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Hokorereoro, Rangatira, or South East Island is the third largest island in the Chatham Islands archipelago, and covers an area of . It lies east of New Zealand's 
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
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, south-east of the main settlement, Waitangi, on Chatham Island.
History
According to oral traditions, ancient Moriori used to travel to Rangatira by canoe to capture muttonbirds. However, there is no material evidence of those expeditions, such asdendroglyphs
Arborglyphs, dendroglyphs, silvaglyphs, or modified cultural trees are carvings of shapes and symbols into the bark of living trees. Although most often referring to ancient cultural practices, the term also refers to modern tree-carving.
Love c ...
(tree carvings) or petroglyphs (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, ...
.
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 thegiant stick insect
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 from ...
, coxella weevil, the flightless rove beetle ''Creophilus rekohuensis
''Creophilus rekohuensis'' is a beetle of the Staphylinidae family, subfamily Staphylininae. This species occurs only on some small predator-free islands in the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, where it lives in seabird burrows. Its name derives fro ...
,'' 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, 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 conse ...
, 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 ...
by 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 prions (330,000 pairs), Chatham petrel
The Chatham petrel (''Pterodroma axillaris'') or ranguru (Maori) is a medium-sized, grey, white and black gadfly petrel. It only breeds on the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, and until recently was restricted to the 218-hectare Rangatira or South ...
s (up to 1000 pairs) and white-faced storm petrels (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.
See also
* List of islands of New Zealand * List of islands * Desert islandReferences
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