One of the world's rarest birds arrived at
Wellington Zoo today for treatment, after failing to leave its nest.
The taiko, also known as a magenta petrel, was
flown from the Chatham Islands for treatment when monitoring showed the young
bird was severely underweight.
The bird will be treated at the Zoo's hospital,
the Nest, by the same team that treated Happy
Feet, the penguin found on Peka Peka Beach in June 2011.
The juvenile seabird is one of the rarest bird
species, currently critically endangered, with as few as 120 remaining in the
wild.
The Zoo veterinary team, led by Dr Lisa Argilla,
will run tests on the sick bird during the weekend.
Members of the public will be able to catch a
glimpse of the rare fledgling when x-rays are taken of it on Sunday.
Only one other taiko has been brought to the New
Zealand mainland from the species' breeding ground in the Chatham Islands -
another sick bird successfully treated by Wellington Zoo in 2011.
Taiko once bred in huge numbers in the southwest
of Chatham Island before the species was decimated by introduced mammals.
The birds were considered extinct until 1978
when a small number were rediscovered by New Zealand ornithologist David
Crockett.
They are currently closely monitored by the
Conservation Department and the Chatham Islands Taiko Trust.
The hatching of the first eggs of a critically endangered species of seabird on the Chatham Islands is being heralded as a major milestone for the bird's conservation.