This species needs all the help that we can give it. New Zealand fairy terns are in a critical
condition, with a population of only 40 birds they are teetering on the brink of extinction. We need
to pool all our expertise and use every tool in the box, to bring the birds back from that brink.
So you can see that the egg is really dark which basically means that the chick has filled the egg
and then this air space is what the chick breaks into to start breathing.
Hi everyone I'm Carl, I'm the team leader of the bird department here at Auckland Zoo.
We're in the incubation room, this is where a lot of our conservation work is done.
At the moment we've got fairy tern eggs.
New Zealand's fairy terns are one of the rarest birds in the world, there are only around 40 birds
of which only about half are in breeding pairs. The inclement weather recently, with really bad
storms, meant that a lot of the nests were washed away. So luckily the Department of Conservation
managed to get the eggs off the nest and bring them to the zoo and we incubate them for them.
So we turn the eggs every day, so it's a natural occurrence what the parents would do.
It moves all the nutrients around in the egg. The eggs are in this incubator,
two have just externally pipped, so that means they'll be hatching out of the shells very soon.
So this is the fairy tern, I'm just about to do a feed. He gets fed from half seven in the morning
to half seven in the evening. Every hour and a half. At the moment he's eating over 100% of his body
weight, which is exactly where we kind of wanted him to be. He's doing really well. This is a little
TLC brooder that keeps the temperature around 30-31. So this fairy tern project, if you like, is a
collaboration with the Department of Conservation and Auckland Zoo. Hand-rearing of fairy terns has
not actually been attempted since the 1990s and the reason why it's not been done is because DOC went
for a different approach. When nests got flooded because of inclement weather we would take the
eggs, incubate them and then we would send them back. This gives the unhatched chicks the highest
chance of surviving, but this only works if the parents return to the nest to take care of the eggs.
To ensure this happens DOC rangers will swap out the fertile eggs for artificial ones until
the threat to the egg has passed. Unfortunately this year that wasn't possible for a few eggs.
The nests were either washed away or even with the artificial eggs, the parents still abandoned those nests.
So we did have four eggs that couldn't go back and all four of those eggs hatched but
unfortunately only one of them survived. We're not sure of the exact causes why the other three
didn't survive, but it could be for a multitude of reasons. As soon as they hatched they had very low
vitality compared to the chick that survived and we know that those eggs had been through a lot.
So when he first hatched we were a bit concerned because one of his feet was slightly twisted
It was probably just something to do with the incubation and hatching. So it's a little
bit like a baby in a womb and when, after they're born, sometimes they sleep in the
same position and that's kind of the same with eggs. So what we did was get a couple of
pieces of cardboard and tape and just stuck them over to flatten it out. So he was
walking around with a bit of a weird flip-flop on for a few days and then we took that off
and it's completely worked, it's completely flattened his foot out and he seems completely
fine now. He can run around really easily and he's not bothered by it.
So because they're going to go back out into the wild, it's important that they
are as wild as they possibly can be. So minimum human contact. He's got three different heated
areas to replicate the parents, so the birds can sort of thermo-regulate themselves and a fake
mum and dad, and now we've set up an extra bit which is like a little beach. So what we'll do
is we'll get him to come over here and feed him in this sand area. That's it!
The Department of Conservation is supplying fish for the fairy tern to eat,
so they're supplying live fish on a daily basis,
helping us with shifts for feeding because it's a lot of work. So we use our expertise of
our own knowledge of all the different animals before that we've hand-reared, all the
different birds from the whole of the bird team. I think we've got it down pretty well with this guy,
he is over a week old now, he's thriving really well, he eats really well. That's it!
He's eating up to 50 fish a day. So we're still on the same amount of feeds, so we still do half seven
in the morning, till half seven in the evening. Every hour and a half. So as he gets a little
bit older, maybe in a few days, we might move it to two hours. We've been successful with this
one chick and we've learned a lot in these past weeks. All that information will be shared with
zoos around the world if they need it, and this is what conservation collaboration looks like.
Hi, I'm over here!
So we've reached a milestone. He's two weeks old today. As you can see he's feeding by himself
with a little bit of encouragement from us. So this little sand tray with a little bit of sand water
He would naturally pick up sand and get it in his gut in the wild,
and because he's going to go back into the wild we need to get him used to that.
It's great that he's going straight under the heater when he's eating, because that means he's
digesting his food really well. So far, so good, he's on track. So he's doing exactly the same
behaviors as he would in the wild. So we think in about a week, he will be ready to go to the
aviary that DOC have built for him, which is his pre-release aviary. That'll be the next stage
for the Department of Conservation, they're going to take over in our conservation collaboration.
Okay, so he's 52.1.
So the Department of Conservation came to the zoo this morning
He was banded so that the rangers from DOC can identify him once he's released and back
into the wild. We work with DOC a lot, so it's really exciting to have this new collaboration
and build that relationship up in the future and do more work with fairy tern.
Yeah all good to go!
This is the release aviary. So he already eats by himself but he
needs to learn to fish 'off the wing' so when he flies and catches fish in the water. He'll
learn that in the next probably two to three weeks in this aviary before he's released.
This is a live feed from inside the aviary. This aviary's been purpose built for the fairy tern.
The sea is the other side of this dune. Inside it there's a soft netting as well, so there's an
aviary within an aviary, if that makes sense and that's because when he starts flying and learning
to fish, he may slightly hit the sides and we don't want him to hurt himself. So that's why that's there.
Amazing!
Pretty emotional day, so I'm one of the only DOC rangers who has been with the
chick all the way through and now we're moving out here. So we've got rangers on, he'll be watched
all the time and the rangers are going to be out here until seven o'clock tonight as well. We'll be
watching his behaviours and we'll be watching him eating and when he's big enough to figure
out what the 'big drink' over there is we're hoping that he'll start fishing for himself.
We're all pretty emotionally attached but it's a very exciting day.
Raising fairy tern in captivity hasn't really been done before.
So the decision was made to do the first three weeks at the Zoo and
then bring it out to this, i guess, specially built facility to teach the chick to fish and forage and
fly in more of a natural environment. This is also a pretty critical site for fairy terns. If we get
chicks that are able to fly from the site, the adult birds will be able to pick that chick up
and then take it away with them. The progression with these guys is pretty quick. I mean we've gone from
an egg, to a chick feeding by itself and moving around by itself within 20 days. So
we're hopefully looking at only a couple of weeks that it's going to be flying really well and being
able to forage quite successfully by itself. We can then open up the door and continue to feed it
outside the aviary and then with the hope that it's slowly going to progress out towards the
stream and then start foraging by itself in the stream. It's pretty incredible to be able
to try this and what we've learned so far is pretty amazing. I think it's going to put us in
good stead for the future hopefully. It's kind of bittersweet really when it's over for us because
we've absolutely loved having him in the Zoo but it is that kind of tenter hooks all the time -
is he alright - and we have a little fairy tern Whatsapp group that we'll share pictures.
So everybody is aware that he's fine and yeah it's bittersweet. It's nice to get him here
and you always envision this future goal. There's only 40 of these left it's a huge achievement
and this is why everyone's worked so hard on it. It will be amazing to see him out there!