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.

  •  TaldenNZ   ( @taldennz@lemmy.nz ) 
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    1010 months ago

    One day perhaps they’ll be seen again more commonly as is now the case with tui and kererū in some areas.

    At 8% they’re probably going to outperform KiwiSaver… but maybe not savers of kiwi.

  • I’m from the US, and usually all we hear about Australia and New Zealand is of the scary, deadly animals. I’ve been happy to see so many articles on Lemmy about all the work they are doing on endangered animals like this bird and the bandicoots.

    I’m also surprised that so many of these programs seem to involve indigenous people. I don’t know much about that part of the world, but I wish we would involve our native people in things like this. It feels we still keep ourselves cut off from each other. It makes all these feel good animal stories into feel good people stories.

    •  TaldenNZ   ( @taldennz@lemmy.nz ) 
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      10 months ago

      New Zealand doesn’t really have any deadly animals.

      No scorpions, snakes (other than the very appearance of a sea-snake), crocs, large cats, bears, etc. Our most venomous spiders can generally only make most people a little bit unwell. We might occasionally see a potentially dangerous shark but they’re so rare that I can’t recall when a notable attack happened.

      Our insects aren’t generally disease spreaders - though we’ve come close a few times to some getting a foothold.

      Colonists introduced many destructive species but nothing very personally dangerous. In theory there could still be moose, but it seems unlikely.

      The only NZ native land-mammal is a tiny bat as far as I know.

      There is the small problem with orcs, goblins, trolls and Australians… but it’s okay, we have a wizard (retired?).

      • Thank you for all that! As I said, we don’t seem to get taught much about that part of the world. LotR is probably the only NZ thing I can recall of the top of my head, which is pretty embarrassing.

        •  TaldenNZ   ( @taldennz@lemmy.nz ) 
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          410 months ago

          In that case let’s really blow your mind…

          A Kiwi is a bird or a person, not a fruit.

          … Also New Zealand is comprised of three major islands North Island, South Island and West Island… Also some of my facts may be slightly inaccurate - but not the bit about the fruit.

          • I had heard the kiwi stuff, but you had me second guessing myself!

            I did look up the island names since I had never heard Aotearoa before, and a few of the blurbs say there are a few hundred actual islands that make up New Zealand, but it seems nobody can agree on an actual number because they all have a different estimate.

            •  TaldenNZ   ( @taldennz@lemmy.nz ) 
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              210 months ago

              Actually New Zealand has quite a few islands and more than three that are inhabited, but the three that most people refer to are North Island, South Island and Stewart Island (even though there are larger populations on others). The fourth most likely inhabited island to be mentioned is Waiheke Island (and the third most populated).

      •  Malgas   ( @Malgas@beehaw.org ) 
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        310 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.

    •  liv   ( @liv@beehaw.org ) 
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      10 months ago

      Fun fact: Australia and New Zealand are 2,516 miles apart, and don’t share much of the same wildlife.

      The Indigenous people of Aotearoa make up 16% of the population so they are demographically a much larger political and social force than in the US or Australia.

      I’ve posted several articles about links between various Indigenous cultural traditions and ecological conservation over at !conservative@kbin.social if you’re interested.

    • It means the species was around for a long time before they thought it went extinct.

      As stated in the article:

      Their presence in Aotearoa dates back to at least the prehistoric Pleistocene era, according to fossil remains.

        • When it comes to animals they’re not usually referring to only “before writing” prehistory but rather “before humans” or “from early humans and older” prehistory. It’s more of a colloquial use of the term referring to some of the oldest species of animals.

          Though you’d be surprised at how many species have only evolved in the past 5000 years or so.

    • In the article:

      Their presence in Aotearoa dates back to at least the prehistoric Pleistocene era, according to fossil remains.

      It just means the species has been around since the prehistoric era.

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    Eighteen of the birds were released in the Lake Whakatipu Waimāori valley, an alpine area of New Zealand’s South Island last week, on to slopes they had not been seen roaming for about 100 years.

    “Very broad and bold.” Front-on, their bodies can appear almost perfectly spherical – coupled with the blue-green plumage, they look like a model planet Earth perched atop two long, bright red legs.

    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.

    As trapping efforts have expanded, rare species are being re-introduced outside sanctuary fences: last year kiwi, the national birds, were reintroduced to wild spaces on the outskirts of the city for the first time in generations.

    The release on Ngāi Tahu land is an attempt to establish the country’s third wild takahē population – and close collaboration between the government and the Indigenous tribe who will host them.

    O’Regan’s father was a keen conservationist, and after a South Island doctor spotted the birds in the Murchison mountains, he attended the second expedition to find them in 1949 – with his young son in tow.


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