Taukihepa / Big South Cape Island is an offshore island of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

to the west of the southern tip of

Stewart Island / Rakiura Stewart Island (, 'Aurora, glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura, formerly New Leinster) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island wit ...

. The island is the largest of the

Tītī / Muttonbird Islands The Tītī / Muttonbird Islands are an island group near Stewart Island in the far south of New Zealand. The islands are not permanently inhabited, and are named for the traditional seasonal harvesting ("muttonbirding") of the sooty shearwater ...

, and as such has no permanent inhabitants but is visited by muttonbirders in search of

sooty shearwater The sooty shearwater (''Ardenna grisea'') is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand, it is also known by its Māori language, Māori name , and is harvested by Māori people for muttonbirding, muttonbird, l ...

s, known in New Zealand as "muttonbirds".

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 Co ...

named the island "Taukihepa" and Europeans, who arrived later, called it "Big South Cape". The island was given dual names in 1998 as part of a

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

settlement with

Ngāi Tahu Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori people, Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim, New Zealand, Blenhe ...

. The island is the largest of a group of islands off the southwestern coast of Stewart Island / Rakiura, from which it is separated by a wide channel. Surrounding smaller islands include Poutama Island to the south, Putauhina Island and the Putauhina Nuggets to the northwest, and Solomon Island to the north. The island rises to a height of at its centre, and numerous small streams run to the coast. Named features on the island include two inlets – Murderers Cove in the central east coast and Puwai Bay in the island's southwest. It has an area of about .

Rat invasion

Māori muttonbirders had traditionally visited the island each summer to hunt

s (muttonbirds) that came to nest on the island in the spring. In March 1964, muttonbirders arrived to find the island had been devastated by the effect of rats that were causing one of New Zealand's greatest ecological disasters of the twentieth century. Previously free of mammalian predators, the ecology of the island was devastated in a matter of years and many endemic species of bird (some flightless) were driven to extinction. The surviving biomass of insect and bird life has been heavily reduced. An eradication programme was initiated to rid the island of rats and the island was rat-free again in 2006.

Animals that became extinct

Despite intervention by the

New Zealand Wildlife Service The New Zealand Wildlife Service was a division of the Department of Internal Affairs responsible for managing wildlife in New Zealand. It was established in 1945 (as the Wildlife Branch) in order to unify wildlife administration and operations t ...

that trapped and transferred some surviving birds to other, rat free, off-shore islands, two species of bird did not survive and became extinct. These were Stead's bush wren and the

South Island snipe The South Island snipe (''Coenocorypha iredalei''), also known as the Stewart Island snipe or tutukiwi in Māori, is an extinct species of bird in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae that was endemic to New Zealand. Taxonomy and etymology Determ ...

. The

New Zealand greater short-tailed bat The New Zealand greater short-tailed bat (''Mystacina robusta'') is one of two species of New Zealand short-tailed bats, a family (Mystacinidae) unique to New Zealand. Larger than the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat, there have been no confi ...

also became extinct.

References

External links

Natural History New Zealand
– ''Island Eaten by Rats'', a television programme about the rat problem {{DEFAULTSORT:Taukihepa Big South Cape Island Stewart Island Island restoration Islands of the Southland Region Uninhabited islands of New Zealand

Rat invasion

Animals that became extinct

See also

References

External links