The Tuku Nature Reserve is a nature reserve 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 ...

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 ...

, in the Tuku-a-tamatea (Tuku) River Valley in the south-west of the island. The 1238 hectares of land, largely covered with dense native forest, are owned by the

New Zealand government , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

and is managed by its

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 ...

. Before Crown ownership, the land was owned by Manuel and Evelyn Tuanui. The Tuanuis assisted ornithologist David Crockett in discovering the

magenta petrel The magenta petrel (''Pterodroma magentae''), or Chatham Island tāiko, is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, ''Pterodroma''. Found exclusively on Chatham Island, New Zealand it is one of the rarest birds in the world, believed to be ext ...

(''Pterodroma magentae''), or Chatham Island tāiko, on the land in 1978. This small burrow-nesting

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

had been considered extinct for over 100 years, and remains critically endangered. The Tuanuis donated the land that now forms the Reserve in 1983 for the conservation management of the tāiko, with adjacent land covenanted for the same purpose. The reserve is important for the conservation of the tāiko. As of 2004, 80% of tāiko breeding burrows are inside the reserve.

Flora and fauna

The reserve comprises an area of forested, peat-covered tableland dissected by the Tuku River and its tributaries and dominated by tarahinau. The valley also contains kopi,

karamu Karamu may refer to: * Karamu, New Zealand, a rural locality in the North Island of New Zealand * ''Coprosma robusta'', a tree known as karamu * ''Coprosma lucida'', a shrub sometimes called shining karamu * ''Coprosma macrocarpa'', a shrub called ...

, hoho and matipo, with abundant

tree fern The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

s. As well as the tāiko, the reserve is important for the conservation of other animals and plants endemic to the Chatham Islands, such as the parea or Chatham Islands pigeon.

References

Geography of the Chatham Islands Nature reserves in New Zealand Chatham Island {{OutlyingNZ-geo-stub