| This week no apologies for bringing you a success story which although enacted through the 1970s and 1980s still manages to amaze and awe. I'm talking about the rescue of the black robin from the brink of extinction by the NZ Wildlife Service team led by Don Merton. The still images come from the NHNZ classic film Black Robin a Chatham Island Story (1990) - itself a compilation of three documentaries, Black Robin, Seven Black Robins and The Robin's Return which were made during those decades and which were the founding films upon which the formation of NHNZ (formerly TVNZ's Natural History Unit) was based."When Europeans first arrived on the Chatham Islands the black robin (Petroica traversi) was relatively widespread. But in the all too familiar pattern, its numbers dwindled as European settlement progressed. By late last century it had become restricted to a bleak pocket-handkerchief of stunted forest on top of Little Mangere Island. Here it struggled with its impoverished habitat, until by 1972 there were only 18 individuals left. Just three years later the numbers had dropped to nine. The black robin, it seemed, was facing certain extinction.In 1976 a team from the Wildlife Service led by Don Merton launched a daring and remarkable rescue attempt. Because the scrubby forest atop Little Mangere was deteriorating it was first decided to move the birds to nearby Mangere Island. It was a risky decision, since the bird's numbers then stood at seven, of which only two were female. Any mistake would finish the species.The difficult transfer was a success and the birds settled in to breed in their new home. Births, however, did not keep pace with deaths and by 1979 the population was down to five. In a final desperate bid to boost numbers it was decided to try cross fostering, a technique never before attempted in an endangered passerine population in the wild. This involved taking eggs from robins and putting them into the nest of another species that would serve ... |
