Rascal (pictured here) impressed Whangārei Bird Recovery Centre staff member Wendy Owen and others there who raised him from a chick, by finding his way back to them from 29kms away. Photo / S Curtis
Rascal (pictured here) impressed Whangārei Bird Recovery Centre staff member Wendy Owen and others there who raised him from a chick, by finding his way back to them from 29kms away. Photo / S Curtis
Pūkeko – they’re kind of goofy with their big feet, clumsy walk, and apparent attraction to roads in the absence of any road sense. It’s certainly hard to imagine them flying very far.
But let’s not forget these awkward-looking wetland waders, also known as the Australasian swamphen, which seem to prefer running to flapping their wings, had to take to the sky to get here from Australia (hundreds, if not a thousand years ago or more).
In fact, not only can pūkeko fly well but when they eventually stake a claim on a place to call home, their ability to find their way back to it matches that of any champion carrier pigeon.
The lanky and awkward-looking pūkeko, which often ends up flat on our roads, actually has the navigational skills of a high-tech global positioning system (GPS).
And if there was ever a doubt about it, that’s been put to rest recently by an ordinary “pook”, lovingly raised from a 4- or 5-day-old chick by staff at Whangārei’s Bird Recovery Centre.
Whangārei Bird Recovery Centre manager Robert Webb hasn't lost hope of finding Rascal the pūkeko a new stomping ground. Photo / S Curtis
Aptly named Rascal, the pūkeko’s behaviour at the centre had begun to deteriorate after he was bullied and chased by a group of brattish youngsters visiting last school holidays.
Worried Rascal had developed a mind to retaliate and realising he was causing trouble, centre manager Robert Webb decided to relocate him to his assistant’s farm 29km away. However, three days later Rascal came back and when Webb arrived was strutting his stuff along the tops of the boxes “where people leave the birds for us if we’re not here like he’d never left”.
Rascal, it appeared, had rejected the more peaceful existence centre staff hoped for him and would now have to spend much of each day confined to a large outdoor cage. Webb couldn’t risk him being loose among visitors anymore so only lets him out late afternoons.
“We let him out when there’s no longer anyone around. He’s no trouble at all, goes and feeds and all – doesn’t attack any of us.
“He’s not vicious to any of us and no problem to any of the other birds at the centre.
“And he sleeps inside at nights still – he’s got his own bedroom inside.
“He’s a little character.
“He’s not vicious to everybody but I think it was the [visiting] children were the ones that upset him.
“We’re going to have to get a sign put up, ‘parents please make sure your children don’t chase any of the birds on this site’.”
Gobsmacked by Rascal’s surprise return, Webb said it was “quite amazing really”. Rascal’s journey to the farm was in a closed box – there was no chance he might’ve snuck a peak at the route.
“It astounded me he’d been able to find his way back over that distance – he might have got an Uber, I don’t know!”
However, Rascal isn’t the only pukeko to have wowed his evictor. A 1967 edition of the New Zealand Ornithological Society’s journal Notornis, records an account of a Southland man’s futile effort to relocate some of the bothersome pūkeko there.
The story goes that at least two pūkeko were causing problems for “Mr. J. Mackintosh’s Grey Partridge pens at the Southland Acclimatisation Society’s Game Farm”.
Determined to exit the mischief-makers, Mackintosh put identity bands on their legs and transported them to a release spot nearly 100km away. Eight days later, one of them was home again.
Mackintosh “checked and rechecked his banding records” but it was definitely one of the same birds he had tried to oust.
According to that Notornis article there had also been other known instances of pūkeko homing, albeit over much shorter distances.
Editions of the journal in 1966, recorded similar homing instincts in other types of rail (the family of birds to which pūkeko belong). One account was about a spotless crake pūweto (Porzana tabuensis plumbea), another recorded a young weka (Gallirallus australis) that tramped 128km home.
Scientists have come to various conclusions as to how birds home, including the use of the sun, stars, visual cues and landmarks, the use of the earth’s magnetic field, and even by following their noses to smell their way back.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent court reporting. She is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
