Hutton's shearwater is one of the few seabird species that has survived on the mainland of New Zealand. Although it was known to have bred elsewhere in the Kaikoura Ranges and in North Canterbury, now just two colonies remain in the Seaward Kaikoura Rangers at altitudes of between 1200 and 1600m which probably has a lot to do with their survival there.
Around March each year, after the breeding season, Hutton's shearwater migrate across the Tasman to spend the winter in Australian waters. They return to their mountain breeding colonies in August. Their burrows are often still buried under snow but when it melts they relocate their burrows amongst the tussock and inside them lay a single egg. The young hatch in December and fledge during March.
During the breeding season, flocks of adult Hutton's shearwater birds gather off the Kaikoura coast where they feed on surface crustacean or dive for small fish. After dark, they fly into the colony to incubate the egg or feed the young. The current population is estimated at 190,000 breeding pairs.
The main breeding colony, at the headwaters of the Kowhai River, was discovered in 1965 by Geoff Harrow, an amateur Christchurch ornithologist, who has recently, in 2005, established the Shearwater Charitable Trust, to fund efforts to eradicate predators in the area. The Board of Alpine Discovery Ltd, who own the land in that area, endorsed the setting up of a charitable trust for the protection of the endangered seabird and also set in motion the process to have the entire upper part of the area protected in perpetuity under a QE11 National Trust Protection Covenant. This area is now known as the Puhi Peaks Nature Reserve. A diorama of the Hutton's shearwater in the mountain lodge near the breeding site has been put together by noted artist Sam Mahon who has designed and built a replica of a section of cliff face, complete with burrows and stuffed specimens of the birds and backed with a photographic skyscape showing the petrels in flight under the light of a full moon. The charitable trust will own the diorama, for which Alpine Discovery Ltd will pay an annual rental. Hikers stopping at Cameron Lodge on Alpine Discovery's Kaikoura wilderness walkway will be able to study the diorama. They will be able to match it with their view of the breeding site, 300m above the lodge on a nearby slope
In pre-European times, the titi was a sustainable food source for Maori. The birds could be preserved in a poha (kelp bag) for up to two years. If not eaten, they could also be traded amongst different Ngai Tahu Hapu. The introduction of predators and changes due to land development brought an end to the customary harvest.
Greytown, 2006
