Rare wetlands patient makes remarkable recovery

Our veterinary team has been treating a rare and precious patient – this juvenile matuku-hūrepo/Australasian bittern that has made a remarkable recovery since arriving at the Zoo in early July.

The ‘Nationally Critical’ wetlands bird (confirmed as female via DNA testing) was found by MPI staff in an Auckland Airport carpark on 3 July - severely emaciated (weighing just 600 grams) and dangerously dehydrated. Haematology results also confirmed severe anaemia and starvation as well as signs of an ongoing infection.

Three weeks on, with intensive supportive and preventative veterinary care from our highly skilled team, she is bright and alert, self-feeding and eating well, and now boasts a weight of 912-gram – almost a kilogram!  Supporting her excellent 300-gram weight gain has been the highly nutritious and varied diet she’s been enjoying, which has included salmon, mealworms, galleria, and crickets. She has also graduated to living in one of our hospital’s large undercover grassed yards, incorporating water pools.

Throughout her stay, our browse team has been playing an important role - providing plenty of fresh plant material for her to retreat and hide in – a natural behaviour of this sensitive species.

“Matuku-hūrepo are typically cryptic and secretive and when they become seriously ill like this, are understandably, prone to becoming stressed when in human care, which can also make them susceptible to serious infections such as aspergillosis. Along with care and treatments given, providing her with a calm, quiet, private environment has played an important part in her speedy recovery, and she has coped amazingly well,” says the Zoo’s senior veterinarian, Dr An Pas.

“It’s great to see her so strong and active now and at a weight that we and our Department of Conservation (DOC) colleagues regard as robust enough for release. Pending final blood tests that need to confirm she has a clean bill of health in all other respects, we are optimistic that she should be able to be released into a safe wetlands’ habitat very soon. As a female, this matuku-hūrepo is incredibly valuable to her species with the potential to breed, which would be the ultimate outcome.”   

Matuku-hūrepo are a native wetlands bird - found mainly in Northland, Waikato, the North Island’s East Coast, and the South Island’s West Coast (with an estimated population of less than 1,000). They can also be found in parts of Australia. Making life exceptionally tough here in Aotearoa are the loss of over 90 percent of their wetland habitat, predation, and the fast-growing issue of food availability and accessibility.

Science Advisor for DOC, Emma Williams, says starvation is a known cause of concern for matuku-hūrepo nationally.

“A recent study analysing the fat content of bones in deceased bitterns showed 17 percent of matuku-hūrepo had died of starvation, the second highest cause of death after impact trauma.

“Although these birds can feed on a variety of foods, they largely prefer small aquatic prey and rely on the ability to see their prey in shallow water in order to hunt properly.

“As well as habitat loss, poor water quality, a decline in preferred prey species such as eels, and water level management regimes that result in levels that are too deep, too shallow, or too inconsistent make finding enough food really challenging,” says Emma.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this matuku-hūrepo - so be sure to check back for updates.