Kokako Lost: the last days of the Great Barrier and Coromandel crow

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 45

Kokako Lost: the last days of the Great Barrier and Coromandel crow

Jacqui Barrington

by Sid Marsh, self-published, 1995, 77pp ($20 by mail from 15 Dobson St, Waihi) This is a strangely compelling book, based on the author’s columns in the Waihi Leader. These document his searches beginning in 1991 for the last remaining kokako on the Coromandel Peninsula, and end with his involvement in the 1994 capture of the last two known birds on Great Barrier Island and their transfer to Little Barrier. Marsh’s first chance encounter with a kokako in 1979 sowed the seeds for the quest which began a decade later. His transparent love for both the bird and the Coromandel region instantly engages the reader through a blow-by-blow account of forays deep into the ranges where "from the cover of dense forest loquacious kokako cast their spell unseen with organ-like notes". A highlight of the small book are a dozen illustrations by the author of kokako and other wildlife, two hand-drawn maps of their territories, some 18 photographs and numerous anecdotes from other kokako enthusiasts. Particularly poignant are the descriptions of lone birds and their frantically excited reactions to tape-recordings of kokako song or human imitations, as they desperately try to locate "the other bird". Dedicated to Mark Tugendhaft, Coromandel Watchdog and the late Skipper Chapman, this is a cry from the heart to protect what remains of primeval New Zealand from human destruction.