Congratulations Zac Heathcote who has won the 2010 Mitre 10 Takahe Rescue Kids Art Competition out of over 2,000 entries nationwide. Zac a nine year old first time entrant can now look forward to shouting his family an exciting Takahe Wilderness trip to Te Anau with Department of Conservation (DOC) rangers as their host.   The trip includes a helicopter ride, with the Nickelodeon Film crew alongside, into the highly protected Takahe Valley in the Murchison Mountains and the unique opportunity to help feed tiny black Takahe chicks as they grow in the safety of their brooder pens at DOC’s Burwood Breeding facility. Zac’s win has also meant a winning prize of $1,000 of Mitre 10 gift cards for his school; Bledisloe School in Taradale, Napier.   The 6 Finalists Ming Thor-Poet (Aged 10) Garston School, Southland Entered at Mitre 10 Remarkables Park Ian Chu Fong (Aged 9) Churton Park School, Wellington Entered at Mitre 10 Paremata

Hazel Read (Aged 5)
Worser Bay School, Wellington
Entered at Mitre 10 Paraparaumu

Helen Wasey (Aged 7)
Kerikeri Primary School, Kerikeri
Entered at Mitre 10 Kerikeri

Ruby Wilson (Aged 6)
Waimairi Primary School, Christchurch
Entered at Mitre 10 Edgeware

Grand Prize Winner:
Zac Heathcote (Aged 9)
Bledisloe School, Napier
Entered at Mitre 10 MEGA Napier

Competition

Primary schools nationwide are invited to participate with each child creating an artwork that celebrates the Takahe. Each Mitre 10 store then selects two local winners who receive t-shirts & Takahe soft toys before those artworks are sent to be judged nationally. This year, the finalists’ artwork was judged by & will be displayed at The New Dowse Art Gallery in Lower Hutt. Cam McCracken, Director of The New Dowse, had the tough job of selecting the top 6 finalists. According to Cam, “the judging process was incredibly difficult as we received so many great entries and all were worthy of a prize. We were so impressed by all of the work that we saw! In the end we selected 40 works to display that represented all the age groups of children who had entered and also showed a range of media and techniques. We were also mindful that the works should show the Takahe in their natural habitat.”
The nationwide Mitre 10 Takahe Rescue art competition, now in its 6th year, encourages primary school children to learn more about the dangers impacting on Takahe along with their habitat, history and beauty. With only 100 Takahe remaining in the wild and around 100 located on offshore islands for breeding and safety, Takahe remain rarer than many species of kiwi.

The Prize

The helicopter ride into the Murchison Mountains and the Burwood Breeding facility is part of a total prize of a weekend Wilderness trip for a family of four to Te Anau, alongside the Department of Conservation’s most experienced Takahe rangers.

According to Mrs Arblaster, Brand & Strategy Manager for Mitre 10, “Every winner and their family describes the Takahe Wilderness prize as being wonderfully memorable – the Murchison Mountains are a beautiful part of the country, the DOC staff they meet are so knowledgeable about native and endangered species, and getting to see some of the few remaining Takahe alive in the wild is a once in a lifetime privilege.”

The Follow-Up

Each year Mitre 10, supported by the Department of Conservation produces a calendar from the short listed artworks sent in as entries by children. Close to 30 pieces of Takahe art are included. The calendar is sold through Mitre 10 stores nationwide and raises further funds for Mitre 10 Takahe Rescue as $3 of the $5.95 retail price is set aside for DOC.

Additional Information
Mitre 10 has sponsored DOC Takahe recovery work since 2005 with funds so far totaling over $320,000.
To date, sponsorship funds from Mitre 10 have gone towards achieving three DOC Takahe Recovery Group objectives:

1) increasing the number of chicks available for release into the wild
2) maintaining the productivity (egg laying) of the Island Takahe
3) increasing the Burwood Breeding facilities for managing captive breeding pairs
4) assisting in Island translocations

Takahe Statistics
The total population of the fragile Takahe increased from 224 to 230 at the end of the June 2009 breeding season. The increase of 6 Takahe was a welcome relief following a devastating 20007/08 breeding season when half the adult wild population of Takahe succumbed to an unprecedented stoat plague.

Takahe are spread around New Zealand with only 107 remaining in their Murchison Mountain core habitat where they were rediscovered by Dr George Orwell in1948 and a further 12 reside in other parts of Fiordland.
88 Takahe are at predator free islands including Kapiti, Maud and Mana and act as ‘insurance populations’ in case of a disease outbreak and for breeding purposes as most form breeding pairs. The remaining 7 are present as display birds at, for, example Maungatautari or Mt Bruce and are too old to breed.

Up until the 2007 stoat plague, the development of a captive rearing programme for Takahe and sustained deer control had enabled the wild Takahe population to increase to 168 adults and a total population of just under 300 including island populations.

The New Zealand Threat Classification places Takahe as nationally critical which means it is in a worse threat category than most species of kiwi.

For more information please contact:
Natalie Foote
National Events & Sponsorship Co-ordinator
09 442 2791