Declared extinct in 1898 and rediscovered in November 1948 by a doctor who had followed up a strange call
Takahe — Geoffrey Orbell in the Murchison Mountains, Fiordland.
Nature · Birds
Takahe
Endangered · c. 500+ birds (DOC)
Porphyrio hochstetteri — Rallidae
A stout, flightless, iridescent blue-green rail from New Zealand with a massive scarlet bill and legs, the largest living member of the rail family. Declared extinct in 1898, it was famously rediscovered on 20 November 1948 by the Invercargill doctor Geoffrey Orbell in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland. Intensive management has since raised the population past 500 birds, more than half of them now living wild.
How to spot them
- ▸A heavy, tailless-looking rail the size of a large hen, 50 cm tall and up to 3 kg
- ▸Iridescent peacock-blue head, neck and breast shading to olive-green on the back and wings
- ▸A massive scarlet bill with a frontal shield, and thick red legs; a small white undertail flicked when alarmed
- ▸Flightless: the wings are used only in display and for balance
- ▸Grips tussock stems in one foot and strips out the soft base with the bill, leaving characteristic chewed clumps
How to know it
The largest living member of the rail family, flightless, blue-green and armed with a huge scarlet bill
Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri).
It holds a tussock stem in one foot and strips out the soft base, discarding the rest
Takahe — a snow-grass specialist.
Introduced red deer eating its alpine tussock, and stoats taking its chicks, nearly finished it off
Takahe — Endangered; about 500 birds survive.
Its smaller, still-living relative, the pukeko, can fly and is common on New Zealand roadsides
Takahe and the pukeko (Australasian swamphen) share the genus Porphyrio.
Its specific name honours the Austrian geologist on the Novara expedition who studied the moa
Porphyrio hochstetteri — Ferdinand von Hochstetter.
Birds were returned to the Greenstone and Rees valleys of Otago in the 2020s, its first mainland home outside Fiordland in a century
Takahe — DOC translocations beyond the Murchison Mountains.
Quick-fire facts
- •Height about 50 cm, weight 2.3–3.2 kg; the largest living rail
- •IUCN Red List: Endangered
- •New Zealand's Department of Conservation reported an estimated 529 birds in 2024 and now reports the population as a range; over 500 has been sustained, with about 55 per cent living wild
- •Rediscovered on 20 November 1948 by a four-person party led by Dr Geoffrey 'Doc' Orbell; the valley is now Takahe Valley
- •There were two species: the South Island takahe and the larger North Island takahe or moho (Porphyrio mantelli), which is extinct
- •It was long treated as a subspecies of P. mantelli; DNA work established the two as separate species
- •The Burwood Takahe Centre near Te Anau rears chicks for release; birds also live on predator-free islands such as Tiritiri Matangi, Kapiti and Maud
- •Deer competition for snow tussock and stoat predation are the main threats; deer culling in Fiordland from the 1970s helped the species recover
- •In 1948 fewer than 400 birds were thought to remain, and the population fell to about 118 by 1981
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- New Zealand Department of Conservation — Takahē
- New Zealand Department of Conservation — The incredible takahē story