Brown Teal

The Brown Teal of New Zealand is classified as 'endangered' by BirdLife International. At the beginning of the 21st century, the population of wild birds did not exceed 1500 individuals. There are also a few dozen birds raised in captivity in order to create a captive population which would allow for the reintroduction of Brown Teal into the wild. Unfortunately, all attempts at re-introduction have failed (a thousand birds were released to no avail!). The main cause of the drastic decrease in population is the introduction by the European colonists of several species of predatory mammals (mustelids and brushtail possums from Australia). Cats and dogs are also formidable predators. On the other hand, although the species has been protected since 1921, it seems that poaching exists in certain sites. New Zealand ornithologists and conservationists are anything but optimistic and think the populations living on the two main islands are doomed to extinction, even though thanks to continuous control of the predators, some local successes have been recorded. Fortunately, the largest part of the population is living on the island of the Great Barrier, way off in the Hauraki Gulf. It does not seem that the populations introduced on a few predator-free islands are viable as they are too small.