AnimalvsAnimal
Porphyrio hochstetteri Tiritiri Matangi Island 8b 3c🐦

Photo: Porphyrio_hochstetteri_-Tiritiri_Matangi_Islan… · CC BY 2.0

SpeciesGruiformesRallidae
Birds

🐦Takahē

Porphyrio hochstetteri (A.B.Meyer, 1883)

The South Island takahē is a flightless swamphen indigenous to New Zealand and the largest living member of the rail family. It is often known by the abbreviated name takahē, which it shares with the recently extinct North Island takahē. The two takahē species are also known as notornis.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
1
Photos
2
Measurements
9
vs you
≈ 1/25th of your weight
Also called
South Island Takahe, Takahe
Conservation status
ENEndangered

IUCN Red List assessment, 2020.

Population trendIncreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
2.46 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
not recorded
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Takahē

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
2.46 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female2.27 kgWikidataQ212302
  • Male2.67 kgWikidataQ212302
Tail length
0.11 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.23 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.07 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.1 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Trophic level
Herbivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Grassland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Terrestrial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
2.5 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Takahē yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderGruiformes
  5. ›familyRallidae
  6. ›genusPorphyrio
  7. ›speciesPorphyrio hochstetteri
Full lineage
  1. superclassTetrapoda
  2. orderSauria
  3. classBirds · Aves
  4. genusPorphyrio
All 10 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. genusPorphyrio
More

More about the Takahē

In other languages
Südinseltakahe (de), Takahe (ca), slípka novozélandská (cs), Takahe (da), calamón takahe (es), takahe (fi) … and 21 more languages
More photos
Porphyrio hochstetteri Tiritiri Matangi Island 8b 3cAllopreening takahē
All 2 photos in the gallery →

Animals caught on camera

Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.

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Tools

Compare the Takahē

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Side by side

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1,697 animals to compareOpen →
Who's bigger?

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683rd heaviest of 1,330Open →
Scaling lab

How speed, brain and bite scale with body size. This animal isn't in the sample yet.

Not in the sampleOpen →
Tree of life

See where it sits in the tree of life.

10 branchesOpen →