![\"Department](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/department-of-conservation-ranger-nick-fisentzidis-VHTCPGN6VBAPZJGWBXAYC44TRU.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA takah\u0113 and a tuatara have been filmed seemingly engaging in a bush-floor stoush on Auckland’s Tiritiri Matangi Island. <\/p>\n
The video \u2013 captured by quick-thinking Department of Conservation ranger Nick Fisentzidis \u2013 showed a takah\u0113 appearing to attack a tuatara. <\/p>\n
“I saw them having a bit of a nip at each other; the takah\u0113 definitely had a go at the tail of the tuatara, and they had a bit of a scrap,” he said. <\/p>\n
“I followed them down the hill, and the tuatara got a couple of bites in, so the takah\u0113 backed off and snuck back away up the forest.” <\/p>\n
Although historically both takah\u0113 and tuatara were widespread across New Zealand, they now only co-exist in two locations, Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf and Zealandia in Wellington. <\/p>\n
“It’s a neat snapshot of how these interactions may have gone in the past. It also shows what’s possible in the future if we really start to rally together to bring more of our native wildlife back,” Fisentzidis said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Department of Conservation ranger Nick Fisentzidis. (Source: Seven Sharp)<\/p>\n
Department of Conservation takah\u0113 recovery senior ranger Glen Greaves said the birds were often thought to be herbivorous (vegetarian), but in reality they are omnivorous. <\/p>\n
“This means they’ll eat almost anything. Although primarily grass feeders, they will often supplement their diet with insects, lizards, and have even been spotted taking ducklings. Protein is obviously an important part of their diet. <\/p>\n
“Like their cousins the p\u016bkeko and weka, takah\u0113 can be quite predatory. Although taking on a tuatara hasn\u2019t been seen before that I’m aware of, it is not at all surprising. Just a bit bigger than their usual snack. It\u2019s good to see the tuatara stand up for itself,” he said. <\/p>\n
Tuatara are the last survivors of an order of reptiles known as sphenodontia, that thrived in the age of the dinosaurs, 200 million years ago, but now only survive in places where invasive mammalian predators have been eradicated. <\/p>\n
The endemic, flightless takah\u0113 are the world’s largest living rail are a taonga species to Ng\u0101i Tahu. <\/p>\n
Historically thought to be extinct twice, there are now just over 500 throughout the country, with around half living at sanctuary sites and half in the wild. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A takah\u0113 and a tuatara have been filmed seemingly engaging in a bush-floor stoush on Auckland’s Tiritiri Matangi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[933,728,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-105339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114515647275323932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}