Much cagou about something: New Caledonia’s favourite bird thriving after conservation push | New Caledonia

IIn the early hours of the morning, a powerful cry echoes through the Farino rainforest in southern New Caledonia. What sounds like a dog’s bark is actually the cry of a kagu. With its grey plumage and distinctive crown, this shy bird is difficult to spot among the trees.

This striking bird is an important cultural symbol of the French Pacific region and appears on stamps and banknotes. If a kagu feels under attack, it will stand upright, approach the predator while raising its crest into the air and roar. But the kagu, endemic to New Caledonia, faces a series of threats to its survival.

The bird is considered endangered, and experts estimate there are about 2,000 in New Caledonia. A “massacre” by predators in 2017 killed about three-quarters of the local population, according to Jorn Tuelkauf, a scientist who studies the bird in Farino. A similar incident three years later caused a further decline in the population. Kagus cannot fly or run fast, so they are easy prey for stray dogs, cats and wild boars, which trample on their crudely constructed nests on the ground.

However, efforts to protect and increase the population are paying off: a series of measures to protect the birds, including managing threats and tracking their movements, have led to their numbers increasing.

“population [in Farino] “The bird population has probably tripled since 2017, so we’re close to reaching the maximum number of birds we can see in the park,” Thürkauf said.

Tuelkauf and his colleague Henri Block from the Nature Warden Brigade have been studying birds at the Farino reserve for more than a decade.

The pair remember one morning in 2017, when they found the carcasses of at least 30 kagu with dog bite marks on their bodies. A similar incident occurred in 2020, leading the park to ban dogs, even those on leashes, and to implement a predator hunting program.

“Once a week, early in the morning, hunters search for and remove stray dogs,” Bullock said.

Since 2015, they’ve been monitoring the kagu more closely. Now, Block says, they track 15 “families” of one female and several males using transmitters and antennas attached to the birds’ backs. The devices map the kagu’s movements over areas of up to 15 hectares. Block estimates there are about 1,200 kagu in the park, and they are now tracking their movements to identify territories and keep an eye on predators.

“The transmitters allow us to track the birds within the park and find their nests, and we’ve also installed cameras to monitor the nests until the chicks hatch,” Block said.

Since taking these measures, families have begun to form again, Tuelkauf says. The birds have bred, and in recent years, the kagoose population has boomed. They’re nearly at the park’s limit, and Tuelkauf said, “We can’t let them grow any more, because if we did, there wouldn’t be enough food for them.”

Kagus are territorial animals that protect their land. Therefore, the more their numbers increase, the more conflicts there are between the birds. In such situations, the kagu crowns its head as a sign of dissatisfaction. The feathers on the top of its head stick up like a crown, and the bird slowly spreads its wings.

Efforts to protect the population have been ongoing for decades, with major programs beginning in the 1980s, when kagus were first listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), and Noumea’s Zoological and Forestry Park began breeding kagu and releasing them into Bleu Rivière Provincial Park, a few hours away.

The program ran for nearly 20 years, according to director Marianne Bonzon, and was “successful in releasing dozens of animals, allowing the park’s population to grow,” she said.

As of 2024, the zoo is They raise a breeding stable of 16 hens, each of which produces one or two chicks a year, which they often release into Parc de la Rivière Bleu after a few months, once the chicks are ready for the wild.

“We don’t feed them one day a week, so they have to find their own food,” Bonzon said.

In addition to the captive-bred birds, keepers also welcome wild kagooses. Injured animals are taken to the zoo’s veterinarians, who care for them for as long as necessary before releasing them back into the wild, Bonzon said.

In 1984, about 60 birds were thought to live in the Rivière Bleu Park. Today, park manager Jean-Marc Mériot, who has lived near the Kagus for more than 25 years, estimates the population at more than 1,000.

“There’s now a new pair of wild boars in the woodland,” said Meriot. Authorities conduct pest control operations twice a month, killing about 60 wild boars and several stray dogs each year, he said.

“The kagu population is doing extremely well, it’s constantly growing and things couldn’t be better,” Merriott said.