The takahē, a large, flightless bird thought to be extinct for decades, was released last week in the Lake Whakatipu Waimāori valley, an alpine area of New Zealand’s South Island. In all, 18 of these birds were released onto slopes where they had not been seen roaming for a hundred years.
For the Ngāi Tahu, the tribe to which these lands belong, this event is especially significant, as it marks the return to nature of the birds their ancestors lived with and on lands they fought so hard to recover.
The Takahē are unusual creatures. Like many other birds in New Zealand, they evolved without native terrestrial mammals and adapted to fill niches in the ecosystem that mammals would occupy. They do not fly, measure about 50 cm and live in the mountains. Their presence in Aotearoa dates back at least to the prehistoric Pleistocene, according to fossil remains.
“They have an almost prehistoric look. Very wide and bold,” Tūmai Cassidy, from the Ngāi Tahu tribe, told The Guardian.
When viewed head-on, their bodies appear almost perfectly spherical and they have bluish-green feathers, perched on two long, bright-red legs.
Tā Tipene O’Regan, an 87-year-old academic from New Zealand who belongs to the Ngāi Tahu, sees the return of these birds as the conclusion of a story that began in his childhood. When he was 10 years old, O’Regan was one of the first people to see a live takahē in more than half a century.
His father, who was a keen conservationist, took part in the second expedition to find these birds, in 1949, with his son in tow. And O’Regan still remembers the moment he first saw them, being told that “they were extraordinary birds.”
“Last week came full circle. It’s been an absolute joy,” O’Regan confesses.
Source: TSF
