New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
*Author for correspondence.
Z0007Received 29 May
2000; accepted 28 July 2000
Muttonbirder selectivity of sooty shearwater (tïtï) chicks
harvested in New Zealand
CHRISTINE M. HUNTER*
HENRIK MOLLER
JANE KITSON
Department of Zoology
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Abstract Sooty shearwater chicks (
Puffinus griseus)
harvested by Rakiura Mäori on Putauhinu Island in the 1997-1999
muttonbirding seasons were larger and more developed than randomly available
chicks. Early in the season, when muttonbirders extracted chicks from burrows
during the day, this difference may have resulted directly from harvesters
selecting areas with higher quality chicks, or indirectly from their selecting
higher occupancy or more accessible areas. Later in the season, chicks were
harvested after they emerged from burrows at night. Initially, relatively few,
light chicks with more developed feathers emerged, and selection between them
was relatively weak. As chicks became more abundant, muttonbirders selected
heavier, less downy chicks with longer wings. Muttonbirders often rejected
small chicks, but there was evidence for selection of larger, more developed
chicks even above the estimated reject weight. When undisturbed, higher quality
chicks would probably have higher survival and probability of recruitment.
Harvesting larger chicks will therefore have a greater impact on the population
than randomly harvesting chicks. Models investigating harvest impacts should
incorporate chick quality to avoid under-estimating harvest when assessing the
long-term sustainability of a culturally important traditional harvest for
Rakiura Mäori.
Keywords Puffinus griseus; muttonbirding; harvest
selectivity; harvest impact; sustainability; Traditional Environmental
Knowledge
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2000, Vol. 27: 415-423
0301-4223/00/2704-0415 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New
Zealand 2000
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1858K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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