We are a nationally and internationally recognised captive breeding facility for a number of threatened bird species.

We were the first place in New Zealand to use captive breeding as a conservation method.

The programme has modest beginnings.

Horrified at the dwindling number of the native takahe, local farmer and amateur ornithologist, local Elwyn Welch devised an amazing plan and trained bantam hens to foster takahe chicks.

He partnered with Geoffrey Orbell – a South Island medical doctor and keen tramper - who is considered responsible for re-discovering the takahe.

Dr Orbell was convinced the takahe still existed and so he and three companions tramped in a remote part of the Murchison Mountains in the South Island and tracked a set of unfamiliar footprints. They re-discovered the takahe on 20 November 1948.

Elwyn Welch and Dr Orbell collaborated and together worked to save the takahe from extinction.

The New Zealand Wildlife Service took over Welch’s work in 1962 setting up a native bird reserve in what is now Pukaha Mount Bruce.

Welch’s radical and inventive approach pioneered techniques that are still being used today for many New Zealand threatened species.

Captive breeding and subsequent re-introduction of species is an important and successful tool for species conservation.

The long-term goal of the Department of Conservation’s Takahe Recovery Plan is to establish and maintain two wild takahe populations, each of 100 pairs of birds, thousands of kilometres apart. One population will live in the Fiordland National Park, and the other on various mainland and island sites including Pukaha Mount Bruce.

This will ensure breeding success and survival.