To Whom it may concern,
This message is being communicated to scientists, conservationists, grant writers, and the public and large.
MISSION
Team Takahe is on a mission to investigate the natural habitat of native bird populations on MS-Dos (a fictional island) and improve living conditions for living Takahe, while increasing population rates over the course of the 10 year design sprint project.
VISION
Team Takahe is in development of GPS Takahe transmitter technology and the exploration designing a research facility for the newly (fictionally) discovered MS Dōs island which (hypothetically) inhabits a small population of endangered Takahē, (a flightless bird thought to be extinct since the 1800’s). As their reward for having migrated to the island via driftwood from New Zealand, the Takahē enjoy a life free of pests with other vulnerable birds, coral, and marine life.
RESEARCH
Based on our research there is opportunity to develop (real) innovation in the transmitter technology of monitoring the (truly) endangered Takahe bird. We feel this is an achievable and feasible solution to the problems faced by conservationists that care for Takahe across four New Zealand-area islands.
Prospective Team
Eugenie Sage
Parliament Minister of New Zealand Conservation
Eugenie loves Canterbury’s big skies, its braided rivers, and the mountains of Kā Tiritiri o te Moana/the Southern Alps, which form the spine of Te Wāipounamu/the South Island. She grew up looking at Rangitoto and spent her first 25 years in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, where she studied law and history at Auckland University before moving south to study journalism at Canterbury University.
Prior to becoming a Green MP in 2011, and then Minister of Conservation, Land Information and Associate Minister for the Environment (waste) during the Green’s first term in Government from 2017-2020, Eugenie was an elected Regional Councillor with Environment Canterbury. She also worked for Forest & Bird for 13 years, campaigning to protect Tai Poutini/West Coast beech and rimu forests and the South Island high country. She is proud to have been made a Distinguished Life Member by Forest & Bird, and values the huge amount of practical conservation work volunteers do around the country.
Philip Marsh
Technical Advisor
Philip spent 10 years working for the Takahē Recovery Programme, incubating eggs, hand-rearing chicks, managing the Burwood Takahē Centre and undertaking field work in the Murchison Mountains. He completed his Diploma in Wildlife Management on artificial incubation and the sexing of takahē and then moved on to use his special skills hand-rearing kākāpō.
Philip says the skills of bird rearing come naturally to him. "It’s just something that I have always been interested in and wanted to do, and seem to be good at doing."
He has worked for the Kākāpō Recovery Programme for the last 17 years. Now Takahē Recovery has him back in the fold providing technical advice on takahē conservation, though his skills are still shared with the Kākāpō Recovery Programme.
Diedre Vercoe
Operations Manager
“Being the Operations Manager for kākāpō and takahē keeps me absolutely flat-out busy, but it’s a rewarding challenge, helping to steer the direction for both recovery programmes – and the team is simply awesome to work with!” Deidre Vercoe
Not many people would be keen to walk rough island tracks while eight months pregnant but, along with other members of the Kākāpō Team, Deidre is happy to live and breathe Kākāpō Recovery.
She holds everything and everyone together. She also has a technical support role, keeping up to speed with bird monitoring programmes and helping to implement research objectives.
During breeding seasons, she spends more time on the islands, involved with artificial inseminations, nest management and any artificial incubation and hand rearing.
Deidre started her involvement with Kākāpō Recovery in 2002 as a kākāpō ranger. She loved the hands-on work on the islands and living with other team members and volunteers. She took up a technical support role in the team in 2005. She became Operations Manager in 2008. Following a departmental restructure, Deidre took on the challenge of managing not one, but two complex endangered species programmes in 2013.
Andrew Digby
Lead Scientist
Andrew is the scientist on the team. He makes sure the Takahē Recovery Team receives scientific advice to guide takahē conservation. This involves liaising with experts, reviewing research, designing field trials, and running statistical analyses and modelling to understand the data gathered. The topics of takahē research are varied: from population dynamics to genetics, predator-prey interactions to avian diseases, from trials of new transmitters to bird repellents.
Andrew loves his work. "It's every conservation biologists dream; the application of a wide variety of scientific fields and methods to make a real difference to the survival of an endangered species."
Getting away from his desk and into the field makes Andrew’s role even more appealing.
"Field work is important to conservation research; it helps me develop a much fuller understanding of takahē behaviour and habitat and a greater appreciation of the issues associated with their conservation."
Kevin Faircourt
Project Manager