The Department of Conservation has released a report on the conservation status of all 473 recorded bird taxa known in NZ since first human contact, comparing their 2012 threat status with their 2008 status. Story here: South Island duck extinct - science | Stuff.co.nz The full report is available here: http://doc.govt.nz/Documents/science-and-technical/nztcs4entire.pdf Abstract: The main changes were: A number of other species (mostly marine or coastal species) also moved into more threatened categories.
the South Island brown teal probably isn't entirely extinct, but surely is functionally extinct. If there are any left they are in tiny numbers. Their last stronghold was in Fiordland, which is notoriously difficult to find birds in. Releases of brown teal in various parts of the South Island have all been of North Island birds. Interestingly enough the South Island birds were visually distinct from North Island birds (in terms of colour), and genetically also quite distinct. The North Island and Chatham Island brown teal form a natural genetic grouping quite separate from the South Island birds, so it isn't just a local population gone, it is an entire taxon. Also interesting is that many genetic studies of South Island birds show heavy contamination with mallard genes
Has anybody ever tried to build up a captive population of the South Island brown teal because I'm sure captive breeding could have saved this species ! By the way : thank you zooboy28 for this most intresting report !
South Island birds were captured in the 90s and kept in captivity for a while, but DoC in its infinite wisdom then just released them all again because they decided (on limited data apparently) that they were hybrids. At that time there was no real understanding that they were so distinct from North Island birds. They were just considered the same birds from a different part of the country. Missed opportunity though, obviously.
a new assessment (2016) of the conservation status of NZ's birds has been released: http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/science-and-technical/nztcs19entire.pdf Five taxa have been downlisted from Nationally Critical to Nationally Vulnerable, but three have gone in the opposite direction. Fourteen taxa have moved from Threatened categories to At Risk categories, but six taxa were moved to Threatened. In sum, 34 taxa "were better off" and 17 "were worse off".
