One Female Left: The Incredible Survival of New Zealand’s Black Robin

Chris recounts the recovery of New Zealand’s Chatham black robin (karure/keruru), an island species devastated by habitat clearing and introduced predators like rats and cats, until its range shrank to tiny Mangere Island.

Numbers fell from 18 birds in 1972 to seven in 1976, then to five by 1980 with only one breeding female, “Old Blue,” paired with “Old Yellow,” leaving the species’ future dependent on her.

Chris tells the story of how conservationists and the New Zealand Wildlife Service team, led by figures like Don Merton, combined translocation, predator control, habitat restoration (including planting about 120,000 trees), and pioneering cross-fostering led to this species survival.

Timeline

00:00 Welcome and Setup

00:59 Island Origins and Threats

02:58 Collapse to Seven Birds

05:12 Only Five Left

08:23 Old Blue Last Female

12:06 Why Every Egg Matters

16:49 Radical Egg Moving

18:31 Cross Fostering Breakthrough