ＮＺ首都、１００年ぶりにキウイ再導入

【ウェリントンＡＦＰ＝時事】ニュージーランドの国鳥キウイが、首都ウェリントンの緑豊かな丘におよそ１００年ぶりに戻ってきた。首都とその周辺から捕食者となる外来種を排除する努力が実った形だ。（写真は慈善財団「キャピタル・キウイ・プロジェクト」のメンバーに抱かれるキウイ。ニュージーランド ・ウェリントンで）
　１０００年前のニュージーランドは正真正銘の「鳥の楽園」だった。だが、１２００年代にポリネシア人が移り住み、その数百年後に欧州人がやって来ると一変した。
　船に乗っていたネズミは固有種の鳥などを捕食した。さらに、あらゆる種や木の実を食い荒らし、固有種のえさが激減した。
　ウサギは瞬く間に繁殖し、農地を食い荒らした。さらにウサギ駆除のために導入されたイタチが、ミソサザイやツグミ、フクロウやウズラを捕食した。
　固有種で飛べないフクロウオウム（カカポ）やキウイの個体数は激減した。
　自然保護当局の推計では、野生のキウイは約７万羽しか残っていない。
　だが、現在、全国で９０以上の民間団体が保護活動に取り組んでおり、個体数は再び増加傾向にある。
　その一つが、政府からの多額の助成金や個人の寄付で運営されている慈善団体「キャピタル・キウイ・プロジェクト」だ。
　プロジェクトの発起人でリーダーのポール・ウォードさんはキウイについて、「マオリ神話の中心的存在だ。ラグビーなどのスポーツチーム、軍、そしてニュージーランド人自身も海外で『キウイ』と呼ばれている」と話した。
　「キウイはタフで、強くて適応力がある。私たちがニュージーランド人らしさだと思う価値を備えている。だが、ニュージーランド人の大多数はキウイを見たことがない」
　ウォードさんは、ウェリントン地域では野生のキウイは１００年以上前に消えたと考えている。
　キウイ保護には継続的な活動が不可欠だった。
　プロジェクトではまず、飛べないキウイの天敵対策に取り組んだ。
　ウェリントンに住む犬の飼い主を対象に、散歩の際に犬がキウイに近づかないようしつける講座を開いた。
　また、ウェリントンを取り囲む山のサッカー場４万３０００面分の面積に４５００個のわなを設置。これまでにイタチ１０００匹が捕獲された。
　プロジェクトは昨年１１月、第一陣を放鳥した。
　第一陣のキウイは、飼育地から５００キロ離れたウェリントンの学校に移送され、伝統的なマオリの儀式が執り行われた。
　定期検診では、第一陣の生育は順調であることが分かっている。
　ウォードさんによると、今後５年でキウイ２５０羽が放鳥される予定だ。
　キウイ特有の甲高い鳴き声がウェリントン郊外の日常生活の一部となることが願いだという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/05/24-17:29）

New Zealand's treasured kiwi birds are shuffling around Wellington's verdant hills for the first time in a century, after a drive to eliminate invasive predators from the capital's surrounds.
Visitors to New Zealand a millennium ago would have encountered a bona fide birdtopia -- islands teeming with feathered creatures fluttering through life unaware that mammalian predators existed.
The arrival of Polynesian voyagers in the 1200s and Europeans a few hundred years later changed all that.
Rats picked off snipe-rails and petrels, mice chewed through all the seeds and berries they could find, leaving little for native birds to peck on.
Possums -- introduced for fur -- stripped trees bare. Rabbits bred like, well, rabbits, devouring meadows and paddocks alike.
Heaping disaster upon disaster, stoats were introduced to kill the rabbits but instead killed wrens, thrushes, owls and quails.
The population of native flightless birds like the kakapo and kiwi plummeted.
The Department of Conservation estimates there are only around 70,000 wild kiwi left in New Zealand.
Despite the bird being a beloved national symbol, few New Zealanders have seen one in the wild.
However, numbers are rising again thanks to more than 90 community initiatives working nationwide to protect them.
One such group is The Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust backed by millions of dollars from government grants and private donations.
- Special connection -
Ever since people came to New Zealand, we have had a special connection to the kiwi, founder and project leader Paul Ward told AFP.
They are central to Maori myth. Our sports teams, our rugby league teams, our defence force and, even when we go overseas, we are known as kiwis.
They are tough, resilient, adaptable, all values we think of as New Zealanders, but most of us have never seen a kiwi before.
Ward estimates wild kiwi last roamed the Wellington area more than a century ago.
The bid to save them required a sustained conservation effort.
The project had to first deal with the kiwi's natural enemies prowling through the undergrowth.
Local dog owners were invited to sessions to teach their pets to steer clear of kiwi while out for walks.
The project also had to declare war on stoats.
An adult kiwi can fight off a stoat using its powerful legs and sharp claws but a chick has no chance, Ward explained.
The project laid a huge network of 4,500 traps over an area equivalent to nearly 43,000 football pitches on the hills surrounding Wellington. The traps have claimed 1,000 stoats so far.
After blitzing stoats, as Ward puts it, the predator population was low enough for the project to release the first batch of kiwi last November.
The birds were carefully transported nearly 500 kilometres (310 miles) from a captive breeding programme to a Wellington school, where they were welcomed by a traditional Maori ceremony.
Ward said a hush came over the 400-strong crowd as they caught their first glimpse of a kiwi when the first bird was released.
- Rare sightings -
The power of that moment was palpable, he said. Our job is to bottle that and spread it across the hills of Wellington.
Regular check-ups show that the first wave is thriving.
Two months after we released the birds, we were ecstatic to discover they had gained weight, Ward said.
One had put on 400 grams -- that's a considerable weight gain even for a human over Christmas or Easter. There's plenty of food for them on these hillsides.
Ward said the goal is to release 250 birds over the next five years to establish a large wild kiwi population.
He wants their distinctive shrill cry to become part of everyday life on the outskirts of the capital.
It's our duty to look after the animal that's gifted us its name, Ward said.
As one of our volunteers said, 'if we can't look after the thing we're named after we deserve to be renamed idiots'.