{"id":140,"date":"2015-02-10T23:45:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T23:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/?p=140"},"modified":"2015-04-15T23:48:57","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T23:48:57","slug":"geoff-in-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/geoff-in-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Geoff in the Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ornithologist Geoff Harrow is recognised as the man who solved a mystery surrounding the elusive seabird, the Hutton\u2019s Shearwater. Where did this bird breed? Until the 1960s, the precise location was unknown.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Geoff, who lived and worked in Christchurch, was an experienced mountaineer and had climbed with Sir Edmund Hillary in the Himalayas. He was also interested in tramping in the back country and bird-watching. Knowledge gained from Ngai Tahu about their taonga Hutton\u2018s Shearwater was invaluable. As was information passed on by Kaikoura deer shooter Ivan Hislop who reported seeing burrows high in the tussocks at the head of the Kowhai Valley. Geoff\u2019s enthusiasm to learn more about these Shearwater \u2013 a bird whose breeding biology, numbers and behaviours were poorly known \u2013 was persistent.<\/p>\n<h3>Geoff Harrow looks back 50 years to the day he solved an ornithological mystery:<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Discovering the secret of a mystery\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/122704551?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After many days walking and searching in the Kowhai Valley for any sign of the birds, Geoff eventually found a dried out skeleton at the base of a waterfall. This was sent to the National Museum, whose confirmation by telegram in November 1964 was:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAll three of your specimens are Hutton\u2019s shearwaters. Congratulations. R A Falla.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This was the start of Geoff\u2019s mission to document all he could about the seabird that bred in the mountains.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next 20 years, Geoff made annual expeditions into the mountains to check on the eight colonies he had located. Unfortunately, the colonies were declining through predation by pigs and trampling of the burrows by deer, chamois and goats. Stoats were also a problem. Geoff worked with the Wildlife Service and later the Department of Conservation (DOC) to try to stop this rapid population decline.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_223\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-223\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-223 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Shearwater-Stream-Nov-2008.jpg\" alt=\"Shearwater Stream Nov 2008\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Shearwater-Stream-Nov-2008.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Shearwater-Stream-Nov-2008-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Shearwater-Stream-Nov-2008-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Above: DOC working in the mountains to trap predators of the Hutton\u2019s Shearwater. (photo: Mike Morrissey DOC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2015, there are only two natural colonies remaining in the mountains. Without Geoff\u2019s dedication to the conservation of Hutton\u2019s Shearwater, which spans 50 years, the situation may have been a lot worse.<\/p>\n<p>The Hutton\u2019s Shearwater Charitable Trust, of which Geoff is the Patron and Kaumata, have created a man-made colony, known as Te Rae o Atiu, on the Kaikoura Peninsula.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_224\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-224\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-224\" src=\"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Geoff-Harrow-50-years-celebration.jpg\" alt=\"Above: Geoff Harrow at the 50-year celebration of the discovery of the Hutton\u2019s Shearwater breeding grounds. The celebration included a visit to the man-made colony on the Kaikoura Peninsula \u2013 Te Rae o Atiu \u2013 as seen above. (photo Elspeth Wingham)\" width=\"640\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Geoff-Harrow-50-years-celebration.jpg 640w, https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Geoff-Harrow-50-years-celebration-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Above: Geoff Harrow at the 50-year celebration of the discovery of the Hutton\u2019s Shearwater breeding grounds. The celebration included a visit to the man-made colony on the Kaikoura Peninsula \u2013 Te Rae o Atiu \u2013 as seen above. (photo Sabrina Luecht)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Related SmartStory: <a title=\"Follow the Hutton\u2019s Shearwater\" href=\"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/stories\/follow-the-huttons-shearwater\/\">Follow the Hutton&#8217;s Shearwater<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more information visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huttonsshearwater.org.nz\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.huttonsshearwater.org.nz\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-148 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/huttons-trust-Logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"70\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ornithologist Geoff Harrow is recognised as the man who solved a mystery surrounding the elusive seabird, the Hutton\u2019s Shearwater. Where did this bird breed? Until the 1960s, the precise location was unknown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartstory.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}