Winners of the best-dressed Australasian bittern (matuku hūrepo) at Havelock North Primary School's last fundraising day, raising awareness and money for the bird, which is nearing extinction.
Winners of the best-dressed Australasian bittern (matuku hūrepo) at Havelock North Primary School's last fundraising day, raising awareness and money for the bird, which is nearing extinction.
Birds of a feather flock together at Havelock North Primary School for a special Australasian bittern (matuku hūrepo) fundraiser.
Last year the school asked the Department of Conservation in Napier for a list of the top five endangered organisms in Hawke’s Bay and the children voted on which they would like the school to support. That led to the school fundraising for the long-tailed bat.
This year the students chose to raise money for the large, stocky bird commonly known as the Australasian bittern or matuku. The bittern is often referred to as a secretive bird with a distinctive booming call — it is more often heard than seen.
With fewer than 1000 left in New Zealand, the Australasian bittern is critically endangered and listed under nationally critical on DoC’s endangered species status — the highest level of endangered before extinction.
For the past 10 weeks students at Havelock North Primary have been learning about and raising money for the native matuku hūrepo.
Havelock North Primary School students draw the critically endangered Australasian bittern (matuku hūrepo) they have spent the past 10 weeks learning about and fundraising for.
Havelock North Primary School staff member Tamsin Hains said, “It is incredible how much the children’s awareness has expanded during our fundraiser.”
At the start, very few people had ever even heard of the bittern, let alone knew it was at risk of going extinct, now all the children and their families are aware of how close to extinction these birds are.
This year Te Mata school joined the Havelock North school in learning about and fundraising for the Australasian Bittern. Helping to grow awareness.
“All the children now know that the Australasian bittern is a Taonga species to Māori and that they are a wetland bird,” Hains said.
The students have also learnt about the massive loss of wetlands Hawke’s Bay has faced due to wetlands being drained to make towns and farms.
Hains also added that “Bitterns are starving to death because we have drained their homes and food sources. and in New Zealand, the Bittern is rarer than kiwi.”
With all their hard work the kids have raised just under $2000, which Hains explained is the most the school has ever raised on a fundraiser.
The Australasian bittern or matuku is nationally critical, the same conservation status as the kākāpō. Photo / Terry Oliver-Ward
Along with collecting money, the school also designed and sold T-shirts with the Greta Thunburg quote “You are never too small to make a difference”, which really hit home for these primary school kids trying to spread awareness to save the bittern.
On the last day of fundraising, Havelock North Primary put on a special bittern day, when students came to school dressed as the endangered bird. As well as taking part in drawing and dress-up competitions and lots of other activities.
Hains said the dress-up day was fantastic.
“There were so many bitterns and bunyips running around and the effort that went into some of the costumes was incredible. Making an Australasian bittern costume is pretty tricky.”
While Hains said her favourite part of the dress-up day was seeing how many children and their families supported the fundraiser and invested in the matuku T-shirts that were sold to support the fundraiser.
The children’s favourite part was seeing all the other kids dressed up and feeling they were doing something really good for the bitterns.
One of the biggest takeaways from learning about and raising money for the Australasian bittern (matuku hūrepo) was that we all have a responsibility to take action and to help a species in trouble, Hains said.
All money will be going to the Department of Conservation to help with developing methods for surveying bittern systematically and for restoring wetlands.
