The New Zealand dotterel (''Charadrius obscurus'') is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted dotterel, and its

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

names include , , and . The southern subspecies of the New Zealand plover is considered critically endangered and was nearing

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

with about 75 individuals remaining in 1990. Conservation measures increased this to 250 by 2005, but a further decline has occurred since 2012 to an estimated 60–80 mature individuals in 2017.

Taxonomy and systematics

The New Zealand dotterel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin , fields = , workplaces = University of GöttingenUniversity of Tübingen , alma_mater = University of Tübingen , doctoral_advisor = Philipp Friedrich GmelinFerdinand Christoph Oetinger , academic_advisors = , doctora ...

in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

''. He placed it with the plovers in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Charadrius '' Charadrius '' is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. They are found throughout the world. Many ''Charadrius'' species a ...

'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Charadrius obscurus''. Gmelin's description was based on the "Dusky plover" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The species had been collected in April 1773 on

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

's second voyage to the South Pacific at

Dusky Sound Tamatea / Dusky Sound is a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand, in Fiordland National Park. Geography One of the most complex of the many fiords on this coast, it is also the largest at 40 kilometres in length and eight kilometre ...

, South Island, New Zealand. The specific epithet ''obscurus'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

meaning "dark" or "dusky". A 2015 study determined that its closest relatives are two other New Zealand plovers, the

wrybill The wrybill or (in Māori) ngutuparore (''Anarhynchus frontalis'') is a species of plover endemic to New Zealand. It is the only species of bird in the world with a beak that is bent sideways in one direction, always to the right (in the crossbil ...

, which was found to be in the ''Charadrius'' clade, and the

double-banded plover The double-banded plover (''Charadrius bicinctus''), known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, is a species of bird in the plover family. Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate ''Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus'', which breeds ...

. Two

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised, although a taxonomic review has supported recognition of tentative species status for each of the two populations and this was recognised in the ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' (

BirdLife BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

, 2014) and in the conservation listing of the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. * ''C. o. aquilonius'' - Dowding, 1994: Found on the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

(New Zealand) * ''C. o. obscurus'' - Gmelin, JF, 1789: Found on the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

and

Stewart Island Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

(New Zealand)

Distribution and habitat

New Zealand dotterels are usually found in two disjunct populations in New Zealand, usually on sandy beaches and sand spits or feeding in tidal estuaries. The northern population occurs on the North Island and the southern population occurs at the southern end of the South Island and on Stewart Island/Rakiura.

Behaviour and ecology

Breeding

Parents lay eggs in the spring and summer. They nest on beaches above the high tide mark, and the nest is just a shallow hole dug in the ground. The chicks hatch about 28 days after the eggs have been laid. Because the nests are on the ground, the chicks can walk the day they hatch. They are cared for by their parents but have to find their own food as the adults do not feed them. They can usually fly within 6–8 weeks.

Status

The

, which treats the two subspecies as separate species, rates the northern subspecies as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

and the southern subspecies as Critically Endangered. The population size of the southerly subspecies had been reduced to about 62 individual birds in 1990 and the first study of the population structure undertaken from 1988 to 1992 indicated their significant decline. Conservation measures were put in place involving the poisoning of

feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

s and rats and the population has gradually risen, with about 250 individuals being recorded in 2005. The northerly subspecies has a wider range and its population was about 1300 in 1989. It had recovered to about 1700 individuals by 2004 but only as a result of intensive management. Nesting on beaches, they are vulnerable to disturbance by people and their dogs. Since 2012, there has been a rapid decline in numbers in the southern population, with an estimated 60 to 80 mature individuals in 2017. The northern subspecies has the conservation status of "Regionally Critical" in the

Wellington Region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is a non-unitary region of New Zealand that occupies the southernmost part of the North Island. The region covers an area of , and has a population of T ...

. In the

Hawke's Bay region Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, the species was locally extinct from the late 19th century. However, in 1990 some birds were seen at the Mahia Peninsula. Coastliine surveys conducted in 2011 and 2021 found that numbers in the region had more than doubled over the ten year period, with 222 birds counted in 2021.

Gallery

File:NZ Dotterel Coromandel.JPG, Mature male File:New Zealand Dotterel Eggs.jpg, Eggs File:Bul02Bird015a.jpg, Illustration of chick File:Dotterel three chicks and one adult - Ruakaka.jpg

References

External links

New Zealand dotterel/tūturiwhatu
Department of Conservation * {{Authority control Charadrius Endemic birds of New Zealand Birds described in 1789 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin