Teal South Island

[Cardinal15]

sea-kangaroo has just posted a observation of a teal in the milford sound area via Inaturalist. Could be very important as it is either a vagrant teal or a south island brown teal witch is data difficient.https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143921495

[FraserGurney]

There's been a brown teal seen there recently, likely one of the birds released in the Arthur Valley. I assume the released birds are of North Island stock.

[Oscar Thomas]

Yes the South Island Brown Teal is unfortunately very likely extinct, I heard they were brighter than the North Island birds. This bird will be one of the NI ones translocated to the Milford Track area.

[Jan]

They are also bred at Issac's wetland reserve near Chch. Where do those go? I guess they are descended from N Is birds however.

[Oscar Thomas]

Some posts from The Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust Facebook page:

May 2020: 49 Brown Teal (Pāteke) were air-freighted to Nelson today and into the care of Project Janszoon within the Abel Tasman National Park.

June 2022: Recently 75 brown teal / pāteke were released onto Lake Rotokare. ICWT hold 7 breeding pairs, producing an average of 100 juveniles annually. In addition ICWT provide facilities for pre-release conditioning of every bird, from each of the 10 brown teal / pāteke captive breeding institutions. (Collectively about 150 – 200 brown teal / pāteke are hatched annually - with normally 4 releases per year.)

Other sites mentioned are Motutapu Island and Young Nick's Head in Gisborne.