The SAVE group encourage you to join ‘The Great Kererū Count’ – 17-26 September 2021
This is New Zealand’s biggest citizen Science project to help gather information on the abundance and distribution of the New Zealand pigeon, also known as kererū, kūkū or kūkupa.
Kerurū are large plump pigeons native and endemic to New Zealand. They are found in North Island, South Island and Stewart Island as well as many of our off-shore Islands. Their preferred diet is berries from native species but they can be seen eating other introduced species.
“Kererū recovery is critical to the survival of New Zealand’s unique forests, because they are one of the only surviving mainland native species able to swallow the fruit of some of these forest trees. Some of these seeds need to pass through the gut of a bird to germinate, meaning the health of our forests is absolutely dependent on kererū”
https://www.wwf.org.nz/what_we_do/species/help_kereru/
Everyone in New Zealand can get involved with the ‘Great Kererū Count’. Whether you see any Kererū or not, sharing your observations with us will help build up a clearer picture of where the Kererū live, how many there are and what they are feeding on. Go to https://www.greatkererucount.nz/ for information on how you can help.
