Abstract

The Brown Teal Anas chlorotis, or pateke, is an endemic New Zealand species
which was historically distributed throughout the lowland freshwater wetlands
of the New Zealand mainland and occurred on many offshore islands, but is now
largely restricted to Great Barrier Island and the east coast of Northland. Fewer
than 1400 Brown Teal now exist in the wild, making the species the rarest
waterfowl on the New Zealand mainland. The Department of Conservation has
classified it as a Category A threatened species, and, based on IUCN criteria it is
internationally classified as Endangered. As a response, the Department of
Conservation prepared the Brown Teal recovery plan to guide recovery actions
in the 10 years to 2005.

A captive population of Brown Teal numbers at least 20 pairs of birds. Captive
management has the potential to make a significant net contribution to future
Brown Teal recovery, in spite of initial concerns that a captive population would
be a net consumer of birds and about the lack of pedigree records. Captive
Brown Teal have been shown to have a long productive life, and productivity
can also be enhanced by management techniques such as multiple clutching,
artificial incubation and brooding, and cross-fostering, all of which have been
used successfully.

The goal of the Brown Teal Captive Management Plan is to maintain, manage
and develop the Brown Teal captive breeding programme to retain known
genetic diversity, annually supply known quality birds for release in the
quantities and at the times required by the recovery programme, and to
contribute to Brown Teal advocacy. A number of objectives to be achieved
during the life of this plan are described. Within each objective a range of tasks
will need to be completed, and a time frame for their completion is proposed,
together with procedures for ensuring that the programme is followed.