Hokorereoro, Rangatira, or South East Island is the third largest island in the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

archipelago, and covers an area of . It lies east of

New Zealand's 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 country b ...

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 ...

off the south-east coast of

Pitt Island Pitt Island is the second largest island in the Chatham Islands, Chatham Archipelago, New Zealand. It is called ''Rangiauria'' in Māori language, Māori and ''Rangiaotea'' in ''Moriori language, Moriori.Government of New Zealand, Dept. of Cons ...

, south-east of the main settlement, Waitangi, on

Chatham Island Chatham Island ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) is by far the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway bet ...

History

According to oral traditions, ancient

Moriori The Moriori are the native Polynesian people of the Chatham Islands (''Rēkohu'' in Moriori; ' in Māori), New Zealand. Moriori originated from Māori settlers from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 CE. This was near the time of the ...

used to travel to Rangatira by canoe to capture muttonbirds. However, there is no material evidence of those expeditions, such as dendroglyphs (tree carvings) or

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

(rock art). European farmers ran sheep, goats and cattle on Rangatira until the 1960s when the last of these were removed. Today the island is a gazetted nature reserve, and access to the island is restricted and controlled by the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

Pyramid & Rangatira Islands Chatham Islands New Zealand Aotearoa

Flora and fauna

Rangatira is host to several rare and endemic species of birds and plants, and is a sanctuary for endangered invertebrates such as the giant stick insect, coxella weevil, the flightless rove beetle '' Creophilus rekohuensis,'' and the Pitt Island longhorn beetle. It is also locally notorious for the presence of the Rangatira spider, one of New Zealand's largest spiders. Rangatira is most famous for being the habitat for the endangered

black robin The black robin or Chatham Island robin (Moriori language, Moriori: ''karure'', mi, kakaruia; ''Petroica traversi'') is an endangered bird from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. It is closely related to the South Island rob ...

, rescued from near extinction by a dedicated team led by

Don Merton Donald Vincent Merton (22 February 193910 April 2011) was a New Zealand conservationist best known for saving the black robin from extinction. He also discovered the lek breeding system of the kākāpō. When Merton began his work as a conser ...

, who used foster parent birds to raise the chicks of black robin. The island has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

BirdLife International 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 ...

because it supports large breeding colonies of

broad-billed prion The broad-billed prion (''Pachyptila vittata'') is a small pelagic seabird in the shearwater and petrel family, Procellariidae. It is the largest prion, with grey upperparts plumage, and white underparts. The sexes are alike. It ranges from the ...

s (330,000 pairs), Chatham petrels (up to 1000 pairs) and

white-faced storm petrel The white-faced storm petrel (''Pelagodroma marina''), also known as white-faced petrel is a small seabird of the austral storm petrel family Oceanitidae. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Pelagodroma''. Description The white-faced ...

s (840,000 pairs). Rangatira was the stronghold and last remaining breeding site for the Chatham petrel until recently; new colonies on Pitt and Chatham Islands are being established. For a 1994 account of the birdlife of Rangatira, see Nilsson et al.

References

External links

Moriori education resources
Islands of the Chatham Islands Uninhabited islands of New Zealand Seabird colonies Important Bird Areas of the Chatham Islands {{OutlyingNZ-geo-stub

History

Flora and fauna

See also

References

External links