Recently Extinct Animals - Species Info

Heteralocha acutirostris		HOME

Kingdom	Animalia	Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912). This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the European Union, Canada, the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves (Birds)
Order	Passeriformes
Family	Callaeidae
Authority	(Gould, 1836)

English Name	Huia
Dutch Name	Huia
French Name	Huia
German Name	Huia, Lappenhopf
Spanish Name	Huia

Synonyms	Neomorpha acutirostris Gould, 1836; Neomorpha crassirostris Gould, 1836; Neomorpha gouldi Gray, 1841

Taxonomy	On recieving the first known specimens in 1836, John Gould was so misled by the variance between the male and female that he described two distinct species: Neomorpha acutirostris and Neomorpha crassirostris. Now the species is called Heteralocha acutirostris (Gould, 1936). (Fuller, 2000)

Characteristics	The Huia was probably New Zealand's most eccentric bird. It was a large 48 cm (19 inch) black bird with a green gloss. It had a rich orange "wattle" at the base of an ivory beak. It had a distinguishing wide band of white at the end of its long tail feathers. It was the only bird known in which the bill of the male and female were radically different. The male's beak was short (approximately 60mm) and straight while the female's beak was long and curved (up to 100mm), a striking example of sexual dimorphism. The bill's colour was ivory white darkening to blackish grey at the base. The iris was brown and its legs and feet were bluish grey. Immature Huia were similar in colour to the adult ones, but its plumage was dull black suffused with brown. Its while tail bar washed rufous. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006; Fuller, 2000; Day, 1981)

Lifestyle	Huia moved mainly on foot, flying weakly and would call with a shrill whistle to ensure other members of the cohort were close by. A imitation of the bird's call survives as a recording of a 1907 Huia Search Team member, Henare Haumana whistling the call (NZ Sound Archives). (Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

Range & Habitat	Subfossil bones of Huia have been found in several North Island sites in New Zealand, however live birds were only recorded by European settlers in southern areas of the island, normally the Tararua and Rimutaka ranges. The bird shares its name with a small community in the Waitakere Ranges, where it may have once been found. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

Food	Sexual dimorphism of the bill structure was an adaptation to the co-operative feeding strategies of the bird. The male used his bill to chisel, much in the manner of woodpeckers, into outer layers of decaying or live wood thereby allowing the female to probe into areas inaccessible to the male. The female delicately removed grubs and insects from the bark of trees before pinning them down with her claws and tearing them apart. Anatomy of the male bird's head and neck musculature also suggests the male could insert his bill into rotting wood and force his bill open to split the wood. Diet consisted of insects and their larvae, spiders and small berries. Huhus, succulent grubs of a nocturnal beetle (Prionoplus reticularis), were especially favourite food items. The meals were shared. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006; Fuller, 2000; Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999; Day, 1981)

Reproduction	The breeding season was thought to be early summer with the birds constructing a saucer-shaped nest about 35cm across. Two to four greyish eggs of 30-40mm were normally laid. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

History & Population	The Huia was extensively hunted even before the first Europeans set foot in New Zealand. Several naturalists, including Buller noted that the birds were already in decline when European settlers arrived. The Huia's distinctive white-tipped black tail feathers were often worn by Maori chiefs as a sign of their status. Such feathers were revered as taonga (treasures) by Maori. The wearing of feathers as ornaments was later adopted by Pakeha women as a symbol of social standing. The birds were inquisitive and trapped easily upon imitation of their call. In 1888, a party of 11 Maori obtained 646 Huia skins from the forest between the Manawatu Gorge and Akitio. By 1888 the Huia was still recorded as being quite common. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006; Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999) Images: the left-hand image shows Tukukino, an old fighting chief of the Ngāti Tamaterā people of the Hauraki district, North Island, New Zealand, circa 1880. He is pictured wearing a pōhoi ear ornament made from the skin of the huia, an ornament often worn by high-born chiefs in the years before the bird became extinct. Tukukino was famous for his determined opposition to the opening up of the Ohinemuri area for goldmining. Lindauer is thought to have painted this portrait in about 1880. The right-hand image shows an unidentified Māori man with two huia tail feathers in his hair, and wearing a feather cloak, Hauraki district, New Zealand. Photographed by Foy Brothers, 1872-1886. These images are in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the European Union, Canada, the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years. The visit of the Duke of York, later King George V, to New Zealand in 1902 produced a frenzied demand for Huia feathers especially after the Duke wore a Huia tail feather in his hatband. The price of feathers was reportedly pushed to one pound a piece. It is now extinct, with no reliable sightings since W.W. Smith saw three birds in the Tararua ranges on 28 December 1907. It probably survived for several more years. Reports of black birds with orange facial wattles were occasionally heard until the 1920's. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006; Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999)

Extinction Causes	The cause of its extinction is unclear but it was probably primarily due to habitat loss, especially of dead trees on which they depended for extracting beetle larvae, possibly along with hunting and disease (from introduced birds). (BirdLife International, 2004)

