Ivor

Ivor the kea was banded as an adult male at Luxmore hut on the Kepler Track during December 2020. He was banded at the same time as Janine, Aragorn and Henrique. Kea Ivor is named after Ivor - the Russian pilot who works for Manaaki Whenua/Landcare Research as a pest mammal ecologist; flies planes and helicopters; undertakes aerial radio-tracking work for kea monitoring; shoots pigs and deer with netguns from helicopters for research purposes and generally leads quite the interesting and varied work life. Ivor banded his first kea on this trip, hence we have named his first-banded kea 'Ivor' in his honour.