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Underbirds: The Fight to Save the Southern New Zealand Dotterel by students at University of Otago.

Underbirds: The Fight to Save the Southern New Zealand Dotterel is the story of the challenges and struggles that the Southern New Zealand Dotterel face to survive on Rakiura, and also the passionate DOC Rangers who drop everything to live among the birds year-round. The film immerses viewers in the remote backcountry of the island, where the rangers deploy predator traps, meticulously document every aspect of the birds' lives, and raise awareness about the dire need for conservation. It's a heartwarming, heart-wrenching journey that underscores the fragility of life, the spirit of these underbirds, and the fierce determination of those who stand as their guardians. Discover the untold story of the Southern New Zealand Dotterel and the dedication of the rangers working to bring these birds back from the brink. The filming team was made up of Abi Liddell, Brady Clarke, and Isabella Lewis. Together, Abi and Brady traveled to the island of Rakiura and tramped over 8 hours and spent the week at the dotterel ranger's hut. Together they filmed the very few dotterels that inhabited this small location. Once they returned to Dunedin, Isabella helped shape their story from their travel encounters. Over the following months, the team tediously edited their work to ensure the story was as visually captivating and compelling, as it was emotionally. Underbirds was filmed as a part of the Directors’ Science Communication degrees at the University of Otago. A special thank you to Steve Ting, Max Quinn, Gianna Savoie, and the Department of Science Communication at the University of Otago. This documentary was made possible with the support of the Department of Conservation, particularly the Southern NZ Dotterel Team on Rakiura, namely Daniel Cocker and Guy McDonald.

Department of Conservation

5 days ago
I don't think I really ever thought of it as a job. it's just something I've had to do. Yeah, I think we are all making sacrifices to be here. Sacrifices for the dotterels so, yeah hopefully it pays off. First time I saw Southern New Zealand Dotterel I was 14 years old. I got the opportunity to to helicopter up to mount Rakeahua with a family friend. got to spend the whole day searching for dotterels there were birds everywhere. Where as now, there are less than 126 remaining In October - Nove
mber 2022, the Department of Conservation formed the Southern New Zealand Dotterel Recovery Team with four permanent staff. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to volunteer and help out with the Dotterel Team, and now in a permanent role. I’m Daniel Cocker, I’m a Ranger on the Southern New Zealand Dotterel Recovery Team based on Rakiura Stewart Island. Currently, we're on the hilltops of Ka Puketuroto, the mountains of the Tin Range. This is historically an important breeding sites for
the birds. The Southern New Zealand Dotterel is probably the rarest bird you've never heard of. At this time of year, I'd describe it as a as a tomato with wings, They’re dark, dark brick, red color at the moment, in breeding plumage. Southern New Zealand Dotterels are, yeah, a true native birds of New Zealand. They've still got that really friendly, innocent, manner. They breed up on the mountain tops of Rakiura. They used to be found throughout the South Island however they were wiped out.
Feral cats are widespread on Rakiura. They can kill not only adults, but also chicks and eggs. And a few years ago some DOC rangers got video footage of white tailed deer eating dotterel eggs. So, we need to be out there as much as we can and protect the birds. I think my favorite thing about being a Ranger is probably seeing positive outcomes when you put on a lot of work. You've been trapping hard and, you know, just doing everything you can to try and make like one nesting attempt successf
ul. My name is Guy, I lead the Southern New Zealand Dotterel Team here on Rakiura. And we’re here at Table Hill today to undertake cat control. Big cat. So these are feral cats they have no connection with people at all. They just live in the forest. Eat forest animals. These cats are like the biggest pests to all native species on the island really. I do - I actually do have a soft spot for cats. I had a family cat growing up so, I do respect them, but I also see the damage they can do when
they’re not looked after and not in a house. So our goal here is to try and bring the dotterel’s population back to a healthy, sustainable number of birds. Going to come down to really, a few things like the funding, staff capability, and effective control methods of cats. So with our project, we've got about 50 kilometers of track network and we have around about 100 traps set currently, and we have to maintain it ourselves. I really enjoy the challenge, actually. The challenge of, trying t
o look after an endangered species. But there’s still, like, large areas of the breeding sites that we just we don’t have any traps because we can’t afford it don’t really have the manpower to service those traps. Sometimes people reckon that it’s a good idea to put a whole fence around the mountain tops. I think the conditions here are so windy that I think the fence would just get flattened in no time and then also, it would be pretty hard work to maintain the fence. Yeah. Ah, f*** sak
e A New Zealand Dotterel should live to be 20 to 30, even more years old. But on average, our Southern New Zealand Dotterels will not live to be more than 4 to 5 years old as a result of feral cat predation. it's one of the tougher parts of the job is seeing birds that know well and you're really familiar with and yeah, seeing them disappear each year is really tough. One of the birds I’d quite often see up on the hilltops was a yeah really friendly bird I’d actually named that bird after my
girlfriend. I remember that bird approached me and I was just lying down on the ground and just hanging out with it. It was really cool. And I remember, you know, saying to that bird I’ll do anything it takes to save you guys. The following trip up onto the hill found that bird had been killed by a feral cat. Maybe if we, yeah, just all have a search just sorta around this like sorta 20 meter sorta area just around here, just because I really want to see if we can find a band or anything. Ah y
eah that sucks. That really sucks. Yeah it was really, yeah really gutting to to find that, that bird. Yeah. Yeah, it’s definitely pretty hard on the team morale when we find dotterels that die especially ones that we’ve - like, we know. Like, we’ve seen before, we’ve seen the nest, we’ve handled them. It’s pretty heartbreaking finding their little bodies and finding their bands. Pretty big challenge when you’re looking after a species that’s so close to extinction. It’s pretty hard on the ol
’ mental health. I try and just, I don’t know. Try and be a bit silly and you know make nice food and I’m not too, sure we just do random things they like stuff to sorta take our minds off things a little bit. We- On our way! let’s go. Cool. I just saw it as an opportunity to make a change. Try and bring this species back to a healthy population. our numerical goal is to have 300 birds by the year 2035. So that would be an increase of about 20 to 25 birds a year So we're currently 125 birds. So
yeah, that's ambitious. But if we can all the predators under control, then it is achievable, I think. We are the last stand in saving these birds from extinction. And so we've just got to keep going no matter what. We just want to make sure the dotterels are safe. We're trying to trying to reduce the numbers of cats as well as we can. Future generations will criticize how we’ve responded to the situation, just as we criticize situations in the past. Like quite often I’ve when I’ve been readi
ng extinct bird books I’m thinking, you know why did people act sooner? They could have been saved, you know, there were so many opportunities. That’s what the future generations will ask of us. And so it’s really important for us to do everything we can to prevent the extinction crisis. There is hope, but we need to act now.

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