Notes

319 pages
colour illustrations
Summary: Takahe are 'strange and wonderful avian beasts', big purple-blue birds with a striking red beak and legs. Once thought extinct, they were famously rediscovered in 1946 by Invercargill doctor Geoffrey Orbell, who found a small population living in a remote valley in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland. In this book Alison Ballance charts the history of the Takahe Recovery Programme, the longest-running species conservation programme in New Zealand, and perhaps even in the world. After many set-backs, and decades when those dedicated to saving the bird struggled to get the population to grow, they have in recent years managed to build up a healthy population, which will pass 500 birds in 2023. Full of fascinating stories about the biology and lifestyle of this delightful bird, summed up 'as a food-obsessed, serially monogamous (mostly) devoted partner and parent, whose teenage kids stick around to help raise their younger siblings