The Brilliantly-feathered Takahē Bird is Making Strides Once Again

Meet the takahē, aka Porphyrio hochstetteri, an eye-catching New Zealand bird with a distinctive blue-green plumage, and a bright red beak and legs. This flightless bird standing at around 20 inches (51 centimetres) tall, is treasured by the Māori, the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand, and until 1948, was thought to be extinct, twice. But happily, this is the story of a conservation success in the making, as more of these rediscovered or Lazarus species birds are carefully reintroduced into the wild, as My Modern Met documents.

A cherished part of Māori heritage
Forbes details how these striking birds, aka the South Island takahē, (the North Island  takahē did become extinct), hold deep cultural significance for the Māori. In their legends, they are a taonga ( treasure), and when rediscovered in 1948, this reignited the nation’s commitment to taking care of its unique biodiversity.

Records show that these birds have been part of the Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand, since ancient times, dating back to the prehistoric Pleistocene era, as suggested by remains found in fossils, as Greek Reporter reveals. 

Tūmai Cassidy from Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori tribe of the South Island, says that “They’re almost prehistoric looking. Seen from the front, their bodies can seem almost perfectly round. With their blue-green feathers, they resemble a miniature Earth placed on top of two long, bright red legs.”

Once, their feathers were gathered and woven into cloaks. The decline of the wild takahē population coincided with the  loss of much of the tribe’s land through confiscation or sales.

O’ Regan, an elder from Ngāi Tahu, recounts that “Someone once called us, the land of the birds that walk.”

Back from the brink of extinction
An official New Zealand Government website describes how, over the centuries, the bird’s populations declined as glaciers retreated, and forests regenerated, shrinking their grassland habitat. Pressure from introduced predators such as cats, ferrets, and rats, brought by European settlers as animal companions, decimated the takahē populations even more. Meanwhile, introduced species such as deer, competed with them for food and habitat.

These unique birds were officially declared extinct in 1850, and then in 1898. 

Luckily, a group of takahē was rediscovered in 1948, by Dr, Geoffrey Orbel, a medical doctor and lover of natural history, who had been intrigued by these colorful creatures since his boyhood.During an excursion to a sub-alpine valley known by Māori as Te Wai-o-Pani, he paused to rest, and was struck by an unfamiliar call, deep and long, before noticing fresh bird tracks in the sand. Using his pipe, he etched the size of the footprint to measure it later. When the party returned to find out more, they came across two birds in a clearing, and filmed them. 

“…the colouring was truly glorious – crayfish red beak, legs and feet; navy-blue head and breast, turquoise over the back, lower teal-blue, and finally tail-feathers in olive green,” Dr. Orbell exclaimed. 

His discovery kickstarted a conservation effort that has seen the takahē population swell to about 500 birds, growing at about eight percent per year. Conservationists began by collecting and carefully incubating the eggs. Workers often wore sock puppets that resemble the birds’ red beaks, to help raise the chicks! 

A parallel effort to shield these birds from predators also began. Local environmentalists set up traps to help eliminate the worst predators such as stoats, rats and possums, especially during winter when there is competition for food, and native birds are the most threatened. 

Current takahē reintroduction efforts
Today, rather than incubating eggs, the focus has shifted towards breeding the birds in captivity and then establishing new populations of these wild native species. Gradually, the Department of Conservation started introducing these birds to select island sanctuaries and parks.

Yahoo News Australia, documents how these sanctuaries include Motutapu, a 178-million-year-old island near Auckland that is free of invasive predators. It is the largest of 17 designated sanctuary sites, and is home to 28 birds. Here, in the best breeding season since breeding pairs were established on the site in 2011, five pairs have succeeded in each raising a juvenile bird. Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori iwi (tribe) of the South Island, has overseen the efforts, reports My Modern Met. 

These endeavors take in “Years of work by many different people on Motutapu, from intensive biosecurity and pest responses, to planting native species, observing and health management, support the takahē to live and breed in a stable environment,” shares Kat Lane, DOC Hauraki Gulf Inner Islands Operations Manager, with Yahoo News Australia.

My Modern Met describes how the success of the takahē program is seen as a parallel to the efforts of the Māori people to get their land and rights returned.

Indeed, the above-mentioned Cassidy, speaking on behalf of the Ngāi Tahu to Greek Reporter, explains that for them, the recent release of these birds holds immense importance. Reflecting on the event, he said that it is “incredibly significant – for me personally, being able to do it on my own land, just remembering and thinking about the seven generations of our people who fought to have our rights and our land returned.”

What’s next for the takahē?
While conservationists are hopeful, their efforts to help these colorful birds thrive in New Zealand once again are not without challenges, including sustaining the low predator count achieved, according to Dr. Deidre Vercoe, who oversees the Takahē recovery operations at the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Meanwhile, as Yahoo Australia reports, because the Takahē breed just once a year, raising no more than two chicks, the recovery of the species has been slow. Avian influenza remains a threat, although a vaccine is being piloted.

For now, plans are in place to release as many as ten young takahē birds in the early months of 2025. Dr. Vercoe, who is closely associated with this initiative, feels cautiously optimistic.

The ultimate plan, as Yahoo Australia details, is to create multiple self-sustaining wild populations within the takahē’s historic range.