If dogs are man's best friends, then Dunedin's Nik Hurring is surely birds' best mate - well at least for the kererū, New Zealand's native pigeon.
At Hurring’s place, the animals are in charge
Hurring is on the supplementary kererū mix, Mixed veggies, rice, silver beet.
Then it is off to a secret location, where, kept under lock and key, are quite a number of kererū.
Twenty-five years ago, Hurring started a kererū rehab centre at her house.
“I commandeered dad’s garden shed,” Hurring explained.
Then she moved to its current location, turning cargo containers into avaries.
She did it because, with no one to care for them, hurt kererū were getting euthanised.
“There was no one else around to rehab the other birds,” she says.
What doesn’t help is kererū sometimes fall out of their houses.
“I call it the half-arsed, DIY, she’ll be right attitude to building the family home,” she says.
Kererū also have trouble with glass and are really bad at flying into windows.
Jordana Whyte brings patients here from the Otago Wildlife Hospital.
“It’s safe to say we can’t do what we do without Nik,” Whyte says.
Hurring names her kererū after places, Ross Creek and Oamaru.
But for a person who runs rehab, she knows it can't get personal.
“Once they are in here, they need to learn to be wild birds,” says Hurring.
So she can’t develop a relationship with any of them.
With rats around, Hurring’s kererū retreat is guarded by traps, but she struggles with killing.
Kererū have an important job.
“They are the only bird that can swallow seeds intact great than 12mm diameter and pass them out whole. So some of our trees are solely reliable on kererū for seed dispersal,” she explains.
Ross Creek, Oamaru and Invercargill will be free by winter but by then there will be more so it’s a good thing Hurring isn't going anywhere.
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