Ken Joe

Update 17 November 2019: Ken Joe was unfortunately found dead at Arthur's Pass village. Post mortem results suggest that his injuries - musculo-skeletal trauma and internal haemorrhage - are consistent with vehicle strike. Ken Joe was banded as an fledgling at Otira Viaduct on March 2018. Over the next year and a half he became one of the most sighted, and most troublesome kea in town! He destroyed thousands of dollars worth of camping equipment in the local campground, getting himself into trouble many a time from annoyed campers. Ken Joe was a very charismatic kea, he portrayed the very essence of the kea reputation - the "clown of the mountains". He knew how to get an easy meal - stealing dead mice out of locals' bucket traps which are set up to capture the plague of mice appearing in response to the massive beech mast seed year. Like almost all the other young kea in Arthur's Pass village, Ken Joe had severe lead poisoning and along with a few of the other local kea, was treated with chelation for two weeks at the South Island Wildlife Hospital (to remove the lead from his body) and released into the wild in June 2019. He soon found his way back to Arthur's Pass village and became even more bold than ever. Sadly, when kea are incapacitated by high lead levels this can make their reaction times slow and lead them to be more susceptible to being attacked by predators or killed by vehicles, especially when they are standing on the highway. We urge people to slow down when driving through Arthur's Pass village because kea on the road is sadly an all too common occurrence. The photo shows Ken Joe as a young fledgling feeding on coprosma berries. Kea are perfectly able to feed for themselves in the mountains and do not need to be fed by humans. Please do not feed them, ever. This attracts them to humans and our stuff, buildings and the lead-head nails and flashings on them (which kea seek out because it tastes sweet to them) and leads to all sorts of issues such as those described here, leading to their demise. Five other kea have been found dead around Arthur's Pass village within five weeks between Oct-Nov 2019 - most had high lead levels. Ken Joe is sponsored in honour of the founders of the Maclean Trust, Joan and Joe Maclean. They also sponsored Joan who is almost certainly Ken Joe's sibling.

Sponsor

Maclean Trust