Shock after birds removed from sanctuary

Te Anau residents are feeling betrayed by an early decision to remove birds from the town’s beloved bird sanctuary before a community consultation process ends.

Residents have reacted with shock, anger and disappointment after the Department of Conservation decided to move the two blue ducks (kōwhiowhio/whio) away from the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary Te Punanga Manu by early yesterday and they are worried about the rest.

But the site’s owner says the birds will be returned, and possibly more besides, to what could in time be a "grander" wildlife park.

The sanctuary was home to 16 birds: four brown teal (pāteke), the two blue ducks (kōwhiowhio/whio), four Antipodes Island parakeets (kākāriki), and six South Island takahē, two of which are chicks.

After a review last year, Doc decided it would no longer manage the sanctuary in favour of "higher priority" conservation work.

And while there were no plans to rehome takahē pairs from the sanctuary, there had been no decision on a management plan for the other species.

Earlier this month, Doc, regional development agency Great South, site owners Southland Fish & Game and iwi Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka asked the public for input, encouraging people to submit their ideas on the future of the park before August 3.

But late on Monday, Doc announced it was going to move the birds, other than the takahē, to new homes in the coming months as it wound down operations at the sanctuary.

The two blue ducks were moved yesterday to be taken to Isaacs Wildlife Conservation Trust in Christchurch.

Two community groups set up to save the sanctuary have united and will meet Southland MP Joseph Mooney today with a member of the Tauri family, who own a holiday park across the road from the sanctuary, and a representative from Distinction Hotels Group, which has two hotels in the town, to ask for help to save the park.

Advocacy group Save the Sanctuary spokesman Ken Browne said his group believed Fish & Game and Doc had an agenda that did not align with the community’s interests, which was to remove the birds before the consultation concluded and then implement none of the community’s ideas.

"I feel absolutely gutted. I feel like we’ve been betrayed, basically," he said.

A representative of a second advocacy group, Save the Te Anau Bird Park and Sanctuary, will also be at the meeting.

The group’s steering committee chairman, Roger Stephenson, said the Te Anau community was "shocked, angry and disappointed" when they found out Doc was planning to move the birds out of the sanctuary.

The sanctuary was an important part of the town’s tourism industry and tour buses often stopped there so visitors could explore, he said.

Some companies had told him they were worried the sanctuary ultimately would be closed and they would lose a stop on their tours.

When contacted yesterday, Fish & Game Southland manager Zane Moss said "the reality" was the infrastructure of the sanctuary was not fit for purpose and something needed to change.

He was hopeful a "grander" wildlife park experience would come out of the community consultation.

The birds would return after the process had concluded and the sanctuary’s future was decided, he said.

"There is scope to have a whole host of bird species, far more than are currently there at the moment.

"Mana whenua are leading that process but we’re very much looking at the opportunities to develop some infrastructure there that will provide real value for Te Anau and the Southland community."

He could understand Doc’s reasoning for making changes to the bird sanctuary as it had limited funding and he supported its decision.

Fish & Game will care for the takahē.

Great South regional strategy general manager Bobbi Brown said the consultation process continued and so far 43 submissions have been received.

The process was about looking into the long-term future and nothing was off the table, she said.

Doc Te Anau operations manager John Lucas acknowledged the community’s disappointment about the rehoming of some of the birds.

However, Doc could not continue to operate the park because of financial challenges.

"Reducing the number of species at the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary is a temporary measure to ensure Doc can safely continue managing the site with reduced capacity.

"This has not been an easy process or decision."

mark.john@odt.co.nz