Department of Conservation’s Northern Conservation Services Director Andrew Baucke described the accidental deaths as “deeply disappointing”.
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New Zealand’s Department of Conservation announced Friday that it has stopped a bird-culling operation after hunters mistakenly killed four critically endangered Takahe birds on Motutapu Island.
“It’s up to the DOC investigation to find out how that happened and what action is taken”, Mr Braddock said.
DoC was in talks with the association, which was said to be “co-operating fully” with inquiries.
The four birds, with their bright orange peaks and deep blue and purple feathers, were protected by a government-funded conservation program on on Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
The takahe is distantly related to pukeko, leading to its similar looks and characteristics.
“There’s no way that they would send their treasured takahe to a sanctuary for it to be slaughtered”, Rino Tirikatene, a member of the New Zealand Parliament told the Herald.
Hunters had been carefully briefed on how to differentiate between the flightless takahe and pukeko, including instructions to only shoot birds on the wing.
Takahe were thought to be extinct in the early 20th century but were rediscovered in 1948 in the South Island.
Of the total 300 takahe that are known to exist in the world, about 100 live within Fiordland National Park, while 21 dwell at the Motutapu sanctuary.
Takahē chicks were successfully hatched on Motutapu in 2013, which DoC’s takahē recovery group manager Deidre Vercoe Scott said, at the time, was a “huge event in the work to save takahē”.
The deaths have forced the Department of Conservation to put an immediate halt to the culling operations near the threatened species. Since then, the government’s conservation department has invested heavily in rebuilding the population, with a public-private sector partnership program that aimed to establish 125 breeding pairs by 2002, the Guardian reports.
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Bill O’Leary, president of the Deerstalkers’ Association, said he was embarrassed and upset to hear about the takahe being shot.
