KEY POINTS:
Geoffrey Orbell, the man who rediscovered the flightless takahe in Fiordland almost 60 years ago, has died at the age of 98.
No one had seen a live takahe since the late 1890s when Orbell and three companions found a small colony in Fiordland in November 1948.
The blue-green, hen-like birds with bright red bills were living in a valley wrapped in the mist-shrouded Murchison Mountains.
Until Orbell's find the birds were widely considered to be extinct.
Careful husbandry and breeding programmes mean that almost 300 birds live today, in Fiordland and other sanctuaries.
Orbell, a doctor and outdoorsman who was born on October 7, 1908, at Pukeuri, Oamaru, did not stumble on the takahe by chance. He had been interested in the bird with the powerful bill and big strong legs and feet ever since he spotted a photograph in the Otago Museum as a boy.
- NZPA
