The Return of the Lory
Posted at 9:55 am May 9, 2007 by Alan Lieberman
The island paradises of Atiu and Rimatara share many things: fine tropical weather, abundant vegetation, wonderful cultures, and hospitable communities. Most importantly, they once shared a common bird. The Cook Island Maori on Atiu call the bird kura and the Polynesians on Rimatara call the bird ‘ura. Western science calls the bird Rimatara lorikeet or Kuhl’s lory Vini kuhlii. The kura became extinct on Atiu 200 years ago. The Maori royalty so coveted its spectacular plumage for adornment that it was hunted to extinction. But two weeks ago, we helped change this story, and now the bird can once again be seen on Atiu!
photo by Jenny Elliott
Through the generous cooperation of the Rimatara people and the French Polynesia government, and in collaboration with the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, 27 ‘ura were taken from Rimatara and flown to Atiu where they were released and changed their citizenship to be called kura. Staff from CRES had the honor of helping to collect the birds using mist nets, caring for the birds in quarantine, and evaluating the birds’ condition to ensure that only healthy birds were taken to Atiu. The effort was a complete success. All the birds ate well, maintained weight within reasonable limits, and flew well upon release. What a relief to see the birds fly in their new home, cheered on by enthusiastic Maori chants wishing them well, a long life, and many chicks! (Alan is picture here with Queen Rongomatane Ariki and one of the 27 translocated birds.)
CRES staff is planning to return in the coming year to survey the island for kura to document survivorship and hopefully reproduction, the ultimate goal of a successful program. A fine sight it will be to see the kura once again established on Atiu.
Alan Lieberman is a conservation program manager at CRES.
Here’s more information about lories and lorikeets.
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May 9th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
What a gorgeous bird!
May 9th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Yes indeed…. it’s a shame photos can’t do its brilliance true justice. To call it a feathered jewel isn’t quite enough. Seen in the wild, one can understand why the Maori and Polynesian royalty so coveted their feathers. Their brilliant colors are startling and to gather enough of the red feathers to actually weave garments was a true mark of distinction. When seamen from Cook’s ships first landed on Atiu, the sign of royal status was one red Kura feather worn through a hole in the earlobe. Only the royalty could wear such a feather.
We were honored to be part of such a repatriation effort for this wonderful parrot. The community of Rimatara should be recognized for allowing us to catch their special bird and share it with their neighbors on Atiu.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Alan, I was in South Carolina a few years ago and they have a place called Butterfly Pavillion. They have a room and they have lorikeets they drink a nectar that you can buy, they flock around the people and go crazy for the nectar.these birds look similar are related.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Alan, two questions. What are “Mist Nets?” And are you single?
May 11th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
It must have been a very touching and triumphant moment when the beautiful kura returned to their ancient home after 200 years! Kudos to the Rimatara people for their generosity and Bravo! to CRES for facilitating this repatriation.
And Alan, do you like brownies?
May 13th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Thanks for the blog spot on the “Kura Rimatara” Alan. This is another proposed name for the ‘ura now on Atiu. The kura rimatara still flies. Today I saw a pair and heard 3 other birds flying over Atiu Villas in 6 hours while working to catch up on one months accumulated email. It may be that just listening in one spot will be the way to monitor bird numbers. The kura rimatara do not appear to be staying in one place for long and are being sighted and heard everywhere. We look forward to your return to Atiu next year.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:28 am
Way to go Alan! I hope ZSSD appreciates all your efforts - you’ve done an outstanding job over the past many years.
Mahalo, Rosie
May 15th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Thank you all for the interesting and colorful comments and questions. To address your inquiries:
1. I like brownies, but as the photo above clearly documents, I should stay away from such things.
2. I am happily married to the woman of my dreams… and interestingly enough, my wife Cyndi Kuehler initiated and has been involved in the Vini lory conservation project in French Polynesia since 1989.
