Flightless
birds

Takahe  Kiwi
Kakapo  Penguin
Moa  Wren

Rediscovered birds

The remarkable return of five extinct species

Critically endangered birds

Nine Red List, 26 nationally critical

Native
birds list

273 oceanic,
coastal and
terrestrial birds

Teal

Auckland Is.
Campbell Is.
Brown teal

Wattlebirds

Huia
Kokako
Saddleback

Mammals

Greater & Lesser
short-tailed bats,
Long-tailed bat

Gigantism in insects

Earthworms   

Weta

Living fossils

Leiopelma frogs
Land snails
Tuatara

Home > NZ ecology > Teal > Campbell Island teal

Two remarkable, tough little flightless sea ducks, that are only found on two cold, wet and windswept subantarctic islands, are another anomaly of the isolated evolution of New Zealand ecology.

The Campbell Island teal Anas nesiotis and the Auckland Island teal Anas aucklandica have been isolated in New Zealand for a long time, and subsequently became flightless and nocturnal.

Before gaining full species status, Anas nesiotis was regarded as a subspecies of Anas aucklandica. They are each endemic to their respective island groups.

The Campbell Island teal is the rarest duck in the world, 'critically endangered' on the IUCN 2005 Red List of Threatened Species, and 'nationally critical' on the 2005 New Zealand Threat Classification System list.  Its' brink of extinction survival is just as spectacularly close as the black robin.

The first naturalists that landed on Campbell Island in 1840 found no land birds - all of them had been wiped out by rats that got ashore from shipwrecks and whaling and sealing ships.

In 1975 when the Campbell Island teal was thought to have been extinct for about 150 years, 20 hardy survivors were discovered on Dent Island, a 23ha, mainly rock covered subantarctic islet (below).

A Southern royal albatross nests with a chick on Campbell Island, New Zealand's most southern island 700km southeast of the mainland. Dent Island, the safe home of the last 20 Campbell Island teal, lies 1.6km off the main island.  Photo: Peter Moore, Crown Copyright © Department of Conservation

View larger image

An accurate count could not be made in 1975, but it is thought that the total population amounted to no more than 20. Teal had totally disappeared from all of the other islands in the group, mainly due to predation of rats in the early 19th century.

With a limited food supply on Dent Island, seabird guano was part of the Campbell Island teal's diet.

New Zealand's flightless ducks are two of the few remaining in the world. Others include two species of flightless steamer duck, Tachyeres pteneres from Tierra del Fuego, Chile at the bottom of South America, and Tachyeres brachypterus which is endemic to the Falkland Islands.

At latitude 52.5°South, Campbell Island runs a close second to Tierra del Fuego (latitude 54.9°South) as the world's most southern duck location.

Campbell Island teal are rarely seen as they are nocturnal. They make up for their inability to fly, by running very fast as a means of escape at the first sign of any disturbance.

Return to teal
Return to flightless birds

A male (above top) and female (above) Campbell Island teal Anas nesiotis.
Photos - Male: Garry Norman, Mt Bruce 1995. Female: Barry Harcourt. Crown Copyright © Department of Conservation.

Click on each image to view larger

The success of teal recovery .....

It was confirmed in March 2006 that Campbell Island teal have settled back in their original subantarctic habitat, when nests and new chicks were found.

Preventing extinction with captive breeding and translocation

Since the removal of cats and rats from Campbell Island which started in 2001, and no remaining trace of them in 2003, translocated teal from captive breeding are expected to occupy their former entire range on the island within five years.

Captive breeding was started in 1984. Because of uncertainty over the number of teal on Dent Island, and concern for taking too many birds off, 3 males and 1 female were captured for breeding. With no duckling arrivals, another 4 males and 3 females were captured in 1990.

The first ducklings got world attention when they finally hatched in 1994 at the Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre. By 2000, the captive population of Campbell Island teal had reached 60.

The Department of Conservation initially chose to establish a second population on Whenua hou/Codfish Island, a predator-free island off Stewart Island, as a precautionary backup population while Campbell Island was cleared of rats, and to prepare the teal for their final move.

Two releases on Codfish Island of a total of 24 captive bred birds in 1999 and 2000 had an 88 percent rate of survival. With this success, DoC decided to translocate Mount Bruce bred birds directly to Campbell Island.

Fifty teal, including 28 from Pukaha Mount Bruce and 22 from Codfish Island were released onto Campbell Island in September 2004. Tracking in early 2005 confirmed 35 of the 50 birds to be alive.

In April 2005 there were 51 teal at Pukaka Mount Bruce after 20 ducklings hatched during the season.  Translocations of 55 birds to Campbell Island in the spring of 2005, and another 54 in 2006 to different sites on the island, successfully completed the recovery program.

In March of 2006 new nests and ducklings confirmed a prosperous future for the world's rarest duck, and for a revived avifauna on Campbell Island.

A tiny population of Campbell Island snipe was discovered in 1997, during a search for teal on the 19ha Jacquemart Island rock stack.  After rat eradication, snipe have returned to the main island naturally, with 30 birds found in 2006.

The future of Campbell Island's land birds is still subjected to keeping the island rat-free.