Zoo staff hunt for puweto: west Auckland

Caryn Wilkinson Reporter from Community News

Auckland Zoo staff have joined Matuku Link colleagues to scour for the elusive puweto.

Puweto, or the small dark coloured rails, live in freshwater wetlands scattered throughout the country, with their largest populations in the North Island.

The Matuku Link is a 37 hectare native forest block in west Auckland's Bethell's Valley.

The reserve connects many protected areas including Ark in the Park, Habitat Te Henga, Forrest Ridge and Matuku Reserve.

Staff from the zoo and Matuku Link joined volunteers to search for the birds in Bethells wetlands.

The presence of small dark coloured rails in a particular wetland signals the overall health of the ecosystem.

But more than 90 per cent of New Zealand's wetland areas have been drained and cleared for agriculture which has yielded a major impact on all species.

Puweto need vegetation such as raupo and kuta in which to forage and nest.

Surveyors used a recorded sound of the birds' calls to aid monitoring.

They saw two puweto and netted 13 call responses at 38 listening posts.

Photo: John Sumich