B.

Dead Keas

Behind the scenes

It was tragic to see the image of five dead kea at Klondyke Corner at Arthur's Pass in yesterday's Press.

Near Pompolona, Milford Track, December 2009. Photo: Tim Jones

Near Pompolona, Milford Track, December 2009. Photo: Tim Jones

These birds can provide endless entertainment when tramping in the Southern Alps often soaring high above the tracks calling out to each other with that distinctive call – always on the search for a tasty morsel and then keeping you awake all night as they clamber over the roof of tramping huts. Really sad to see these magnificent birds dumped on a picnic table.

Johannes Gerardus Keulemans. Kea parrot, Nestor notabilis 1888. Lithograph. Purchased 2010 Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

Johannes Gerardus Keulemans. Kea parrot, Nestor notabilis 1888. Lithograph. Purchased 2010 Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

As Keuleman's image shows these birds were once considered a pest for high country sheep farmers and the first job in New Zealand for my friend's father when he emigrated from England in the 1960s was to shoot kea for a bounty.