Rare Prehistoric Bird Gets Cared for and Released

Once thought extinct, 18 takahē birds were just released on New Zealand’s South Island, an area they haven’t been seen in for over one hundred years.

“There are few things more beautiful than to watch these large birds galloping back into tussock lands where they haven’t walked for over a century,” says Tā Tipene O’Regan, a Ngāi Tahu elder.

The takahē bird is quite unique in that it evolved in an area without native land mammals: they are flightless, around 50cm tall, and live in the mountains. The birds were formally declared extinct in 1898 and were not rediscovered until 1948. Today, they are considered to be one of the world’s rarest creatures with only about 500 individuals – a number that is currently growing at a rate of about 8 percent per year. If the just-released takahē birds adjust well to their new environment, more batches will be released into the wild in the coming months.