by Alison Ballance. Have a listen to the podcast episode (below), or alternatively read the full article on RNZ. Continue reading Kea featured on ‘Our Changing World’

As of this week, the Kea Database (https://keadatabase.nz) is now the one place for all kea sightings. The database was first launched in 2017 by the Kea Sightings Project team in 2016 (Laura Young, Mark Brabyn and George Moon), and since then has received over 3200 sightings of kea from across the South Island. The … Continue reading One place for kea sightings