This male buff weka has been trying to woo the females at
Doc's island breeding programme on Lake Wanaka after his
breeding partner died and left him lost and lonely.
A lovelorn weka is going the distance in a bid to woo the
females of Lake Wanaka.
A 9-year-old male buff weka has been left lost and lonely,
after his female mate died during winter at the Department of
Conservation's Stevensons Island breeding programme.
The weka has developed a reputation among Doc staff to rival
that of Shakespeare's Romeo in a quest to find new love.
After his partner's death, the lonely male tried breaking up
the island's four remaining breeding pairs; picking on the
blokes and trying to woo the females away.
To try to solve the problem, he was moved to another island
on Lake Wanaka - Mou Waho, 4km away - to start a new life.
However, Doc officers were stunned to discover less than 10
days later the bird was back on what he obviously regarded as
his home island.
Unless he had hitched a ride on a passing boat, he must have
swum from Mou Waho to the Peninsula, then tackled the second
discipline in his 4km "love duathlon", an overland crossing,
before taking to the water again for another swim to
Stevensons Island.
Doc said he then "created havoc" on the island by incessantly
pacing the wire of the female wekas' compound and calling
out.
Rangers captured the weka and put him in the island's
quarantine compound.
There are plans to transfer him to Pigeon Island on Lake
Wakatipu, where Doc believes he will have a good chance of
finding a mate.
Doc said the "strong and healthy bird with a determined
attitude" was no stranger to island life, being one of the
original importation from the Chatham Islands in 2000.
They were the first buff weka on the New Zealand mainland
since 1920.
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