Kotukutuku Project

Trent Bell, from EcoGecko & Diana Kiernan (A Rocha) check and bait a pitfall trap.

The dream to bring back gecko, skinks, weta, beetles, and other creepy-crawlies to A Rocha’s Kapiti Coast project came one step closer with recent funding from the Department of Conservation.

One of several A Rocha led community conservation projects in the Wellington region, the Kotukutuku Ecological Restoration Project is based on two privately owned bush properties on the Kapiti Coast.  The project seeks to enhance the biodiversity and landscape values of these properties and to contribute to an ecological corridor between existing nature reserves on the Kapiti Coast.  As well as predator control, the group is collecting baseline data on the biodiversity on one of these properties.  Pitfall traps, light traps & malaise traps are being used to survey beetle numbers; five-minute bird counts and weta counts are being undertaken; and the existing vegetation is being monitored and assessed.  EcoGecko Consultants are also doing a lizard monitoring programme and species inventory.  Pupils from St Francis Xavier School recently spent a day on site checking pitfall traps for the presence of skinks and got to peek into a nest to see four newly birthed kingfisher chicks!  For further information on the Kotukutuku project contact: [email protected]

Students from St Francis Xavier School in Tawa receiving instructions on how to set up lizard monitoring stations.

A kingfisher (Kotare) nest