Shifting Saddlehacks

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31597, 7 February 1968, Page 1

Shifting Saddlehacks

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) AUCKLAND, Feb. 6. With the aid of several stuffed birds, a tape recorder and plenty of patience, about 50 of one of the world’s rarest species of bird have been transferred to new homes by the Wildlife Branch of the Internal Affairs Department.

The species—the North Island saddleback—was plentiful and widespread in New Zealand until the advent of European settlement. It became almost extinct and was

found only on Hen Island in the Hen and Chicken Islands. Officials of the department are trying to spread the species to other islands. A party of wildlife experts have returned to Auckland, having just transferred 29 of the birds from Hen Island to Cuvier Island, and a further 25 to Fanal Island. Two similar experiments in the last four years have proved successful, but previous attempts—the first in 1925—failed.

The party was led by Mr D. V. Merton, fauna conservation officer at Wellington, who said, “If we are successful with this attempt the bird will be in a much healthier position than it has been this century.”

To catch the birds, the party used tape recordings of a saddleback’s call and used stuffed specimens to attract the birds into nets.