A decade of rehabilitating raptors has been celebrated with the opening of a new falcon/kārearea captive breeding facility in Timaru.
On Sunday, The New Zealand Raptor Trust celebrated its 10th anniversary by officially opening its new $250,000 captive breeding facility that had been in the works since 2021.
Trust chairwoman Jenni Fraser said the facility was now one of only three accredited falcon breeding programmes in New Zealand.
“It feels almost unreal that we’ve got here — a lot of work has gone in to it and it’s just been quite ongoing. We started in 2021 when we first met Stella [an injured New Zealand falcon] and she came into our lives.
“We realised she couldn’t go back to the wild and we didn’t have a permit to keep her. We thought ‘what are we going to do?’ and we sent her up to Blenheim to the breeding programme up there, thinking our permit might only take a few months, but it took a couple of years or more.
“In May last year we got that permit, and then we had to get a second permit to release them into the wild and that came through at Christmas time. In the meantime, we thought we’d better get a facility built.”
While in Blenheim, Stella met a male falcon called Jet and the pair bonded.
Mrs Fraser said a deal was then worked out to bring Stella along with Jet back to Timaru to be the trust’s first breeding pair.
“We then had another falcon injured in South Canterbury a year ago called Bonnie, and she was found in a chicken coop. She’d stabbed her eyes or something so she has gone blind in one eye since we’ve had her, but we’ve recently had Iana come to us from Rotorua and he’s going to be Bonnie’s boyfriend.
“So we have two breeding pairs now. It’s almost unreal to be able to walk in to the facility and see four falcons, since they are endangered [with only around 7000 birds remaining].”
It was amazing to now have the facility officially open,she said.
“We’re going to be able to able to help them so that future generations in South Canterbury will be able to see more falcons.
“The falcons we’ve got are injured and won’t ever survive in the wild but their chicks will. So the parents will stay permanently with us and the chicks will be released out into the wild.
“It’s just amazing to think that we’re going to be able to help with conservation and increasing their numbers out there from right here.”
Since the trust was established, it has rehabilitated 548 raptors: 392 hawks, 147 owls and nine falcons.
They have also released 175 raptors back into the wild.
Mrs Fraser said the target for the facility, which had six enclosures, was to have five breeding pairs and a single.
“We’ve also got enough space in our plans in the future to double the capacity of this falcon facility. Where we’ve built it on site, there’s also enough space behind it to add on exactly the same again.
“We’re actually heading into the breeding season now, and so we’re hoping that Stella and Jet may produce babies this year but there is no expectations for them.”
She was very thankful to everyone involved in making the new facility a reality.
“We got some grants from places like the lotteries, The Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury and The Ruby Effect Trust. With those local grants and money we were able to build the facility.
“We have also had very good support from the tradies involved in building the facility, they were very generous with their time and what they charged us. I think the facility would have cost a heck of a lot more if they hadn’t have helped us there and we may not have been able to open it this year.
“Vetlife sponsor us and we don’t pay any fees for any of the bird care through them. They’ve been with us for some time and we appreciate everything they’ve done for us.”’
She would also love to see younger volunteers getting involved with the trust to ensure it could keep continuing its work into the future, Mrs Fraser said.
Anyone interested in volunteering with the NZ Raptor Trust or “Uber driving” injured raptors is encouraged to contact the trust on 021 896-268 for more information.
