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The Northward Migration.
It has often been stated by early and present - day writers that since its discovery in Southland the kea has gradually migrated northward, through Otago, Canterbury, and Nelson. This idea has been freely quoted as if it were a scientifically proved fact, but from what I can see there is very little evidence at present on record to support it. The records seem to indicate very forcibly that whenever and wherever men have explored the mountainous country from Southland to North Canterbury we have at once records of the kea being found in the parts explored. It is only because the mountainous country in Otago was explored first, and then the northern portions of the Island later, that people have been led, to think that the keas are spreading northward. Very likely if Dr. Haast (I) had explored Arthur's Pass or Browning's Pass before 1856, people would have thought that the kea had spread from Canterbury southward.
Even if we take the records of the kea's discovery, they do not support the northern - migration theory. In 1856 Dr.
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Mantell found it in Southland—the exact place is not known; three years later Dr. Haast found it about two hundred miles further north, at Mount Cook. It was not till three years later that Sir James Hector (J), during January, found it on the snow mountains of Otago: yet these mountains are closer to Southland than Mount Cook.
In the same year Dr. Haast (I, a) found it on the Godley Glacier, and three years later, in 1865, he saw it on Browning's Pass (I, c), about eighty miles north of Mount Cook. In 1867 Mr. D. Macfarlane, Peel Forest, says that it was known on the Lochinvar Station, about sixty miles north of Browning's Pass; yet at Arthur's Pass, which is situated between Browning's Pass and Lochinvar Station, though no doubt the kea was there all the time, it was not reported to he there until Dr. Haast explored that country in 1867.
With the exception of the instance stated in Mr. Macfarlane's letter, we have no record of the kea being found further north until 1882. This is very likely because no one explored that part of the country—or, if they did, they left no records of what they saw. However, in 1882, Potts (N) reported them as far north as the head-waters of the Esk and Hurunui Rivers. From what I can see from the recorded evidence, at the time of its discovery in 1856 the kea's area of distribution extended from Southland to the Hurunui River in North Canterbury, and very likely north of this limit. No doubt the reason why the keas are common now on some stations where they were unknown is that since their discovery they have greatly increased in numbers, and have therefore had to widen their area of distribution both east and west, for they have been seen on the coast-line of Westland, and have extended to the eastern limit of the mountainous country in Canterbury.
There is, however, some evidence of a migration at the present time into the north of the Nelson and in the Marlborough Province, but whether they have been there for some time and have not been seen, or that they are really spreading into these provinces, is uncertain. However, even if they were present in the northern part of Nelson and in Marlborough they were not common, and within the last three years they have been recorded from places where before they were unknown. Now that they are spreading into Marlborough, one wonders if the Cook Strait will prove a sufficient barrier to prevent them from flying over to the North Island. The two Islands are only about fifteen miles apart at their nearest points, and on a clear day the opposite coast can easily be seen.
If the kea had migrated north from Southland, as many suppose, one would expect the bird to be rare in the south
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where it was first found, but in 1905, from records received, they were still plentiful there.
There is also a certain amount of evidence which seems to indicate that the sheep-killing habit has spread and is still spreading since it was first started about 1868. The first record was from Lake Wanaka, and from there it seems to have spread south to Lake Wakatiou and north to the Amuri district. About 1880 the birds' depredations were recorded from the lakes in the south of Canterbury, and by 1886, after passing north through Peel Forest and the Ashburton Gorge, it was recorded from Lake Coleridge and the stations around Mount Torlesse.
Since writing the above I have received a letter from Mr. D. Macfarlane, who says, “In 1866-67 I was in charge of the Lochinvar Station, at the head-waters of the Waimakariri and during shearing I noticed many sheep with deep wounds in the loins, and the shepherds told me it was done by keas, and that many sheep were killed by the birds.” If this report is true, then the killing of sheep began in Canterbury about the same time that it did in Otago, and therefore there would be two centres from which the habit would spread. Since then the habit has extended to the stations in the Amuri district, and in 1906 a meeting of runholders was held to try and abate the nuisance.
So far I have no records of sheep-killing in Marlborough and North Nelson, though the keas are to be found there.
In Westland the habit has spread west, for in 1906 Mr. Condon, Bruce Bay, South Westland, had some sheep killed at Mahitahi for the first time.