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mainland, and the hihi population has been estimated as being anywhere between 600 and 6000
following the eradication of feral cats in 1980. 76 If anything, Reischek’s contribution of fifty-one
complete kakapo skeletons (one more than the official kakapo population in 1995!) 77 and four
skulls to the Natural History Museum in Vienna alone is a more telling number than his shooting
of hihi. 78 In the end, however, introduced predators and loss of habitat at the hands of European
settlers have done far more harm, and continue to do so, than Reischek’s gun, which, although it
did not help declining populations or even hastened this decline in some species, did not in itself
cause any extinctions. The fact of the matter is that even without Reischek’s heavy-handed
collecting of bird specimens, other hunters and predators would most likely have taken his place
before ideas of conservation were acted upon, as the processes of decline had already been set in
motion by the arrival of mankind. Thus, it does not excuse his behaviour, but at least places it in
perspective.
It will now be shown that Reischek did indeed have strong views on conservation,
especially regarding native birdlife, and that he not only continues the conservationist mindset of
earlier German naturalists, but surpasses it. During these occasions a clear environmental
conscience overrode his vocation as a collector, and he became a strong supporter of the
establishment of Little Barrier as a wildlife sanctuary. On 18 October 1886, the same day as the
issue of Maori ownership had been settled in favour of the Ngati Wai, Reischek gave a paper
during the meeting of the Auckland Institute on the birds of Little Barrier, after which Judge
Fenton, who had conducted the winning case, suggested to the members of the society the merits
of acquiring the island for the protection and preservation of New Zealand’s unique birdlife,
including the introduction of kiwi and kakapo to maintain their survival. 79 Reischek’s official
76 Department of Conservation (NZ), Hihi/stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta) Recovery Plan 2004-09, 2005, 9-12.
77 The notoriously slow-breeding kakapo population now numbers eighty-seven on the predator and pest-free Codfish
and Chalky Islands (see Mary Cresswell, Kakapo Recovery Plan 1996-2005, 1996).
78 Ecker Bauernfeind, “Die Collection Reischek (Skelettsammlung)”, in: Kiwis und Vulkane, 64f. It should be noted,
however, that a portion of his collections may have been the remains of live specimens which had died in captivity
with skin intact, and others may have been the skeletons of those killed by predators, but whose skins were too
damaged to be used. After all, he suggests the additional sending of wine to preserve those that died during their
transport, so as not to waste the specimens (Andreas Reischek, “Letter to Thomas Cheeseman, 13 Jan 1887, Bluff”,
in: Nolden, German and Austrian Naturalists, 162f.). Westerskov also records in 1981 that there are twenty adult
kakapo skins, five mounted specimens, two downy chicks and two eggs in the Viennese collection, on top of the nine
specimens in Linz (K. E. Westerskov, “Reischek’s 1890 Paper on ‘The Kakapo (Stringops habroptilus) in the Wild
and in Captivity’”, in: Notornis 28:4 (1981): 263). In 1990, however, there are only fifteen kakapo and three eggs
(Westerskov, “Reischek’s New Zealand Bird Collection”, 131).
79 Thomas Kirk claimed that he and his fellow scientist, Frederick Wollaston Hutton, first suggested the idea in 1868.
Fenton also reportedly brought it up at a meeting of the Auckland Institute in 1875, followed by the politician,
Thomas Potts, who endorsed the use of bird sanctuaries on Resolution Island and the islands off the north-east coast
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