Hawkes Bay hunter may have bagged 'oldest bird'

Hawkes Bay hunter may have bagged 'oldest bird'

How does a mallard duck manage to survive for what may be a record thirteen long years – in a Hawkes Bay area where plenty of hunters turn out every season?

It’s a question that senior Eastern Fish & Game officer and long-time mallard researcher, Matt Mc Dougall, has been pondering.

A Hastings hunter, James Horn, has filed a late return with details of the birds he shot in June to show that he harvested the juvenile female at Te Roto Kare near Fernhill, more than 13 years after it was banded there. In fact, it was one of the first ducks to be banded in the Hawkes Bay in early 2000.

Mr Mc Dougall says he was pretty surprised to see the age of the duck, shot in the same place it had been banded after so many years – given “harvest pressure” in the area.

It’s impossible to pin down exactly how it managed to survive for so long, he says. “Some ducks get lucky but the majority of banded birds don’t even make it to two years old. It certainly looked from a photo as if it had been through the mill.”

It had perhaps “gone away and come back,” spending some time out of the district. “Or it might have been hanging round with the chooks in someone’s back garden.”

But whatever its movements, it had been captured on three separate occasions during Fish & Game’s summer banding programmes, always at Te Roto Kare, the first time in 2004, and the last in 2012.

Fish & Game says that up until now, the oldest game bird recovered in the Fish & Game Eastern and Hawke’s Bay regions, since records began over 16 years ago, had come from Tauranga.

Local hunter Brian Rogers was stunned last year, after sending in the band, to hear that the bird he bagged was nearly 11 years-old.

Mr Mc Dougall says that since the beginning of the game bird monitoring programme, the country’s longest-running continuous one, 20,083 mallards and greys have been banded.

The programme has shown that 86% are recovered within 50 kilometres from where they’re banded. However one striking exception was an adult mallard banded at Lake Rununga in the Hawkes Bay which was recovered down south,1014 kms away just out of Invercargill.

He says it’s great for Fish & Game to receive this banding information from hunters like James Horn, which all helps them to assess “what the different game bird populations are doing,” and then determine regulations including bag limits and season length.

“We’d be very keen to hear from other Hawkes Bay hunters about their bands (by phoning 0800-434-742) if they haven’t sent the details in. We encourage them to take the time to send in their returns.”

Mr Mc Dougall says banding helps Fish & Game determine productivity, population size, movement and of course – as seen here – survival rates. When a band is returned to us we know how long that bird has survived for, and with all the bands returned, we can estimate how long the average bird survives for.

Mr Mc Dougall says that Fish & Game is naturally pleased to see hunters like James getting the most from their game bird licences, hunting past the opening of the season and passing on this vital information.

“ And don’t forget that those who send their band details in go in the draw for a free game bird licence for the following season.”

ends

© Scoop Media