Chatham Island snipe (Coenocorypha pusilla)

Chatham Island snipe walking on leaf litter
Chatham Island snipe walking on leaf litter

Chatham Island snipe fact file

Chatham Island snipe description

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAves
OrderCharadriiformes
FamilyScolopacidae
GenusCoenocorypha (1)

The Chatham Island snipe is a small, rotund bird with beautifully camouflaged plumage. The body is mottled with black, brown and reddish-brown, turning creamy-white on the lower breast and belly (2) (3). The top of the head is striped with black, brown and reddish-brown (3), and the bill is long, although not as long as that of other species of snipe (4). Female Chatham Island snipes are paler than males, and juveniles have less distinct patterning than adults (2). The call of a male Chatham Island snipe has been recorded as a low ‘trerk, trerk, trerk’ and ‘queeyoo, queeyoo, queeyoo(3).

Size
Length: 19 – 20 cm (2)
Wingspan: 28 – 30 cm (2)
Weight
61 – 110 g (2)
Top

Chatham Island snipe biology

The Chatham Island snipe uses its relatively long bill to probe moist soils or leaf litter for earthworms, amphipods, beetles, and insect larvae and pupae. This prey, once found, is generally swallowed without the snipe having to withdraw its bill from the soil (2).

These apparently monogamous birds breed between September and March (2). Males attract females with a night-time display flight and courtship feeding and then, as a pair, they select a suitable site in which to construct a nest (2) (5). The nest may either be a shallow cup made of Carex or Holcus leaves, or a simple, unlined scrape in the ground (6). Generally two, although sometimes three, mottled pale pinkish-brown eggs are laid and incubated for over 19 days by both parents (2) (6). The chicks are fed by the parents for the first two to three weeks of life, but are able to fly after 21 days and become fully independent at around 41 days of age (2).

Top

Chatham Island snipe range

Restricted to four small islands in the Chatham Islands, New Zealand: Rangatira (or South East Island), Mangere, Little Mangere and Star Keys (2).

Top

Chatham Island snipe habitat

The Chatham Island snipe can be found from the shore to the islands’ summits, but most commonly occurs in areas with considerable bush cover and forest of Olearia traversi (the ake ake tree), especially among sedges (Carex species) (2) (3).

Top

Chatham Island snipe status

Classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List 2007 (1).

IUCN Red List species status – Vulnerable

Top

Chatham Island snipe threats

This threatened bird once inhabited most of the islands in the Chatham group, but following the introduction of predatory rats and cats to Chatham, Pitt and Mangere Islands, the snipe became confined to just Rangatira and Star Keys by 1970 (7). The Chatham Island snipe had also come close to extinction on Rangatira, with a large sheep population degrading the island’s habitat (8). Thankfully, all livestock were removed from the island in 1961 (2), leaving the snipe population to recover (8). The cat population on Mangere eventually died-out after extensive hunting (7), and the Chatham Island snipe could be re-introduced to the island. Shortly after, the snipe colonised the predator-free Little Mangere Island (7) (9).

Today, the population of Chatham Island snipes is believed to be stable but, as past experience shows, it is in danger of rapid extinction if the islands on which it occurs are colonised by rats, cats, pigs, or weka (flightless ground-dwelling birds), all of which are present on neighbouring islands (2).

Top

Chatham Island snipe conservation

As mentioned above, past conservation efforts have seen the Chatham Island snipe successfully re-introduced to Mangere Island, following the eradication of feral cats (7) (9). More recently, in 2001, trials at keeping snipe in captivity were undertaken (9). The techniques learnt in this successful trial may be used in the future for a captive-breeding programme, and can be used to implement measures to secure the future of the more highly threatened Campbell Island snipe, an un-described Coenocorypha species restricted to just one tiny island (9).

View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Top

Find out more

For further information on conservation in the Chatham Islands see:

For more information on this and other bird species please see:

Top

Authentication

This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact: arkive@wildscreen.org.ukTop

Glossary

Amphipods
A group of small shrimp-like crustaceans that includes sandhoppers, beach hoppers, and water lice.
Larvae
Stage in an animal’s lifecycle after it hatches from the egg. Larvae are typically very different in appearance to adults; they are able to feed and move around but usually are unable to reproduce.
Monogamous
Having only one mate during a breeding season, or throughout the breeding life of a pair.
Pupae
Stage in an insect’s development when huge changes occur, which reorganise the larval form into the adult form. In butterflies the pupa is also called a chrysalis.
Re-introduced
The establishment of a native species back into an area where it previously occurred.
Top

References

  1. IUCN Red List (March, 2008)
    http://www.iucnredlist.org
  2. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J. (1996) Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
  3. BirdLife International (April, 2008)
    http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/ebas/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3001&m=0
  4. Burnie, D. (2001) Animal. Dorling Kindersley, London.
  5. Miskelly, C.M. (1990) Aerial displaying and flying ability of Chatham Island snipe Coenocorypha pusilla and New Zealand snipe C. aucklandica. Emu, 90: 28 - 32.
  6. Miskelly, C.M. (1999) Breeding ecology of Snares Island snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica buegeli) and Chatham Island snipe (C. pusilla). Notornis, 46: 207 - 221.
  7. Dowding, J.E. and Murphy, E.C. (2001) The impact of predation by introduced mammals on endemic shorebirds in New Zealand: a conservation perspective. Biological Conservation, 99(1): 47 - 64.
  8. Nilsson, R.J., Kennedy, E.S. and West, J.A. (1994) The birdlife of South East Island (Rangatira), Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Notornis, 41: 109 - 125.
  9. Miskelly, C. and Barlow, K. (2001) Chatham Island Snipe Research and Management Trials, Rangatira/South East Island, April-May 2001. Wellington Conservancy, Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand.

More »Related species

Solitary sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)Stilt sandpiper (Calidris himantopus)Bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica)Common snipe (Gallinago gallinago)Temminck's stint (Calidris temminckii)Wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola)Madagascar snipe (Gallinago macrodactyla)Far eastern curlew (Numenius madagascariensis)

This species is featured in:

This species is affected by global climate
change. To learn about climate change
and the species that are affected,
visit our climate change pages.

Please donate to ARKive today

Help us share the wonders of the natural world. Donate today!

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.

Get involved

ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!

X
Close

Image credit

Chatham Island snipe walking on leaf litter  
Chatham Island snipe walking on leaf litter

© Robin Bush / gettyimages.com

Getty Images
101 Bayham Street
London
NW1 0AG
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 800 376 7981
sales@gettyimages.com
http://www.gettyimages.com

X
Close

Link to this photo

ARKive species - Chatham Island snipe (Coenocorypha pusilla) Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.

Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.

Read more about

X
Close

MyARKive

MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.

X
Close

Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials

Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.

Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:

  • view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
  • download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
  • teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.

End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.

Additional use of flagged material

Green flagged material 

Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.

Creative commons material

Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.

Any other use

Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.

Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.