Cape Kidnappers Nature Sanctuary

Ngati Awa ancestral figure greets visitors to Moutohora/Whale Island, in the Bay of Plenty. The island is a wildlife reserve jointly managed by DoC and iwi.

Vibrantly lush pohutukawa forests on Moutohora attest to the absence of possums.

Cape Sanctuary volunteer attempts to extract a grey-faced petrel from its burrow, which can be two metres deep.

Liz Lowe, one of the landowners on whose property the Cape Sanctuary has been established, holds a petrel chick she has just removed from its burrow.

Striking basalt cliffs and arches are a feature of Whale Island, which became a nature reserve in 1987. Goats, cats, rats and rabbits have all been removed from the island.

The Cape Sanctuary at Cape Kidnappers is innovative in being sited on production land. Cattle pass a patch of ground where fibreglass decoy gannets have been placed, in hope of enticing real gannets to breed here.

A 10.6 km vermin-proof fence protects the sanctuary from pests seeking to penetrate from inland.

Gannet calls sound harsh to human ears, but perhaps the loop recordings will sound like a serenade to birds from the overcrowded colonies at the tip of Cape Kidnappers.

Loudspeakers pointing out to sea play gannet calls night and day to attract passing birds. Fibreglass decoys, it is hoped, will fool the passersby into landing and nesting.

Realistic gannet decoys occupy prime clifftop land near the steep, eroded headlands south of Cape Kidnappers.

Taking no chances with predators entering the sanctuary from the coast, Cape Sanctuary has built a fence-within-a-fence for its most vulnerable residents, including grey-faced petrels.