Birds
Takahe
Porphyrio hochstetteri · also called South Island takahe, notornis
The takahe is a heavy, flightless, iridescent-blue rail the size of a hen turkey, and one of conservation’s better stories. It was written off as extinct at the end of the nineteenth century and stayed that way in the record books for 50 years — until someone went looking and found it.
Overview
Porphyrio hochstetteri is the largest living rail, about 63 cm long and 2.3–3.8 kg. Its native home is the Murchison Mountains of New Zealand’s South Island, in alpine tussock grassland. It is deep blue and teal shading to olive-green, with a massive scarlet bill and frontal shield and stout red legs.
Rediscovery
The last known bird was taken in 1898. In 1948 the physician Geoffrey Orbell, convinced a population survived, hiked into a remote valley above Lake Te Anau and found living takahe. The area became a protected zone at once.
Eating tussock
The takahe feeds by pulling up a tussock stem, pinning it under one big foot, stripping out the soft base with its heavy bill, and discarding the rest — leaving tell-tale piles of grass.
Status
The takahe is Endangered but increasing, at around 500 birds growing roughly 8% a year across the Murchison Mountains, predator-free islands, and fenced sanctuaries. In 2023 wild birds were released into the Greenstone Valley, back on the South Island mainland after about a century.
Takahe: common questions
How was the takahe rediscovered?
By a doctor who refused to accept it was gone. Geoffrey Orbell, a physician from Invercargill, had grown up hearing about the bird and became convinced a population might survive in the remote mountains west of Lake Te Anau. In 1948 he and a small party hiked into a hanging valley in the Murchison Mountains, found unfamiliar tracks and calls, and photographed and briefly caught takahe, ending 50 years in which the species had been listed as extinct. The valley and a nearby lake now carry his name, and the area became a special protected zone almost immediately.
Why can't the takahe fly?
It descends from a flying ancestor, a swamphen that reached New Zealand from Australia, but on islands with no ground predators the ability to fly is expensive to maintain and easy to lose. Over time the takahe's ancestors grew larger, their flight muscles and wing bones shrank, and they settled into a life of walking and grazing. That worked well until people arrived with rats, stoats, cats, and dogs, and brought deer that compete for tussock. A large, slow, flightless, ground-nesting bird had no defence against any of that, which is why it nearly vanished.
Is the takahe the same as the pukeko?
They are relatives, not the same bird. The pukeko, or Australasian swamphen, is the slim, common, blue-and-black wetland bird seen on roadsides all over New Zealand, and it can fly. The takahe is a separate species, much larger and heavier, flightless, and restricted to alpine grassland and managed sites. They look superficially alike because both are swamphens, but a takahe is roughly three times a pukeko's weight and far scarcer. Pukeko sometimes wander into takahe areas and can compete with them or disturb nests.
How many takahe are left and are they recovering?
The population is around 500 birds and has been growing slowly, by something like 8 percent a year, thanks to one of the longest-running species recovery programmes anywhere. Birds are managed across the original Murchison Mountains range, several predator-free offshore islands, and fenced mainland sanctuaries, with eggs and juveniles moved between sites to keep the gene pool healthy. In 2023 takahe were released into the Greenstone Valley near Lake Wakatipu, returning wild birds to the South Island mainland outside the Murchison Mountains for the first time in about a century.