Pest faeces set in resin showing the remnants of birds and a toy puppet are just some of the tools helping engage children in kea conservation.
The Kea Conservation Trust, whose aim is to inspire communities to protect New Zealand’s unique mountain parrot, visited Murchison Area School recently.
The children learnt that kea are the only mountain parrot species in the world and are now listed as nationally endangered with low and declining numbers.
They explored some of the reasons why kea are so unique, including its high level of intelligence and the important role they play as alpine seed distributors and ‘cleaners’.
“It was fantastic,” says teacher Kathryn Dron.
“There were so many things to engage the children, including predator poop from stoats, rats and weasels that was set in resin, and we could all see little crushed up bones and feet.”
Other topics covered included how to best protect the kea, as well as threats to kea - including the management of lead which keas find attractive as it is soft to chew and has a sweet taste to them, however this can result in lead poisoning.
“There was some really practical messaging around how we can help the kea. Things such as changing the lead nails in your roof and predator control,” Kathryn says.
“Some of our students have been involved in trapping and predator control within the community so it was good to touch on this and the important role trapping plays.”
The birds’ inquisitive and explorative behaviour can cause conflict with people and damage to property, especially around campsites and carparks.
A toy kea puppet with a yellow tag on a leg gave students the opportunity to learn about the importance of bird bands, which are used to identify individual birds. Each band allows researchers to study the bird’s life cycle, habits, behaviour, breeding, and movements.
“We have kea in our local environment, so it was good messaging for us all to hear and learn,” says Kathryn.
Children continued to talk about the Kea Conservation Trust long after the visit and some wrote about it at writing time.
“When you get really good pieces of writing from the kids it’s a good indication that they enjoyed the visit and were really inspired from what they had learnt,” Kathryn says.
“Overall, it was a really valuable experience for us all.”
