What’s next
Ten Species in Ten Years
In 2021, Cape Sanctuary’s founding ecologist John McLennan published a ten-year sea bird restoration plan to build upon the work already completed at the existing sea bird site. Over the next decade, Cape Sanctuary plans to welcome ten more species of sea-birds, starting with the eight listed below. With the current site teeming with Grey Faced Petrels, the building of a new pest-free enclosure is underway. Cape Sanctuary looks forward to the translocations that 2024 will bring.
seabird site extension
Cape Sanctuary looks forward to welcoming the following birds over the next decade:
Fairy Prion
Fluttering Shearwater
Flesh Footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Black Winged Petrel
Diving Petrel
Cook’s Petrel
White Faced Storm Petrel
John and Liz with diving petrel during initial translocation (2012)
The ‘sea-bird site’ extension completed in October 2023, aims to welcome translocated species, starting with flesh-footed shearwaters and diving petrels in the summer of 2023.
The Port of Napier have generously provided an annual donation towards the sea-bird site extension in support of future translocations to the Cape Kidnappers peninsula.
The 1ha pest-free enclosure was built by Cape Sanctuary’s Job’s for Nature crew, Te Ngahere. For gravity assisted with fledgling, the fence line runs down steep coastal ridges, each post transported by foot.
Auckland Zoo and Barfoot Thompson have sponsored Cape Sanctuary’s mouse eradication within the extension site to support future populations of the endangered Hawke’s Bay skink.