Decline and Present Day Conservation
Their breeding behaviour (nesting near the ground and fledglings hopping noisily around on the ground) make them especially vulnerable to predation from introduced mammals, including mustelids, Norway- and Ship rats. This resulted in both subspecies swiftly disappearing from the New Zealand mainland. By the turn of the 20th century, both subspecies were confined to a respective island in the far north: Hen Island off Northland, and in the far south, Big South Cape Island off Stewart Island/Rakiura.
Rats arrived on Big South Cape Island in 1963, accidentally introduced as they escaped from the boats of visiting muttonbirders. Only a swift rescue operation by the New Zealand wildlife service (the present day NZ Department of Conservation) saved the subspecies from extinction by the skin of its teeth, while the rats' predation soon condemned to extinction the local populations of the South Island Snipe, Bush Wren and Greater Short-tailed Bat. Today, thanks to careful management by DOC, the South Island saddleback population is about 700, spread over 11 small islands, from the original 36 birds transferred from Big South Cape Island. The North Island Saddleback has benefited from multiple population reintroductions and is now resident on 9 off-shore islands totalling approximately 7000 birds. Having become extinct on the mainland 100 years earlier, a breeding colony of North Island Saddleback was successfully established at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington in 2002.
The recovery of the Saddleback is considered by many to be one of New Zealand's greatest conservation success stories.
Read more about this topic: Saddleback (bird), Saddlebacks and People
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