Sponsors

A very special thank you needs to go out to all the sponsors who are involved in the Brown Teal species recovery.

Captive Breeding Partners

Without the participating captive breeding facilities below we would not have birds for release each year, these birds cost a lot of money to house, feed, care for and breed, it costs roughly $540/bird produced for release which is generously donated to the project so collectively they donate around $81,000 – $108,000 of brown teal birds for release each year.

Participating Zoos / Wildlife Parks open to the public:

Auckland Zoo

Hamilton Zoo

Otorohanga Kiwi House

Victoria Esplanade aviaries

Staglands Wildlife Park

Nga Manu Nature Reserve

Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre

Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

Orana Wildlife Park

Kiwi Bird Park

Te Anau Wildlife Park

Participating Individuals or not open to the public:

Isaac Wildlife Conservation Trust

K Evans

S Jenkins

C Shepard

R Langdon

R Munro

Tax Payers / Department of Conservation

Without a doubt the Department of Conservation has been the leading agency who has saved the species from extinction, without the ongoing support of the Recovery Group for leadership and direction, maintaining the predator control and undertaking the research needed to save the species at their last 2 wild strong holds (Great Barrier Island & Mimiwhangata) and supporting the captive breeding program the project would not be where it is today.

Banrock Station Wines / Wetland Care NZ / Ducks Unlimited

The project has been lucky enough to have enjoy approximately $150,000 sponsorship over the past 10 years to assist many of our reintroduction projects which has helped immensely, for more information visit their website, and of course help by drinking their wine…

Air New Zealand

Since 2008 Air New Zealand has provided complimentary flights (translocations) for our captive bred birds ready for release from Christchurch, where they have been pre-release conditioned, to the airport nearest to our release sites which has saved the project approximately $3000 each year.

From 2013, DOC and Air New Zealand started a formal agreement to include all air freight transfers of Brown Teal from each of the participating captive breeding facilities spread around NZ to Peacock Springs in Christchurch where all 150 – 200 birds are pre-release conditioned prior to release, this additional support  is valued at approximately $6,000 – 9,000 each year.

Release Sites

Each reintroduction site that we release the captive bred Brown Teal into has to not only have good habitat to support a new population of Brown Teal, but it needs an ongoing extensive predator control program to kill of the introduced predators that are responsible for the species decline.  These traps all cost money to purchase and maintain, they also need to be checked regularly to be re-baited and reset (where necessary) this is extremely time consuming and costly but extremely necessary.  There is also radio transmitter costs and monitoring of the birds so that initial releases can be monitored to ensure the birds are surviving and staying in the area, both are needed for a successful establishment of a new population and the overall success of a project.