August 2024 Newsletter

Cape Sanctuary – a story

by Ewan McGregor (former regional co-ordinator for NZLT) from New Zealand. 

New Zealand is a unique country. Primarily, this is due to its isolation, sitting down here alone in the South Pacific. Recently a cabinet minister quipped that if we launched a rocket attack from our launching site, based on a small island at the northern tip of Hawke Bay on the North Island’s east coast, the country so attacked would have no idea from whence it came! My story here is also one fundamental to our isolation, but it’s our war on protecting our unique ecology. It is about one especially aspiring and major initiative, the Cape Sanctuary, based in this case, at the southern tip of Hawke Bay, given by Cook the enduring name of Cape Kidnappers. (Note: Cook named the bay Hawke’s Bay, but not the land. Upon European settlement the region took the name, and for distinction the bay had the ‘s’ dropped off.)

But first; what’s the problem? Indeed, it is a problem, and a big one. Because of our isolation New Zealand developed an absolutely unique ecology. We broke free from the great southern continent of Gondwana, beginning, it is believed, 80 million years ago. This was before the evolvement of mammals, so this land was mammal free, a couple of small bats apart, which, we can assume, flew across widening the gap. This’s as it was until the arrival of the Māori just a millennium ago. This compares with Australia where the Aborigine arrived maybe 60,000 years ago. Accordingly, our fauna, had no predators, and our flora no mammalian browsers. Many of our birds, then, were poor flyers, if they could fly at all, and were slow breeders, and our plants lacked thorns or unsavory taste.

The Māori’s main effect on our ecology was that of fire as they brought just a minuscule range of plants and animals, but the real revolution began with the arrival of Europeans in the mid-1800s. Apart from our uplifted mountain lands, which cover much of the country, by the First World War the New Zealand landscape had been changed profoundly and irrevocably. Most of our magnificent lowland bush had been forsaken to make way from pasture to be stocked with sheep and cattle, and even out mountain forests were being weakened, if not destroyed, by the explosion of deer and, later, possums. Alongside this was the devastation of our birdlife through predation by cats, mustelids and wild dogs and pigs, along with habitat loss. Some birds, such as the unique huia, had become extent, and the Māori had long hunted the mighty moa to extinction, and others, while others, like our very symbol, the kiwi, were in critical decline.

This was a situation that began to alarm the wider public of this country over the final quarter of the last century, though, of course, we had our environmental visionaries long before that, and dedicated efforts, both publicly and privately driven, began to take form. It is one of outstanding note that is the subject here. Cape Sanctuary is by far the largest privately owned. Initiated and funded in the country, the result of the commitment and generosity of the two landowners, one local – business man Andy Lowe and his wife Liz, and one from New York billionaire and philanthropist, the late Julian Robertson and his (also late) wife, Josephine. It must be emphasised that they are quick to pay tribute to the army of volunteers who put in the hard yards.

The sanctuary is triangular-shaped, with one side being precipitous cliffs facing Hawke Bay to the north, one side largely of coastal sand dunes facing the Pacific Ocean, and the third bordered by a 10.6-kilometer predator-proof fence, (costing $million a kilometer), completed in 2006. The sanctuary, though, is not just about ecological protection, that is the emphasis here, for it also embraces a working farm, this owned by Lowe, and a world-class golf course, along with tourist facilities to match, owned by Robertson. (The Cape Kidnappers Golf Course was completed in 2004 and is as of the world’s top courses.)

Cape Kidnappers has always been known for its gannet colony, covering the geologically dramatic tip of the peninsular. For years this was regarded as the only mainland sanctuary anywhere, but efforts to establish others have proved successful. It was noted by Captain James Cook in 1769 as he sailed past, and has long been a popular tourist attraction. Now it is just part of the wider sanctuary, but vital one. 

Two endeavours of the sanctuary’s development are predator knockdown and habitat restoration. Predator control has been a mighty effort from the start when extensive trap lines were laid along with poison drops. Main targets have been mustelids – stoats, ferrets and weasels – and wild cats, and possums, which destroy our palatable vegetation, but also predate on chicks and eggs. Rabbits, though more a pastoral pest, have been destroyed in great numbers. With an area of this size, it would be unrealistic to eliminate totally unwanted animals, (though hedgehogs have been eliminated) but, in any case, the ends of the fence do not extend into the sea, so animals are able to enter by going around the end, a bit like the panzers skirting the Maginot line of 1940. Here though, the pests are met with a minefield of traps. In total more than 1,400 traps have been set and 2200 bait stations laid behind the fence, and monitored by two full-time staff and multiple volunteers.

The site of the golf course is characterised by generally flat land intersected with a succession of deep ravines. Over the time of farming going back to the 1850s, stock had access through these areas, inhibiting regeneration. These, (alone with the golf course, naturally), are now stock excluded, and, after all these years, these gullies are regenerating. But there is much other land able that has been subject to continual grazing, or which is now in radiata pine plantation that is now being regenerated, or will be following logging. This is being enhanced by substantial native species planting. Stock for this is being grown in an on-site native plant nursery that would do justice to any commercial operation.

So today, the Sanctuary is home to more than 100 Little Spotted and Brown kiwi, along with rare or threatened species like the tuatara, takahe, weka, tomtit, whitehead, rifleman, robin, and a number of sea birds, including the blue penguin, most of which have not been seen in this region for many decades. Given the extent of the coastal boundary emphasis has been placed on sea birds through physical introductions or through enticement, including the broadcasting of the species call.

The Kiwi, our country’s very symbol – and our individual moniker – is an extraordinary bird. It is flightless, nocturnal and rare. Indeed, a few decades ago it was in danger of extinction. Accordingly, few Kiwis – that’s us – had ever heard its distinctive call, let along, seen one in the wild. That has changed, thanks to breeding programs in semi-natural but predator-controlled areas like this to the point where numbers are being reintroduced to the wild.

The kiwi hen lays usually just one egg annually, and no bird lays as big an egg in relation to the hen’s bodyweight as does the Kiwi. This is such an effort that the long incubation of 75-90 days is left to the male. Extraordinarily, 65% of the egg is yoke, this allowing the chick to fully develop, with feathers, upon hatching. Thereupon the male, in an act of self-satisfaction, abandons it, so within 24 hours the chick is on its own. One can imagine its vulnerability when predators were introduced by Europeans. This increase in the number of the kiwi, along with other struggling indigenous species has been made possible by an enormous commitment to predator knockdown. Keeping numbers low will, assumably, be perpetual. 

Two endangered species mentioned above are breeding successfully at Cape Sanctuary. The takahe, a colourful bird, was assumed to be extinct until rediscovered in a remote part of Fiordland in 1948. Another is the ancient reptile, the tuatara, endemic to New Zealand and the last survivor of an order of reptiles from the age of the dinosaurs.

Cape Sanctuary, the result of two families’ commitment, along with an army of volunteers, is a national treasure, if not an international one. It is a priceless gift to generations yet unborn.