Conservation Attempts	In the 1880’s Maori chiefs in the Manawatu and Wairarapa regions put a tapu on the huia, which meant that it was illegal under Maori law to kill huia. The Maori chiefs asked the Europeans to stop killing the huia as well. There were even some attempts made to transfer huia to island sanctuaries. Unfortunately these attempts were not successful. In February 1892, regulations to make it illegal to kill or take Huia were passed; however, enforcement was not taken seriously. After the visit of of the Duke of York, later King George V, to New Zealand in 1902 the demand for Huia feathers increased. The then Governor-General, the Earl of Onslow, tried to provide further legal protection for the Huia but the bird was reported extinct shortly afterwards. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

Cloning	Scientists, ethicists, representatives from the Maori, and students from the Hastings Boys High School did meet in Hastings, New Zealand on 9 and 10 July 1999, to discuss the technical feasibility and moral permissibility of reviving the Huia. After that meeting they have determined that efforts to revive the extinct Huia bird through cloning should begin immediately. On 20 July 1999 New Zealand approved cloning the extinct Huia. The project began when students at the Hastings Boys High School in New Zealand wondered if their school emblem, the extinct Huia, could be revived. The students researched the idea, invited speakers and organised the conference in July 1999. Now the schoolboy fantasy, inspired by Dr. Michael Crichton's best-selling novel, Jurassic Park, is leading to cutting edge scientific research. The next step in the cloning progress involves searching for whole cells or an intact nucleus in the bones and tendons of preserved specimens. If none are found, the scientists will try to extract DNA from those specimens and use 'Jurassic Park technology', called template cloning. This is possible in principles although it has not been successfully used in practice. The difference between Jurassic Park and cloning the Huia is that the Huia has only be extinct since the beginning of the 20th century. We can be confident of having multiple copies of its DNA. If a whole cell is not found, scientists may be able to perform a miracle. If a whole cell is available, then the procedure is merely magic. In either case, man has the opportunity to right one of his crimes against nature. The Huia was one of 3 species of wattle birds (not related to Australian 'wattlebirds') in New Zealand and it is thought one of the other species could be used as the oocyte provider and surrogate parent. The project, announced in 1999 was backed by an Internet start-up company which no longer exists, and I was unable to determine whether it is still proceeding. Do you have additional information, please send us an e-mail!

Museum Specimens	For 19th-century collectors of the 'oddities of nature', Huias were very attractive and many specimens were caught. New Zealand museums alone possess 119 skins. The National Museum of Natural History 'Naturalis' in Leiden (the Netherlands) possesses seven Huia skins. Click here to see 3D images of the 'Naturalis specimens. (Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999) Photo: a mounted female Huia in Museum Wiesbaden, Germany. Photographed by Fritz Geller-Grimm in 2006. Published under the following Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license.

Co-extinction	Rallicola extinctus, a species of phtilopterid louse has been described from the huia (Palma, 1999). It was formerly considered the only species of a separate genus Huiacola ("Huia inhabitant"), apparently became extinct with its host (Mey, 1990).

Relatives	The small bird family Callaeidae is restricted to New Zealand. Only two species survive after the extinction of the Huia, namely the Kokako (Callaeas cinerea) and the Saddleback or Tieke (Philesturnus carunculatus). The North Island subspecies of the Kokako (Callaeas cinerea wilsoni), with blue wattles, is endangered, with less than 400 pairs in existence (September 2004). It survives in the Hunua Ranges, Mataraua, Kaharoa, Rotoehu, Pureora and Mapara forests, and Te Urewera National Park. The South Island subspecies of the Kokako (Callaeas cinerea cinerea), with orange wattles, is thought to be functionally extinct (i.e. the species can no longer reproduce because only a few older males may survive). A confirmed sighting has not occurred since 1967, though unconfirmed sightings are very occasionally reported. (BirdLife International, 2005) The Saddleback was once widespread over the North and South Islands, New Zealand, and some offshore islands, but by the early 1900s, was extinct on the mainland. The North Island subspecies Philesturnus carunculatus rufusater survived only on Hen Island, and the South Island subspecies Philesturnus carunculatus carunculatus was reduced to three islets off Stewart Island. Since 1964, the North Island subspecies as well as the South Island subspecies has been introduced successfully to surrounding rat-free islands. (BirdLife International, 2005)

Links	Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) - BirdLife species factsheet IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Heteralocha acutirostris Huia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia CNN - Cloning of extinct Huia bird approved - July 20, 1999

References	BirdLife International 2004. Heteralocha acutirostris. In: IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 March 2006. BirdLife International (2005) Species factsheet: Callaeas cinereus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 4/3/2006. BirdLife International (2005) Species factsheet: Philesturnus carunculatus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 4/3/2006. Day, D., 1981, The Doomsday Book of Animals, Ebury Press, London. Fuller, E. 2000. Extinct birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Mey, Eberhard (1990): Eine neue ausgestorbene Vogel-Ischnozere von Neuseeland, Huiacola extinctus (Insecta, Phthiraptera). Zoologischer Anzeiger 224(1/2): 49-73. [German with English abstract] PDF fulltext Palma, R. L. (1999): Amendments and additions to the 1982 list of chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from birds in New Zealand. Notornis 46(3): 373–387. PDF fulltext Van den Hoek Ostende, L.W. 1999. Huia - Collected as a curiosity. 300 Pearls - Museum highlights of natural diversity. Downloaded on 4 March 2006. Wikipedia contributors (2006). Huia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:00, March 4, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Huia&oldid=39725895.
Last updated: 29^th December 2007. This page is a part of The Extinction Website. © 2000-2008.