Tūturuatu Telegraph: Finding refuge on the edge of the world | Conservation blog

Source: Department of Conservation

The shore plover is described as a bird in need of urgent PR. With just 250 individuals left in the wild on several predator-free islands, it is one of the world’s rarest shore birds, facing issues related to real estate, genetics and a pandemic. Through collaboration and cooperation with tangata whenua, tchakat henu, community groups, and other stakeholders, the DOC-led Shore Plover Recovery Programme aims to turn the tide on this bird’s fate. The bi-monthly, ‘Tūturuata Telegraph’ takes a closer look at what it takes to bring this unique species back fro the brink of extinction.

In 1873, in reference to reports that shore plover were rare, keen ornithologist Thomas Potts commented, “It is not unlikely that the idea of its reputed rarity has arisen rather from the lack of close observation than from the scarcity of the species.” Ironically, his accompanying observation of three pairs of shore plover at the mouth of the Waikawa River in Otago was the last on the New Zealand mainland.

For the next 120 years, shore plover or tūturuatu were only known to exist on South East (Rangatira) Island in Rēkohu / Chatham Islands, named for its orientation to the Chathams’ second largest motu, Pitt Island. It’s Moriori name Hokorereoro is more revealing of its nature, loosely meaning “the vibration of flight” in reference to the sight, sound and feeling of millions of petrels and shearwaters that call it home.

Rangatira Island is home to an incredible diversity of species reflective of the high level of endemism found in the Chathams (47 plants and fungi, 10 seaweeds, 16 birds, one lizard and more than 50 invertebrates). It is 219 ha in area, rising to 224 m above its western cliffs, flanked with rocky platforms and covered with thick scrubby forest. It is home to the majority of the black robin and Chatham snipe populations and provides for so many burrowing seabirds that DOC staff need to clomp around in a special sort-of snow-shoe to avoid destroying their homes. At night the forest floor is alive with seabirds and invertebrates including wētā and the large Rangatira spider. The reason for this incredible biodiversity is that despite being a whaling shore station in the 1800s and farmed for many decades, the island has remained miraculously free of all mammalian pests.

Noted ornithologist Sir Charles Fleming visited Rangatira Island in 1937 and made important observations of shore plover breeding behaviour, ecology and population size. Impressed by the island’s abundant wildlife and lack of vermin, Fleming hoped that the island could one day become a sanctuary for the preservation of the characteristic flora and fauna.

Today, a captive breeding population of shore plover is held across three facilities on the New Zealand mainland, providing captive-bred juveniles for release onto pest-free islands. All the captive pairs derive from eggs collected from Rangatira Island that are transported by boat, plane and road to captive facilities. Although the captive population was founded in the 1990s, occasional transfers of eggs from Rangatira Island are required to maintain the genetic diversity of the captive and translocated populations; the most recent being in 2020.

MIL OSI