Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was endemic to New Zealand's North Island, but has been driven Extinct by human-induced habitat changes, hunting and predation by introduced mammals. There has been only one historical record of the species, in 1894.
Population justification
None remain.
Porphyrio mantelli was a flightless endemic to North Island, New Zealand, from where it is known from subfossils from a number of archeological sites (Williams 1960) and from one possible late 19th century record (Phillipps 1959).
It inhabited high altitude alpine grasslands.
The decline of the species has generally been attributed to the increasing incursion of forest into the alpine grasslands through the Holocene (Mills et al. 1984), although hunting by the Maori probably also played a significant role (Beauchamp and Worthy 1988). Predation by introduced mammals also likely contributed to declines (Hume 2017).
Text account compilers
Vine, J.
Contributors
Brooks, T., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S. & Martin, R.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: North Island Takahe Porphyrio mantelli. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/north-island-takahe-porphyrio-mantelli on 18/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 18/12/2024.