TAKAHĒ UPDATE

Oct 6, 2023

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Kia ora Koutou,

Just a note to update you on the progress of the takahē recently released to the Greenstone Valley, which is a huge milestone for takahē recovery, built on decades of mahi and support.  Our confidence in releasing takahē here is a reflection of, and reward for, the amazing work that has been done in the Greenstone Valley in the past few years. The true recovery of takahē in the wild is reliant on the collaboration of many, and the Greenstone Valley location perfectly highlights the opportunities that collaboration can bring.  While it’s still early days for trialling the site’s suitability for takahē, and we know the site presents some risks - as all sites do, we are pleased with results to date. We hope that the return of takahē is just the first step in the journey to a wider restoration of this significant site, and of this precious manu more widely into the valleys of the upper Whakatipu.  

Ka tū te moho, kia ora ake anō

The takahē stands, in order to live again

First release – one month on:

We are very happy with the way the takahē have settled into their new home, one month since release. Four rounds of monitoring have shown them to be, mostly, remaining in their release pairings, and making good use of the variety of food resources that the valley provides. None have moved too far from their release location, which is great as the valley is where the best protection against mammalian predators and makes our monitoring job much easier than it could have been!

Figure 1: Latest locations

Figure 2: Douglas and Turama

Figure 3: First trial nest

Figure 4: Charles in beech forest 

Figure 5 Feeding on uncinia alongside the Greenstone Track

Our plan from here: 

Breeding Season Monitoring:

Going on what we see in other takahē populations, we expect to see nesting in the Greenstone population over the next 2 months. This is a critical step as will tell us a lot about the suitability of the habitat, and effectiveness of the pest control during the time when the birds are at their most vulnerable. We will ramp up our monitoring effort accordingly, over the coming months.

Release number 2 – 18^th October.

The success of the first month of takahē in the Greenstone gives us confidence to undertake the second release – 7 subadult birds on the 18^th October. These will be released in two small groups, into gaps between the established pairs. 

Release number 3 – late Jan/early Feb 2024.

All going well the initial 25 takahē will be joined by a further 10 one year-olds, already pre-selected as contributing to the gene diversity of the population. We currently think that this is a good number to enable a measure of the suitability and sustainability of the ecosystem to hold a takahē population.

It is likely that we will take the next few years to monitor the health and breeding success of individuals and observe important behaviour, such as home range size and feeding preferences, through the seasons. We will also be monitoring the health of the tussock grassland, with the aim of understanding how many takahē the ecosystem can maintain.   

How to follow the progress of the Whakatipu takahē population:

We will be updating the public with important news through the following channel: DOC - Fiordland Facebook Page.

Any questions, please feel free to give me a call.