Don Merton

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Don Merton with the kakapo "Richard Henry"

Donald Vincent Merton (born February 22, 1939 in Devonport , Auckland , † April 10, 2011 in Tauranga ) was a New Zealand conservationist who was best known for his rescue operations for the kakapo and the Chatham flycatcher .

Life

Don Merton (left) with David Walker on Hauturu Island

Merton was the son of Glaisher and Eileen Merton, née Murray. He grew up in Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island and has been interested in birds since childhood. Together with his two older brothers, he had early success with the care of an orphaned wild goldfinch nestling by their grandmother's canary . This practice served as inspiration for the rescue of the Chatham flycatcher 35 years later. After graduating from school in 1957, he worked for the government's wildlife service and its successor, the Department of Conservation , where he stayed until 2005.

When Merton began his wildlife care career, little was known about the role of introduced mammals in New Zealand's native fauna and flora . The arrival of humans and the introduction of the Pacific rats , and later a wide variety of mammals , including house rats , ermines , weasels , ferrets, and the fox kusu , wreaked havoc on the endemic avifauna . Merton and his colleague Brian Douglas Bell traveled extensively across New Zealand, visiting many offshore islands and other protected areas, and quickly realized the extent of the disaster the native birdlife was facing.

Your experience on Taukihepa / Big South Cape Island was particularly helpful. Once described "as an overstaffed aviary", the island's last retreat for was South Island Saddle bird that bushwren subtype Xenicus longipes variabilis that Stewart Woodcock and for the Great New Zealand bat become. In 1964, house rats were found on the island. Many scientists underestimated the damage they could do, but by the time Merton and Bell visited Taukihepa / Big South Cape Island, populations of the snipe, forest slipper and bat were extinct. Only a remaining population of the saddle bird had survived.

As a consequence, Merton developed plans for catching and relocating birds. The Chatham flycatcher was reduced to a single population of about 18 birds on Little Mangere Island in 1972 . With the help of Close Order Management , Merton and his team succeeded in relocating the Chatham flycatcher to the neighboring rat-free Mangere Island . This was a difficult endeavor as it required climbing 200m high cliffs to catch the Chatham flycatchers and descend with them.

Merton and Bell developed a strategy to save the species, which by then had been reduced to only five individuals, including a single breeding female named "Old Blue", who served together with his companion "Old Yellow" to save the species. Merton used the technique of foreign grooming by inserting the eggs of "Old Blue" into the Chatham subspecies of the Maori flycatcher . To the delight of Merton and his team, the eggs were accepted and incubated. "Old Blue" then laid another clutch and thus doubled her breeding potential. Today the species has more than 300 individuals.

Another species, the kakapo, had been exterminated by introduced mammals in most of its original range in Fiordland in the southwest of the South Island and on Stewart Island . Merton and his team relocated the species to the rat-free Codfish Island and began the conservation program. There were around 200 kakapos in the wild in 2019. Merton was also the first to describe the kakapo's lek salt behavior.

In addition to his work in New Zealand, Merton has been involved in conservation programs for the Seychelles Parakeet , Mauritian Parakeet, and Brown-bellied Thicket at Two Peoples Bay in Western Australia . His foreign care technique is used today in the endangered Mangrovedar Finch ( Camarhynchus heliobates ) on the Galapagos Islands .

Merton's services were recognized with the Queen's Service Medal in 1989 , the Fleming Award from the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1990, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds medal in 1994. In 2004, New Zealand Listener magazine named him to the list of 100 great New Zealanders of the 20th century , which featured heroes, anti-heroes, celebrities, everyday people and icons. Merton was married to Margaret Dawan Johnston from 1963 until his death, who gave him active support in his work. From this marriage the son David emerged, who is married to the New Zealand politician Jan Tinetti of the Labor Party .

In 1992, Massey University awarded him an honorary doctorate in science for his services. From 1993 to 1995 he was Chairman of the Parrot Specialist Group at BirdLife International .

Merton has been the lead or co-author of more than 145 publications, including books, articles, and academic papers.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alison Ballance: Don Merton, the man who saved the Black robin. Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd., Auckland, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7900-1159-2
personal data
SURNAME Merton, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merton, Donald Vincent (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Devonport , Auckland , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 2011
Place of death Tauranga , New Zealand