The most exciting news from the Takahē Recovery Programme is the planned release of 30 takahē into Gouland Downs,  Kahurangi National Park. Unfortunately bad weather and the impending breeding season meant plans to conduct the translocation were put on hold in August this year. 

Kahurangi National Park could be the home to the first wild population of takahē outside of their Murchison Mountain refuge.  Learn more here about why Gouland Downs is considered a suitable site and what it could mean for the species.

Work has been completed to double the area of one of the original pens at the Burwood Takahē Centre, to now cover almost 135ha of the tussock reserve.  Learn more about how the pen allows for a further 5 breeding pairs and also increases the capacity for the Programme to overwinter young birds before they are released into the wild.

In August, Maungatautari Ecological Island welcomed Brodie and Puiaki into their new purpose built Coopers Pen, bringing the sanctuary's takahē population up to two breeding pairs. 

Both extensions were made possible through the support of Mitre 10 - the Programme's Offical Supplier.

Pukaha Mount Bruce and the resident male takahē Natural, welcomed the arrival of FOMI, a female takahē from Mana Island in June 2017.

And as T2 is living out his days in a peaceful area of Zealandia, Nio and Orbell (also ex-Mana Islanders) have taken up residence in the sanctuary's wetland. 

Fortunately, it appears all the pairs have found their new homes to be satisfactory, as breeding attempts for all the above birds have been reported so far this season.             

Passing their one year anniversary as DOC's national partner to support the Takahē Recovery Programme, Fulton Hogan staff have been getting stuck in to help the birds on the ground.

Read more about Fulton Hogan's involvement, including a working bee at the Burwood Takahē Centre, building a holding pen at Tāwharanui Open Sanctuary during Conservation Week and increasing takahē awareness by showcasing the Recovery Programme in their recent sustainability display in the Christchurch airport. 

An awesome effort from all the teams and it's been invaluable having such compatible skill sets for the tasks at hand.

To help monitor predator numbers and to reduce the threat of predation, the traps are being checked and cleared frequently. Stoats are the main threat to takahē, but when rats are very abundant they ‘clog’ the traps, reducing the effectiveness of stoat control.

The Takahē Recovery Team are also closely monitoring about 40 birds which are wearing transmitters. The survival (and cause of mortality) of these birds is used to predict what is happening across the whole population of about 130 individuals.

Given the current high stoat numbers, we expect there to be some takahē deaths due to stoat predation. We also expect that the extensive trapping network will successfully protect most of the takahē population, and so far, it has been doing a good job.

Website: The Official Takahē Recovery webpages are now located within the central DOC website - our original address: www.takaherecovery.org.nz will  take you straight there......so pop on over and check out our fresh new look.

Takahē story visualisation: explore this amazing interactive visualisation of the takahē story, developed generously for the Programme by Jonni Walker.