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Omaha Steve

(99,073 posts)
Sat Aug 22, 2015, 10:13 AM Aug 2015

Hunters Accidentally Shoot One of New Zealand’s Most Endangered Birds


X post in Birder

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Left, the endangered takahe; right, the pukeko. (Photos: Getty Images)

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/08/21/new-zealand-hunters-kill-wrong-birds

AUG 21, 2015 Taylor Hill is an associate editor at TakePart covering environment and wildlife.

There are around 300 colorful, flightless takahe birds left in the world, but thanks to a hunting snafu in New Zealand, there are now four fewer of the critically endangered species.

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation had allowed hunters to target a similarly colored—but significantly smaller and more aggressive—bird called the pukeko on Motutapu Island, a predator-free site established to protect the takahe. The common pukekos can overtake takahe habitat and threaten the rare birds’ survival, and culls are one way to manage pukeko numbers.

But authorities discovered the wrong birds had been killed when they found four dead takahe peppered with shotgun pellets on Monday.

“We weren’t formally notified; we actually found the birds when my team were out on the island checking the transmitters,” Andrew Baucke, the DOC’s conservation services director, told Radio New Zealand. “Each of the transmitters have a mortality function on them, so that’s how they picked up the dead birds.”

FULL story at link.

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Hunters Accidentally Shoot One of New Zealand’s Most Endangered Birds (Original Post) Omaha Steve Aug 2015 OP
:( shenmue Aug 2015 #1
So much for the argument about responsible hunting. Curmudgeoness Aug 2015 #2
I saw several takahe on Kapiti iIsland - very large dinosaur-like amazing birds jpak Mar 2016 #3

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
2. So much for the argument about responsible hunting.
Sat Aug 22, 2015, 10:58 AM
Aug 2015

If you are not able to tell the difference, or know exactly what you are shooting, you definitely should not be allowed to hunt. And sadly, it looks like these hunters will not be found.

jpak

(41,742 posts)
3. I saw several takahe on Kapiti iIsland - very large dinosaur-like amazing birds
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 11:08 AM
Mar 2016

They feed by scraping grass leaves with their beaks.

When they heard me take my camera out of a ziplock bag, they came up running to me - apparently that's their dinner bell.

When I didn't give them anything, they wandered away....

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