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Number of Sheep killed.
It is impossible to work out anything like a correct estimate of the damage done to the flocks of sheep by the keas, owing to the uncertainty of the results sent in. For instance, where every sheep that is missing is put down as the work of these birds the damage is exaggerated, and in cases where sheep are killed by the keas and their remains are never seen there will be an underestimation of the loss. Again, if we take the number of birds killed in a certain time we go wrong, because the birds seem to kill at irregular intervals, and when percentages are given we have to find out whether it is made out on one flock, one station, or one district. Often when a percentage is given on a week's or a month's damage, unless it is very clearly stated, it is sometimes taken for the annual loss, and in this way very erroneous results have been published. Some people quote the damage to the stations at 30 and 40 per cent., but I think that this is very wide of the mark. A rough idea of this number killed, even in a short time, can be seen by the following accounts:—
Mr. J. Morgan writes as follows: “In spring, 1894, Mesopotamia Station, Rangitata Gorge, we found a lot of strong wethers dead, and on skinning some we found a small puncture through the skin above the loins, and the flesh torn about under the skin. On going over a block about a mile long and a quarter wide we found close on three hundred dead sheep. The next night a man went out and shot a few birds—in all, during two days, he shot sixty-three keas—and we lost no more
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sheep on this spot. On another occasion, when taking hoggets out in the spring, we put them through a gate at dark. When we went in the morning we found seven of the sheep dead, about their camp. The following night we shot eight keas at this place, and, although we took out several mobs of sheep the same way afterwards, no more were killed.”
Mr. P. E. Challis, of Parawa, Southland, states that he has seen nineteen sheep attacked in one evening.
Mr. A. Watherston reports that one evening he found some keas attacking the sheep, and eight of them were killed. On going out at daybreak next morning he found that during the night thirty-eight had been killed, and the keas were still attacking them. The carcases of the sheep were in most cases still warm; and out of about sixteen hundred sheep about three hundred were killed. This loss works out to about 18 per cent. for the winter.
Mr. W. N. Ford says that around Lake Wanaka the losses in the year are about 26 per cent. of the sheep, and about half of these are put down to the keas.
If the birds always kill on an average twenty or thirty a night the loss would be tremendous, but it seems that they make special raids, and then are quiet for some time. Many of the keas must either kill for the love of killing, or else to have a number of dead sheep on which to feed for some time. Many are killed and left almost untouched. However, from evidence, it seems that they come back afterwards and feed on them until the carcases are devoured.
In most of the kea-infested country the annual damage is. I should say, well under 5 per cent. A few stations may lose as much as 10 per cent., and I doubt if any station loses as high as 20 per cent.