Takahe attacking Kereru

[Jake]

I was talking with one of the staff members at Pukaha Mt. Bruce. She told me that a US American tourist asked if the Takahe were always that vicious, because they had videoed one of the resident Takahe there *killing* a Kereru. I cannot remember if the staff member actually saw the video clip, but they had asked for a copy, which hasn't been received. A freshly killed Kereru was removed from the Takahe enclosure

I suppose they do have a shared ancestor with Pukeko, and could expect similar behavior from them

[Neil Fitzgerald]

I was there just after it happened, working with some of the guys there, and my understanding is that the staff did see the video.
They are known to kill ducklings(?) at Zealandia and obviously not shy to have a go if the opportunity presents itself.

[fras444]

I was there just after it happened, working with some of the guys there, and my understanding is that the staff did see the video.
They are known to kill ducklings(?) at Zealandia and obviously not shy to have a go if the opportunity presents itself.

I do wonder if this is some hardwired instinct from the pre human days much in the same way with some of the most domesticated animals in that..

With the growing population of Takahe and introducing them to areas such as Zealandia and Tiri where they are finally in some of the most complete ecosystems they would have not been in for well over a couple of hundred years... well.. for the NI takahe.... much much longer

Are we finally seeing them refill a potential long lost ecological niche they also used to once fill. One that we knew nothing about until the last 5 or so years when that one in tiri was observed eating a duckling..

Is this an example of that hardwired instinct that's finally just starting to come alive, now Takahe have been introduced to these complete ecosystems? Could they have been opportunist pukeko like birds that, apart from feeding on roots, foliage and insects. Takahe fed of haast eagle dispatched moa carcasas, scavenging on washed up things on the shoreline, wading into streams to catch fish or freshwater crayfish or even predating on fledgling birds that they came across on the forest floor or dispatching petrel chicks in those seabird colonies up in the mountains.

I could definitely see them being like pukeko and having a very broad diet including protein in the form of meat before that population constricted to that one shoot eating population in the Fiordland mountains.