Kōkako: restoring bird song to Mt Pirongia.
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Background reading, images, narrations, keywords and quizzes.
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Insights into people, their careers and recorded questions and answers from a LIVE web conference.
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Videos and more showcasing places, people, ideas and initiatives on this field trip (in English and Te Reo Māori).
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A diary of the kōkako field trip with images and notes.
About this trip
On this field trip you will help return kōkako to Mt Pirongia, after decades of hard work. You will be alongside an ecologist to safely capture kōkako from the remote Pureora Forest and care for them while they are transported and released on Mt Pirongia. It may make you think about helping to restore birdsong to your local area.
In the early 1900s kōkako were common in forests all over New Zealand but 90 years later, there were just 330 breeding pairs left. The haunting song of kōkako was destined to disappear. In the 1990s a public campaign had the last of the kōkako on Mt Pirongia removed so they wouldn't die out. Kōkako were seriously declining in number across the North Island as logging, land clearance and predators all took their toll. Hard work by scientists, the Department of Conservation, iwi and community groups over the past 25 years is helping kōkako numbers recover.
From Hamilton it is 130km south to Pureora Forest Park near Lake Taupo. Pureora forest was protected from logging in 1978 and is recognised as one of the finest rain forests in the world, with trees over 1,000 years old. Then you will follow the journey of translocated kōkako from Pureora to Mt Pirongia/Pirongia-o-Te Aroaro-ō-Kahu, which is an extinct volcano reaching 959 metres above sea level making it the highest point in the Waikato.
This online field trip supports a STEAM-based, cross curricular approach to teaching and learning. Participation encourages curiosity, citizen-science and student inquiry. Access the glossary. View the ambassador notes and the photo gallery.
This trip reflects the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 15: Life on land: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
