A North Island brown kiwi. Photo: Supplied / Rod Morris
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is considering whether it needs to revise trap standards after a "determined" kiwi was killed when its bill was caught in a pest trap.
The dead North Island brown kiwi was found by a member of the public on Saturday in Northland's Puketi-Omahuta Forest, west of the Bay of Islands.
The person then alerted DOC.
Kiwi Recovery Group technical advisor Emily King said the trap in question, a DOC200 housed in a wooden box, had been examined and was found to comply with best practice.
Despite that, a determined kiwi managed to make its way in and had its beak trapped.
"This has happened on several other occasions but remains a rare, unfortunate occurrence."
King said DOC reviewed incidents where protected species had been captured, and considered whether modifications to trap standards were required.
"These traps present a very low risk to native species given the benefits predator control provides to wider populations … While an individual kiwi death is upsetting for all of us, if it weren't for this kind of trapping, we wouldn't have the growing kiwi populations we have today."
King said the Puketi kiwi was the 17th known to have been killed in a DOC-series trap since 2008.
That was despite more than 100,000 of the traps being in use around the country.
The number of kiwi caught was also a tiny proportion of the kiwi populations protected through the use of traps.
She said kiwi were particularly vulnerable to introduced predators such as stoats.
Without trapping only 6 percent of kiwi chicks survived to adulthood, but with proper predator control that figure could be increased to 60 percent, King said.
Puketi-Omahuta Forest is home to a major pest trapping and forest restoration project by the volunteer group Puketi Forest Trust.
However, DOC Bay of Islands operations manager Bronwyn Bauer-Hunt said the trap in question had been laid not by the trust but by DOC.
She said it was part of a trap network in Omahuta Forest aiming to protect a rare population of native short-tailed bats.
The DOC200 trap is designed for mustelids such as stoats and weasels, but is also effective for rats.
Best-practice specifications require the trap box to have an entry hole no bigger than 60mm x 60mm, and an entry chamber at least 130mm long.
If both those specifications are met, it should be impossible - in theory - for a kiwi to stick its beak inside the box and reach the trap plate.
King said some of the recorded kiwi deaths had occurred when trapping standards had not been followed.
DOC was continually working to make sure best practice was well communicated to everyone trapping in kiwi habitats, she said.
