The North Island takahē ( mi, moho) (''Porphyrio mantelli'') is an extinct

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

that was found in the North Island 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 ...

. This flightless species is known from subfossils from a number of archeological sites and from one possible 1894 record (Phillipps, 1959). It appeared to have been even larger than the South Island takahē and, if it did survive until the 1890s, would have been the largest rail in historic times. The decline of the species has generally been attributed to the increasing incursion of forest into the alpine grasslands through the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

, although hunting by the

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 ...

also played a major role. Traditionally the North Island takahē was considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...

with the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

South Island takahē ''P. hochstetteri''. Trewick (1996) presented evidence that the two taxa were independently derived from flying ancestors, so proved to be separate species. The binomial of this bird commemorates the naturalist and civil servant

Walter Mantell Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell (11 March 1820 – 7 September 1895) was a 19th-century New Zealand naturalist, politician, and land purchase commissioner. He was a founder and first secretary of the New Zealand Institute, and a collector of moa ...

References

* Phillipps, W. J. (1959): The Last (?) Occurrence of ''Notornis'' in the North Island. ''Notornis'' 8(4): 93–94

* Trewick, S. A. (1996): Morphology and evolution of two takahe: flightless rails of New Zealand. '' Journal of Zoology, J. Zool.'' ''238'': 221–237. * Worthy, Trevor H. & Holdaway R. N. (2002): ''The lost world of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. .

External links

North Island Takahe - BirdLife Species Factsheet
North Island takahē Birds of the North Island Extinct flightless birds Bird extinctions since 1500 Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Extinct birds of New Zealand North Island takahē {{NewZealand-stub