Survival Of The Takahe

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32235, 2 March 1970, Page 12

Survival Of The Takahe

The Wildlife Division of the Department of Internal Affairs is making yet another attempt to establish a colony of the rare takahe. or notornis, in captivity at the Mount Bruce reserve for native birds near Masterton. In earlier attempts, some birds have successfully been kept in captivity for several years; but so far no fertilised egg has been hatched in the reserve. Museums, including the Canterbury Museum, have obtained excellent specimens of takahe for mounting from those which have died in captivity, but the only real justification for taking birds from the small wild flocks which remain must be to build up a healthy breeding strain which would reduce the risk of extinction.

The takahe needs -. help if it is to survive. Remains which have been found suggest that the flightless bird once ranged fairly widely over both the North and South Islands. By the time of white settlement it had been reduced to a small pocket of south-west Fiordland. Only four takahe were recorded in the nineteenth century, and for 50 years from 1898 the bird was thought to be extinct, Its rediscovery in the Murchison Mountains on the w’est shore of Lake Te Anau in 1948 was a major ornithological event. Since then the bird has been found to survive in only a few small pockets; the numbers probably are not more than 400: there are signs that the flocks continue to decline.

Scientists are divided on whether the takahe can survive. The risk of inbreeding and infertility is always greater in small flocks. Human settlement has confined the bird to an area, and an altitude, where the climate is hard, especially in winter. As a grazing animal the takahe must compete with introduced deer for its food; many of its eggs and chicks suffer from the depredations of stoats. Some of these hazards can be eliminated at Mount Bruce, which has a climate not unlike that in the Murchison Mountains but rather less harsh in winter.

New Zealand’s unique bird life has a sad history of extinctions, from the giant moa down to the huia (which has not been seen since 1907) and perhaps to the black stilt whose numbers have fallen to less than 100—probably too few for survival. It may be some years before the fate of the takahe is known for sure. It is to be hoped that there is nothing prophetic about its name which as a verb in Maori can also mean “ to go wrong ” or “ to come to nothing ”.