3. Mist nets are nets made of super-fine denier nylon thread that come in various lengths and widths (usually 30′-60′ long, 7′ wide) that can be stretched in the air across “flyways”, catching the birds that are targeted. It causes no harm to the birds; they often dangle in the net awaiting removal by the biologist. Good question though…. maybe I’ll write a blog w/photo on the process of mist-netting.
4. The comment by Dr. Malcolm is very interesting and encouraging. The Kura seem to be settling in very well in Atiu and adjusting to the new scenery, gardens and human proximity. By the way, Dr. Malcolm was a key participant in setting up the project and was most helpful in the process of catching and maintaining the birds in Rimatara and releasing them on Atiu. The birds can be seen easily from the verandas of his mini-resort on Atiu if any birders wish to add Vini kuhlii to their lifelist.
Thank you all again for your keen interest. It was great fun and the results thus far are very satisfying.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Alan,
This is a fascinating and worthwhile project. I’m really pleased that it went so well.
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:22 am
Hello Alan,
I’m just back from the Cook Islands.I met Gerald Mc Cormack to talk about the Vini lorikeets.Afterwards I went to Atiu for I few days, saw I few Rimatara Lory nektar eating on the flowers. They are one of the most beautifull lory in the world.I went also to Aitutaki to see The Blue Lory my favourite bird.
I hope that your good work to keep this species will go one.
September 25th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Hello Alan,
I was wondering if you were going to publish some of your findings from this translocation project. For example weights; the birds reaction to their short captivity; any sexing done; any scientific data collected eg faecal exams; blood results; crop sampling etc etc. This would be most interesting.
Thanks in anticipation.
Stacey Gelis
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Hello Alan
I am very much looking forward to seeing these beautiful birds next month when my husband and I visit Atiu. Birdman George will be guiding us. I heard the birds have been breeding and was wondering how many babies there are?
Cheers,
Tara T.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Perhaps I should have “blogged” the good news earlier, but somehow felt that the honors of making baby announcements should go to the (surrogate) parents Gerald McCormack and Roger Malcolm. But since you asked, I am most pleased to announce that the first baby produced by the translocated flock has been seen in the company of its parents in various locations on Atiu. Of course, one could speculate that there might even be more than one baby, seen in various places, but until one sees more than one in view, it is best to be conservative and know there is one rather than assume there are more. However, this is truly great news. Within 10 months of making the move, these birds have settled in remarkably well, have found native food resources to their liking and have found suitable nest site(s) that were good enough to incubate an egg, hatch a chick and rear a fledgling. The “team” is most proud of the event, and the Rimatarans and Atiuans are celebrating. I’m sure Birdman George will be thrilled to show you the chick. Everyone will be on the lookout for more. Maybe you’ll be the lucky spotter.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Thanks Alan, that’s awesome news! I can’t wait to see them, only a couple weeks to go now!
May 5th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Just got back home from a wondeful trip! We only spent one night in Atiu but Birdman George took us to a couple of lorikeet sites on both the afternoon of arrival and morning of departure. No babies sighted but we saw 5 lorikeets in the banana patch in the early evening and 4 lorikeets in the trees near the Atiu Villas Hotel. They were stunning! I am putting together a photo and video presientation and will upload it to the Ecotuorism/Birdwatching forum as soon as I can complete the presentation. My handle there is Tiki and I am a moderator. George says he has seen 4 babies but he isn’t eligible for the $200 prize and he doesn’t have a camera to photograph them.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Keep your eyes to the skies! CRES will be sending two field biologists to Atiu in August to get a better idea of how many Kura are flying about, where they are spending time (feeding, roosting, nesting) and if they can get a count on babies, fledglings and juveniles. This is a great conservation story and it just keeps getting better. Thank you for looking in. By the way, for those who are interested, there will be a Parrot International conference on May 31 and June 1 at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I’ll be making a presentation on the Kuhl’s (Rimatara) Lory translocation with plenty of photos and stories about the adventure. There will be many other good presentations covering parrot conservation projects from around the world. Hope to see you there.