Seth

Seth and Zoe were both banded together as nearly-fledged bumbling babies near a nest site at Aoraki Mt Cook National Park in October 2024. At the time of banding, their parents were still feeding them outside the nest and they hadn't yet learned to fly. Their mum is a reasonably old kea - possibly >20 years old and has been in the general area for many years. The two kea siblings are named after the energetic and dedicated Kerry Weston (the leader of the Kea Recovery Group)'s two children. Kerry was doing a search of all the historic known kea cavities at the time she discovered these two charismatic little fledglings roaming around outside their cavity site and acted quickly by banding them so we can keep track of them and their movements through time through the sightings database and with RFID tags and readers set up across the area. Note the funny photo of Seth trying to hide himself into a hole much too small for his big body! Did you know that by the time kea leave the nest (i.e. fledge), they are fully grown, often fatter than the adults thanks to months on end of being fed by the dedicated parents.