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Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Captive kea
Captive rearing is used with a number of our endangered native species, including kea.
Some kea are held captive in New Zealand for three main purposes:
- Education – to raise public awareness of kea; the issues facing kea in the wild and how people can help protect them.
- Research – using captive kea to better understand the species and threats to the species through controlled and ethical trials.
- Insurance population – holding a viable, genetically diverse healthy population of kea to breed from to boost the wild population if need be.
A permit is required to hold kea in captivity in New Zealand. Permits are managed by the Department of Conservation and are issued for a 5 year term. High standards must be met to hold kea in captivity. Currently there are just over 60 kea held in 20 registered facilities throughout New Zealand.
Many of these kea are genetically important and could be used in future breeding programmes.
Captive kea to ensure the kea population
Well-run zoos throughout the world work cooperatively to hold self-sustaining captive populations of threatened species. These populations are sometimes viewed and managed as insurance populations. They preserve important genetics to boost wild populations which have declined to a point where the total population is critically threatened.
A number of New Zealand’s critically endangered birds have captive rearing programmes like this to boost numbers in the wild.
They include:
- kiwi
- kākāpō
- takahē
- kākā
These programmes could be adapted for kea.
Captive kea for research
Keas in captivity provide a good opportunity for researchers to study kea behaviour. All research projects must be approved as ethical so kea are not harmed.
The Kea Conservation Trust has studied captive kea to:
- Test the response to repellents used on pre-feed pellets so kea don’t eat 1080 pellets in the wild
- Test the response to surface repellents applied to objects to stop kea from playing with pest control bait stations and traps
- Test the response to a surface stoat repellent to ensure kea are not repelled from areas where it is applied
- Investigate nesting behaviour and track development to better understand how to age chicks in the wild
- Investigate captive kea behaviour to better understand how to look after keas in captivity.
Captive kea for education
Captive kea allow people to learn about, appreciate and understand wild kea. Kea in the wild are often considered a nuisance and as such are still at risk from people who get angry with keas who damage their property.
It is important for people to understand that kea are highly intelligent and inquisitive and it is up to people to ‘kea proof’ their property when entering their environment.
Complete the Captive kea quiz >
How could you help educate others about kea? Come up with your own way to present guidelines to people entering kea country to help them better understand kea.