On Friday, 5 March, as shown on TV One news, the granddaughter and great granddaughter of Elwyn Welch (one of New Zealand’s conservation pioneers) helped realize their grandfather’s dream to prevent the extinction of the Takahe by raising healthy chicks.
 

In a trip coordinated by Mitre 10 Takahe Rescue and the Department of Conservation, Sasha and her 5 yr old daughter Ayoka, were taken to TiriTiri Matangi open sanctuary (off the coast of Auckland) to help collect Takahe chicks for return and release in the Murchison Mountains near Te Anau.  The chicks from the TiriTiri Matangi breeding pairs are part of the national breeding programme but are based at predator free islands. Along with other island breeding programmes (which include Mana, Maud and Kapiti Islands), these pairs are part of a strategy to increase population diversity. This year has been a breakthrough for the breeding pairs on the four islands with over 12 chicks now in line to be returned for acclimatization at the Burwood Bush breeding facility in Te Anau prior to being ‘repatriated’ to their native habitat. Despite this Takahe are still classified as nationally critical and their total population remains at under 200 birds.

A highlight of the day was for Elwyn’s great granddaughter Ayoka to choose a Takahe chick to name Elywn in memory of her great grand fathers work.

Elwyn Welch was the subject of a children’s book titled ‘Elwyn’s Dream’ that was published by Random House in 2008 as a result of the Mitre 10 Takahe Rescue short story competition.The story captured the imaginative and persistent efforts of Elwyn Welch of Mount Bruce near Masterton who secretly trained and used his bantam hens to raise takahe chicks in the 1950s.