Photo Credit
Left 4th down: Kakapo
Left 6th down:
Tusked weta
Left fifth from top:
Archey's frog
Center top: Takahe
Crown Copyright,
Department of Conservation
Left sixth from top: Kauri
Turnbull Library
Center bottom: Takahe
feeding its chick,Geoff Moon
Illustration Credit
Left third from top:
John Gerrard Keulemans
1842-1912, Huia (male
and female) Heteralocha
acutirostris 1888
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand,
Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any re-use of these images.
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Takahe are one of New Zealand's storm-blown land bird migrants from the Australian continent. Since its possible Miocene-Pliocene arrival 5 to 20 million years ago, it has diverged considerably from its origins, becoming totally flightless. The related pukeko that arrived with a more recent migration during the Holocene, has changed little and is not distinguishable from Australian forms. |
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 Hear the call of takahe
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The colourful green, turquoise and blue takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri is endemic to New Zealand, and is unique as the world's largest living member of the rail family.
The remaining species is the remnant of the South Island population resulting from speciation. The North Island species Porphyrio mantelli which was taller and thinner boned is extinct.
An adult takahe weighs up to 3 kg (6.5 lbs) and stands up to 50 cm (20 inches) tall, about the size of a chicken. As typical of most of the flightless birds, it has short stout but strong, red legs.
The takahe's impressive red beak is so solid it looks strong enough to cut number eight fencing wire. It has small wings that are only used for display.
Takahe are similar in appearance and coloration to the smaller pukeko Porphyrio porphyrio, which is another native rail, but common worldwide. Pukeko can still fly, but very poorly for short distances, normally in escape in the open. They are also grazing birds, but have successfully adapted to pastoral habitat, and are commonly found on low-lying farmland and near roads where drains attract them.
In the Fiordland native habitat, curled, mid-ribbed, and broad-leaved snow tussock grasses provide food and shelter for takahe. Nesting pairs build a raised ground nest of snow tussock grasses in October after the snow has melted.
Eighty percent of the one to three eggs laid each year hatch after 30 days of incubation, which is shared by the male and the female. Chicks are fed by both parents for three months. Only one chick will normally survive the first winter.
Takahe translocated from their remote alpine habitat have easily adapted, feeling quite at home in the environment of predator-free offshore islands, and unafraid of humans. |
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Missing for half a century - life in an edge ecology .....
Takahe provide another intriguing story of life on the edge for New Zealand's endangered avifauna. They were once found everywhere on both mainland islands. The first specimen recorded by Dr Gideon Mantell was caught alive on Resolution Island in 1849 by a seal hunter's dog. Another three takahe were found the same way, but this was all that was known about the bird in 1900 so it was assumed to be extinct.
This in no way deterred Dr Geoffrey Orbell, an amateur naturalist from Invercargill, from an intensive search in a wet, remote region of the Murchison Mountains in Fiordland. It is a place where 250 inches of rain fall in a year and many areas are still untrodden by humans.
On his first visit footprints were found, however, on a second visit in 1948, two takahe were rediscovered near the shores of Lake Orbell, causing a sensation amongst ornithologists throughout the world. In that year 400 birds were found in alpine tussock grassland of the Murchison Mountains and two adjoining ranges.
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Tiritiri Matangi is an excellent place to see takahe .....
... in a restored natural habitat. The birds are friendly, so be careful, they might steal your lunch. A visiting journalist, Edward Kanze wrote of his experience "... a takahe that followed my wife, Debbie, and me along the Ridge Track, 'tasting' our trouser legs whenever we slowed to look at something. Sometimes the bill found flesh. This was the first time either of us had been nipped by an endangered species ..." |
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The total amount of each takahe donation made to Terra Nature Fund will be used for predator control, nest monitoring, bird transfers, egg incubation and hand-raising by New Zealand Department of Conservation biologists.
See more on the
Takahe Recovery Programme, which is managed by the
Threatened Species Trust.
Contributions made to Terra Nature Fund are tax deductible in the United
States ..... donations made directly to the Takahe Recovery Programme are not. |
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2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
North Island takahe
Porphyrio mantelli
Extinct
Takahe
Porphyrio hochstetteri
Endangered
2008 New Zealand Threat Classification System
North Island takahe
Porphyrio mantelli
Extinct
South Island takahe
Porphyrio hochstetteri
[B.1] Nationally critical |
Takahe protection ......
Like the moa, takahe numbers shrank from Maori hunting, as shown from bones found in
middens. But unlike the moa, takahe survived in the harsh environment of the
Murchison and Stuart Mountains, safe from human killing.
While isolation saved them, survival was still threatened from heavy grazing of their tussock grass habitat by introduced deer, and nest and chick predation by stoats.
Takahe are now protected in the wilderness of Fiordland National Park, which is New Zealand's largest national park, and a World Heritage area.
However, takahe have not made a comeback in the natural habitat in which they were found in 1948.
The population dwindled from 400 to 118 birds in 1982. This was mainly caused by deer
becoming well established throughout Fiordland in the 1940s and 1950s.
There has been a slight recovery to 160 birds since deer have been controlled with hunting by helicopter.
A better population increase may be restricted by stoat predation, which is controlled
during the nesting period and when chicks are vulnerable, but has practical limitations.
Department of Conservation biologists used their offshore island sanctuary experience
in establishing safe habitat for takahe on Maud Island in the Marlborough
Sounds, Mana and Kapiti Islands north of Wellington off the Wairarapa Coast, and Tiritiri
Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf northeast of Auckland. The offshore population has
grown to about 60 birds. |
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