Mapaka

Mapaka was named after Mo, Maurice Kaprowski. This young kea was caught with his father (Avalanche) at Avalanche Creek, at the western terminus of the Homer Tunnel. Mo (the human) came to New Zealand from Germany to do a masters in international conservation at Lincoln University. Mo got stranded here as COVID prevented him going to an internship in Latin America. He instead interned with Kea Conservation Trust and DOC (great choice!) doing amazing work analysing kea sightings records to extract lessons for conservation, increasing database usage and generally being a legend. Great stuff! We decided to name this young bird after Mo so that when he returns to Germany he can track progress of this young kea over the coming decades. Mapaka was banded as a first year during October 2020 along the Milford Highway.