South Island Takahe

• GeneralIt was thought extinct for 50 years until it was rediscovered in a remote valley in 1948.
• conservaciónIt was thought extinct for over 50 years until a small group was rediscovered in 1948 in a remote mountain area of New Zealand.
• It was given up for extinct after the last known bird was taken in 1898, and was rediscovered fifty years later, in November 1948, by Geoffrey Orbell in an isolated valley of the Murchison Mountains.
• It is monogamous and shows no sexual dimorphism: males and females are indistinguishable to the eye.
• Its genome was sequenced in 2024 alongside that of the weka, and both showed the lowest heterozygosity of the New Zealand rails studied, a reflection of their small populations.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Alpine tussock grassland and wetland

Birth weight

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Size at birth

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

~30 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

1-3 eggs per clutch

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List 2020 · BirdLife DataZone · Departamento de Conservación de Nueva Zelanda (Takahē Recovery Programme) · Animal Diversity Web · West et al. 2022, Animal Microbiome · Gaspar, Trewick y Gibb 2024, Ecology and Evolution · Meyer 1883

Best time: All year round in the Takahē Valley and on the islands where it has been translocated

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.