Getting away from it all, Harakeke Reserve Popular Article
- Author
- Mitchell-Anyon, B.
- Year
- 1989
- Keywords
- threatened birds, endangered birds, uncommon birds, extinct birds, conservation status, threat classification, New Zealand
- Summary
- An appraisal of the conservation status of the post-1800 New Zealand avifauna is presented. The list comprises 428 taxa in the following categories: 'Extinct' 20, 'Threatened' 77 (comprising 24 'Nationally Critical', 15 'Nationally Endangered', 38 'Nationally Vulnerable'), 'At Risk' 93 (comprising 18 'Declining', 10 'Recovering', 17 'Relict', 48 'Naturally Uncommon'), 'Not Threatened' (native and resident) 36, 'Coloniser' 8, 'Migrant' 27, 'Vagrant' 130, and 'Introduced and Naturalised' 36. One species was assessed as 'Data Deficient'. The list uses the New Zealand Threat Classification System, which provides greater resolution of naturally uncommon taxa typical of insular environments than the IUCN threat ranking system. New Zealand taxa are here ranked at subspecies level, and in some cases population level, when populations are judged to be potentially taxonomically distinct on the basis of genetic data or morphological observations. In contrast, IUCN and BirdLife International bird threat rankings are assigned only at species level. This paper represents the first time that the entire modern New Zealand avifauna has been assessed from a conservation perspective. A brief analysis of patterns of extinction, threat, and rarity exhibited by the taxa listed is presented.