Takahe 'Slowly But Surely Dying’

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31385, 2 June 1967, Page 3

Takahe 'Slowly But Surely Dying’

(N.Z. Press Association) INVERCARGILL, June 1. The takahe, which was rediscovered in Fiordland in 1948 after it had for years been believed to be extinct, is slowly but surely dying out in its last stronghold in the Murchison Mountains. Unless attempts to breed it in captivity were successful soon, the bird would become extinct, Mr B. Reid, of the Wildlife Division of the Department of Internal Affairs, said from Wellington* yesterday. Mr Reid, who since 1963 has been head of the scienti-

fic team investigating the takahe, and who has taken part in expeditions to the Murchisons and in attempts to breed the birds at Mount Bruce in the North Island, said that when the numbers of the birds became too low, allowing inbreeding, their days might be numbered. “We have a reasonable number of birds to play with, but we shall have to get cracking,” Mr Reid said. Mr Reid said that suggestions made in Southland recently that the climate at Mount Bruce was not suitable for the breeding of takahe, and that the project could better be situated in Southland, were probably unjustified. Scientific opinion both in New Zealand and overseas indicated that change of climate was unlikely to be

affecting the breeding project at Mount Bruce. At any rate, said Mr Reid, the Mount Bruce climate, with a rainfall of about 100 inches annually, and with heavy frosts in winter and occasional snow, would more closely approximate that ofthe Murchison Mountains than would the climate of Te Anau township. It could be a mistake to believe that the takahe was, as a species, more suited to the Fiordland climate, Mr Reid said. Once the birds had roamed over both islands and it was because the Murchisons were probably least affected by man that they survived there and not elsewhere. Mr Reid said seven adult birds had been taken to Mount Bruce, but none had been breeding couples.

Observations of the birds in their natural state had shown that in a year only 57 per cent of adult birds bred. It was therefore possible that of the bird specimens taken to Mount Bruce only one—a hen which laid four eggs a year, probably twice as many as it would in its wild state—was a breeding bird. The same thing could happen in a project sited in Southland, or anywhere else for that matter. Mr Reid said the cost of keeping the birds in suitable conditions in captivity could be beyond the means of those contemplating experimenting with them. He preferred not to estimate the amount of money required for each bird a year, but said it was much higher than many might expect