Return of takahē – large, flightless bird – to alpine slopes of the South Island marks a conservation victory in New Zealand

In New Zealand, the return of wild takahē populations marks a cautiously celebrated conservation victory, and the return of one of the world’s rarest creatures. The birds had been formally declared extinct in 1898, their already-reduced population devastated by the arrival of European settlers’ animal companions: stoats, cats, ferrets and rats. After their rediscovery in 1948, their numbers are now at about 500, growing at about 8% a year.

  •  Malgas   ( @Malgas@beehaw.org ) English
    3•10 months ago

    Haast’s Eagle is said to have sometimes hunted and killed people (it’s main prey were moa, so it was definitely physically capable of it) but it’s been extinct for like 600 years.