Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine

 

It’s 11.30 in the morning at Pukaha Mount Bruce and Pam Basher, the longest serving staff member at the National Wildlife Centre, is preparing for the day’s first talk.

Pam walks through the Takahe Café and out onto the balcony on the far side. A group of people are gathered, each one eagerly peering outwards over a glass fence with wooden handrail into the Takahe enclosure. Several have binoculars while others have a variety of cameras at the ready. They peer across the top of a predator proof fence into a large enclosure. 

Each day the same scene occurs with either Pam or Ranger Sandra Burles providing an inspirational talk about the most photographed Takahe in the world that everyone wants to catch a glimpse of. However, today there is a difference as the night before Georgie, the female takahe, had died. At nearly 22 years of age Georgie was one of the oldest known takahe and despite continued expert care had succumbed to a sickness that had made her unwell for the past two weeks.

 

I am working at Pukaha Mt Bruce over the 2007/2008 summer. Not a working day has gone by without a visit to the balcony to look down into the takahe enclosure. Some days the whole of my lunch has been spent just sitting down watching Georgie and her mate Bud. Like others I find it a privilege to be in their presence, and armed with a few key facts one can contemplate the part that humans play in the fragile balance between the species long term survival and extinction.

 

According to the last takahe census in 2007, there were 225 adult takahe in the world. Sixty years ago they were thought to be extinct until rediscovered by Doctor Geoffrey Orbell. Even now there is only one naturally occurring population in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland.

 

During the days either side of Georgie’s death the Department of Conservation flag hung at half mast to acknowledge the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary. For Pukaha Mt Bruce takahe are an iconic species and Georgie the poster bird for the centre. So for those that have an association with Pukaha the positioning of the flag had dual significance.

 

As Visitor Centre Manager Kathy Houkamau explained, “Georgie was probably the most photographed takahe ever, she had been seen by tens of thousands of people and was an amazing advocate for our work and indeed conservation throughout New Zealand”.

 

Rosemary Vander Lee, Captive Breeding Manager added, “Georgie never bred but she spent her entire life at Pukaha. Georgie’s presence actually inspired many people, some prominent, to become involved in conservation work. Being able to see her gave visitors a thrill, some a sense of awe and others a better understanding of how special our wildlife is”.

 

Seeing Georgie made me believe that the efforts of conservation groups throughout the country allow us to realise a sense of identity that genuinely cannot be found anywhere else in the world. That anyone could come to see the plump bird with a bright scarlet beak and colouring that reminds one of a paua shell was a unique experience that could never be replicated by a book or television.

 

Many people come to Pukaha Mount Bruce wanting to see a live specimen of that most New Zealand of symbols - a kiwi. By the end of their visit they have seen our most famous bird, but also come away with a deeper appreciation for the predicament that many of our other flora and fauna face.