The Department of Conservation has confirmed police are now involved in investigating the disappearance of several albatross eggs from a monitored reserve in Dunedin.
Police are reviewing CCTV footage from the day of the suspected theft.
Two weeks ago local rangers noticed the eggs were missing during routine checks at Taiaroa Head/Pukekura, where the department has long managed a colony of seabirds.
At the time, operations manager Annie Wallace called the event “unusual” and said there were no signs predators had eaten the eggs.
Now, police have been called in and the department is working with authorities to review security camera footage from “several sources”.
“The police have been helping with the investigation since the eggs were found to be missing,” Wallace said yesterday.
Toroa, or northern royal albatross, are classified as nationally vulnerable and threatened by climate change, fishing practices, plastic pollution and habitat loss.
They also reproduce slowly, so every egg and chick is important to the population, Wallace said at the time of the theft.
“They need all the help they can get, and it will be extremely disappointing if someone has taken these eggs,” she said.
“This is devastating for our staff that put in countless hours caring for these birds in challenging conditions, keeping them cool on hot days, working to prevent flystrike, and providing supplementary feeds to underweight chicks.”
Lyndon Perriman, who worked as a ranger at the reserve between 1989 and 2016, was similarly puzzled by the eggs’ disappearance.
He told The New Zealand Herald he’d never seen instances of eggs disappearing during his time in the role and predators such as stoats and ferrets would have broken the eggs if they had taken them.
Although in places such as the UK, egg collectors are known to collect certain species’ eggs, Perriman didn’t see any motive to taking this particular set.
“Who would know what goes on in some people’s heads,” he said.
With a wingspan of more than 3m, toroa are one of the largest seabirds in the world - but also among the rarest.
About 17,000 of these long-lived birds remain, ranging widely across the Southern Ocean.
Most breed on several islands in the Chatham Islands.
Toroa are also protected under the Wildlife Act and it is an offence to kill, injure, harass or disturb them.
A sentence could include a fine of up to $100,000 and/or up to two years’ imprisonment.
Anyone with information that might could help locate the eggs is asked to call 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468) or the Police non-emergency number 105.
