Hi, Alison Ballance here.  I am visiting the island gathering material for a radio series "Our Changing World" on Radio NZ.  Here is an update on the breeding season:

Whenua Hou is buzzing at the moment. Five rangers (Phil, Ness, Chris, Jo and Errol) are out and about each day, checking all the track and bowls for mating sign, and locating each of the 38 females of breeding age on the island to determine if they are moving around prior to mating, or whether they are settling on a nest following mating. Everyone looks forward to hearing their news when they return to the hut each day. There were three matings last night:

Zephyr mated with her usual beau, Felix; Manu, who has set up shop next to his dad, mated with his mum Alice (Daryl shook his head when he heard this news); and Kuihi mated with Barnard last night. That brings the number of females who have mated so far this season to 22, which pushes the number well above the magic 50% mark. Kuihi is one of the 2002 babies, and it's her first breeding attempt. It's good news that many of the young females have mated already, and are settling on their eggs.

The door of the kitchen fridge is the place where breeding information is written up, and it's frequently consulted. As they lay their eggs an outline of an egg is written next to their name, and once its status is determined it is given a smiley face if it is fertile, and a cross if it is infertile or dies as an embryo.

So far there are 8 nests, but sadly two of them have already failed. Lisa, who mated on Christmas day, laid three eggs, but the one remaining fertile egg died just a day or so before it was due to hatch on Waitangi Day. Her nest has been closed down, in the hope that she will renest. Nora laid three infertile eggs, and her nest, too, has been closed down. Nora had mated with Lionel, who was being given one last chance to prove his fertility, but his ongoing track record of fathering infertile eggs, combined with sperm testing which showed that his sperm count was very low, meant he was taken off the island last week, along with Ben who also had a very poor sperm count. If that seems a bit harsh, the reality is that the kakapo team want every mating to count and be potentially productive.

Leaving aside Lisa and Nora's failed clutches, there are 17 eggs drawn on the fridge door, and four of these are old enough to have been checked and to have been awarded smiley faces. Many of the females are still laying, and it is the nest minders job to monitor the nightly nest tapes, and note when each egg is laid. Most nests have three eggs, but young Rakiura has laid four, which is very impressive for a 7 year old. Rakiura bred last year, producing one of the six chicks who are now living in the wild on Codfish, getting their first taste of a bumper breeding season.

Another interesting feature of this breeding season is that many of the males who've never been known to breed are getting a chance: Jimmy, Barnard, Merv and Merty are among the males finally getting a chance to add their genes to the kakapo gene pool. The situation changes every day, so tune in again soon to find out the latest news - and to hear about the work of the Sperm Team, and the rediscovery of Rangi, a male missing for 21 years.