Been there, done that... Do you know the story of how they were rediscovered.... This doctor from Invercargill (Orbell?) was sure they were there still in the mountains near Lake Te Anau.- if I remember correctly on one of his many searches he found tracks and heard them calling but it was many months before he could confirm they were really from the Takahe, when he (or was it a dog) finally caught one.
I hope Takahes make their way to zoos outside New Zealand. They are big, plump, colorful, flightless, hardy, of great conservation and education value - what more one needs? Apparently they are adaptable too, and rare only because they were eaten by introduced predators.
They are certainly hardy as the area they live in is snow-covered for part of the year. I think its unlikely NZ would allow any to be exported though? Chlidonias?
Would i be right in saying the only endemic New Zealand birds kept outside of NZ are the kea and the kaka, which i think are only kept in Stuttgart? And of course kiwis, DOH!
Why are New Zealand and Australia in general so against exporting animals to other areas (Europe/America etc)? Is it due to the long time it would take to transport the animal? If not, there are so many species that Australia want (okapi, drill etc). I'm sure that some zoos could do exchanges to get higher diversity on both sides. I don't see it happening soon, but I long for a world where we will be able to see more wombats, platypus etc. (and a captive breeding population of Kakapo [but only from rescued birds that can't be returned to the wild]).
*North Island kaka at Stuttgart. *North Island brown kiwi at various places. *Kea pretty common. *Red-crowned and yellow-crowned kakariki (although as I understand it, probably all outside NZ are now badly hybridised and the best one can say about individual birds is that they "look" like a red-crowned or yellow-crowned). *Fiordland crested penguin at Taronga (Sydney) -- these are three storm-wrecked birds from Australian beaches. *Paradise shelduck, NZ scaup, and brown teal all common. *Blue duck at one facility in UK (is that Arundel? I can't remember off the top of my head). *I don't think there's any weka left overseas. All in all, you could actually construct a reasonably good New Zealand exhibit in a UK zoo! (Especially if you add in natives like NZ shoveller, little pied shag, etc) Takahe going out of NZ -- no chance at all!
Thanks for that complete list Chlidonias, include some tuatara and weta, and we could be onto a winner!
yep, common tuatara at a few places and Brothers Islands tuatara at San Diego; various endemic geckoes (and maybe skinks) in zoos and the pet trade; weta of at least one or two species; the two NZ stick insects that are widely-kept as pets over there; there's a few native and endemic galaxiids (and probably bullies) overseas as well, especially in Germany. Toss in some life-size replicas of moa, Harpagornis, etc and a whole mess of NZ plantings, and Bob's your uncle
Kakariki were very common in Uk as a cage/aviary bird at one time(still?) there were even variants e.g. Lutinos etc. It was strange to see them wild in NZ where they are still valued as native birds. Takahe- that is what I thought! Blue Duck- yes, one bird(male) at Arundel WWT- or there was still a few months ago.
Both Countries have always had extremely strict laws about importing livestock, wildlife & plants from other countries. NZ suffered badly from the historic introductions of many species which decimated their own wildlife drastically and it seems this is an attempt to prevent any further damage. ( also true of Australia which has seen Foxes, rabbits, mice, Buffalo, Asian deer and antelope, wild pigs etc all damaging their own flora and fauna.) I think the reluctance to export their own species is connected with this. New Zealand's rarest species (Kakapo, Takahe etc) are numerically still in such low numbers, even if careful management means their populations are slowly recovering, that there are none available for potential export anyway. Australia in the past has even preferred to allow large numbers of a pest species e.g. Cockatoos to be destroyed rather than allow any to be exported. Maybe Chlidonias can elaborate on this?
Still a shame though . What about the export of more common mammals, like platypus (least concern) and several marsupial species? Do any zoos outside of Australia (preferably Europe) keep Tasmanian devils?
Copenhagen has Tasmanian devils. London has in the past in the Clore,Toronto has in the past from a TV show I once saw. Not sure where else might have them now.
According to ISIS, Copenhagen is the only place in the world (outside of Australia) with Tasmanian devils.
ISIS is right on this. There have been quite a few speculations recently that a group was going to be sent to the States, but sofar nothing happened...
With wild Devil populations experiencing health problems a the moment, there may be extreme reluctance to export any more, even from captive situations/wildlife parks?
If wild populations are getting this (is it a type of cancer?), surely they are looking at maintaining healthy populations in captivity? (Or can it not be immunised against?)
