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  Profile

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  In flight

Flightless Club

Takahē

Porphyrio hochstetteri

• legendary
• 10 km/h
• Endangered

Declared extinct in 1898, rediscovered in 1948 in a remote New Zealand valley. Comeback in flightless blue.

Population

~500 individuals (October 2023), growing roughly 8%/year

Habitat

Alpine tussock grasslands and subalpine scrub/red-tussock river flats in Fiordland; descends into beech forest or scrub to eat fern rhizomes when heavy snow covers the grasslands.

Fun fact

Believed extinct for ~50 years after 1898, the takahē was dramatically rediscovered in November 1948 by Dr. Geoffrey Orbell in the Murchison Mountains, Fiordland, after a deliberate search prompted by unexplained footprints near Lake Te Anau.

Range

Endemic to New Zealand's South Island; wild population confined to the Murchison Mountains (Fiordland), with additional released/reintroduced birds at sites like Gouland Downs (Kahurangi NP) and Greenstone Valley, plus several predator-free offshore islands (Tiritiri Matangi, Kapiti, Mana, Maud, Motutapu) and mainland sanctuaries.

Diet

Primarily starchy leaf bases and seeds of tussock grasses (Chionochloa) and sedges/snow grass; opportunistically large insects (moths, beetles, weta) and, when snow covers grasslands, underground fern rhizomes in forest/scrub.

Size

0.63 m

Lifespan

18 years