- Conservation status
- In serious trouble
Matuku-hūrepo are so elusive that most people have never heard of them, let alone seen one. They are exquisitely camouflaged and have a very effective freeze posture – sticking their neck up to look like the raupō and wetland plants they live amongst.
Listen for the male’s booming call during spring – it sounds a bit like someone blowing across the top of a glass bottle.
Campaign Manager
Helen Jamieson
Matuku-hūrepo Australasian bittern can save us from ourselves – but only if we save them from us too!
Ninety percent of matuku hūrepo's wetland habitats have been destroyed in New Zealand. And with those wetlands we have lost ingenious flood mitigation and sponges for drought – not to mention more native species per hectare than a native forest supports.
Once widespread, this enormous, cryptic heron is now believed to number less than 700 individuals in NZ. We are the last generation who can save this beautiful creature from extinction...so remember: a vote for matuku hūrepo counts because it's a vote for NZ's future!
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