(22 February 1939 – 10 April 2011)
Until his retirement in April 2005, Don Merton was a senior member of the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s Threatened Species Section, within the Research, Development & Improvement Division, Terrestrial Conservation Unit, and of the Kakapo Management Group. He has had a long involvement in wildlife conservation, specialised in the management of endangered species since he completed a traineeship with the New Zealand Wildlife Service (NZWS) in 1960.[1]
Early life
Don Merton was born in Devonport, Auckland in February 1939 and with his family moved to Gisborne later that year when Don’s father, Glaisher (Major) Merton was appointed the first New Zealand Automobile Association representative in the Poverty Bay region. Initially, the family settled at Wainui Beach near Gisborne, but in 1945 moved to a farmlet in Mangapapa Road, Gisborne.Together with his two older brothers Don had early success fostering an orphaned wild goldfinch nestling to their Grandmother's canary. This early success proved crucial 35 years later in inspiring a cross-fostering programme to save the black robin, which at that time numbered 5 individuals including just one productive pair, and was the most endangered species in the world.
Don attended schools at Kaiti, Mangapapa, Gisborne Intermediate and Gisborne High School. On leaving school he secured a traineeship with the fledgling New Zealand Wildlife Service. In 1987 the Wildlife Service merged with other Government conservation agencies to form the Department of Conservation. In the early 1960s Don became one of only two field officers working nationally on threatened species, roles now filled by more than 80 staff. Don married Margaret Johnston of Hangaroa near Gisborne and has a son, Dave, a daughter-in-law Jan Tinetti and two teen-age grandsons, Liam and Zak, all living in Tauranga, New Zealand.
Professional achievements
Richard Henry kakapo held by Don Merton, Codfish Island, November 2010. Richard Henry spent the past 35 years on four predatory-mammal-free islands. Named after Richard Treacy Henry the pioneer conservationist, and from 1894 to 1910, custodian of Resolution Island, New Zealand he was the last known survivor of his species from mainland New Zealand and was believed to be more than 100 years old. Richard Henry’s legacy: His one female and two male off-spring hatched on Maud Island in 1998 may hold the key to genetic rescue of a species suffering from chronic lack of genetic diversity. Richard Henry kakapo was found dead on Codfish Island on 24 December 2010.[4]
Together with NZWS colleagues and volunteers, his contributions include:- pioneered capture and translocation techniques as management tools in the rescue and recovery of endangered birds: In the early 1960s Don led some of the first successful translocations for conservation purposes involving New Zealand birds – including establishment of a second population of the North Island saddleback, and averting extinction of the South Island saddleback. Techniques pioneered then are now an everyday part of threatened species management within NZ and beyond;
- pioneered “close order management” (COM) as a means of averting extinction; sustaining in the wild; and/or facilitating recovery of critically endangered species. COM involves intensive management of free-living animals at the individual rather than population level. The concept and techniques were developed and applied with outstanding success during the rescue and recovery of the black robin which Don led in the 1980s. Refined and adapted over the years, close order management techniques pioneered then are now an integral part of threatened species recovery programmes internationally.
- helped pioneer island biodiversity conservation and restoration techniques. For instance, in the early 1960s he and Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand volunteers eradicated Norway rats from four small islands in the Noises group, Hauraki Gulf. This was the first time that rats had been deliberately eradicated from a New Zealand island, and opened the way for ecological restoration of these – and many other islands both within New Zealand and beyond;
- led the NZWS field teams that re-discovered the kakapo parrot (in Fiordland) in 1974, and females of this species (on Stewart Island) in 1980. Females had not been seen since the early 1900s and it was feared they may have been extinct – and thus the species “functionally extinct”;
- discovered and documented the significance of the ritualised, nocturnal booming display of the Kakapo - it is in fact an unusual form of courtship display known as “lekking”;
- instrumental in averting imminent extinction of Kakapo (an endemic, monotypic sub-family): In the early 1980s; (i) determined that the newly re-discovered Kakapo population of southern Stewart Island was in steep decline due to predation by feral cats (~53% mortality per annum of marked adults); (ii) alerted NZWS, drafted submissions and obtained agreement from the various government and other agencies to relocate (and thus effectively destroy) the last natural population; and, (iii) as NZWS’s Principal Wildlife Officer (Endangered Species), assumed responsibility for planning and leading the capture and relocation of all remaining (61) birds to Little Barrier, Maud and Codfish Islands. This action proved very successful - the steep decline in Kakapo numbers was halted and adult mortality since (~30 years) has averaged a remarkably low ~1.3% per annum;
- led the field project and devised the techniques necessary to capture, hold in captivity, transport and establish a second population of the endangered and highly localised Noisy scrub-bird of Western Australia. The second population is now by far the larger of the two;
- during the 1980s helped devise and implement a recovery strategy for the critically endangered Mauritius Parakeet of Mauritius (Indian Ocean). Only around eight birds including three females were known to exist at that time. There are now more than 300 in the wild;
- also during the 1980s, devised and led the successful eradication of rabbits from Round Island, Mauritius (Indian Ocean) - Round Island was said to support more threatened animal and plant forms than any comparable area on Earth, but survival of these was seriously threatened by the rabbits;
- instrumental in the designation of a national park within the Australian Territory of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) to facilitate survival of Abbott’s booby (largest and most endangered gannet) and a unique raised tropical island ecosystem - while seconded for two years to the Australian National Parks & Wildlife Service as its first Conservator on Christmas Island;
- played a key role in the rescue and recovery of the magpie robin and other animals endemic to the Seychelles Islands (Indian Ocean): In 1990 - 1992, in collaboration with Birdlife International staff, designed and implemented an effective recovery strategy and range of management techniques for the critically endangered Seychelles magpie robin, the last ~20 individuals of which were confined to 219ha Fregate Island. Then, in 1995 when Norway rats reached Fregate Island, (final refuge of the last natural population of Seychelles magpie robin and a number of other vulnerable endemic life-forms), alerted the island’s owner, and local and international conservation agencies to the fact that without intervention ecological collapse and extinctions were inevitable. Worked with stake-holders and by 1999 convinced all that eradication was both necessary and practicable. At their request planned, and in 2000 led a successful rodent (Norway rat and house mouse) eradication – thus averting extinctions and facilitating ecological recovery.
- authored or co-authored ~150 publications, including books, peer-reviewed scientific papers, popular articles and technical reports.
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