The South Island snipe (Coenocorypha iredalei), also known as the Stewart Island snipe or tutukiwi in Māori, is an extinct species of bird in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae that was endemic to New Zealand.
Taxonomy and etymology Determination of the taxonomy of Coenocorypha snipe has been hindered by lack of material, erroneous locality data, misidentified specimens and confused nomenclature. The South Island snipe was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Subantarctic snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica), but has since been elevated to a full species, with fossil material from the South Island referred to it. The specific epithet honours ornithologist Tom Iredale. The Māori name, "tutukiwi", which may be applied to other Coenocorypha snipes, alludes to the bird's fancied resemblance to a miniature kiwi.
Distribution and extinction The South Island snipe is extinct. Its prehistoric distribution comprised the South Island and Stewart Island, including some smaller islands off Stewart Island. It became extinct on both South Island and Stewart Island following the occupation of New Zealand by Polynesians (the ancestors of the Māori people) and the associated introduction of Pacific rats (Rattus exulans). It survived on at least nine small islands until the late 19th and 20th centuries but was progressively extirpated on them following introductions of rats and other exotic predators, as well as weka, with the last records coming from Big South Cape and Pukaweka Islands in the early 1960s. The final chapter of the story of the South Island snipe came with the accidental introduction of black rats to Big South Cape Island, and the consequent attempt in 1964 by the New Zealand Wildlife Service, including Brian Bell and Don Merton, to rescue the snipe by transferring individuals to a rat-free island. Two birds were caught on 30 August and placed in an aviary. However, they were difficult to care for because of their need for a continuous supply of live food, and both died on 1 September. Since then there have been no acceptable records of the species. Subsequently, some 40 years later on 16 April 2005, 30 Snares snipes, then considered to be conspecific though a different subspecies, were translocated successfully by the New Zealand Department of Conservation to Putauhinu Island, only 1.5 km (0.93 mi) west of Big South Cape Island and a former home of South Island snipe, after the rats were eradicated there.
Description The snipe was similar to other Coenocorypha snipe, a small (21–24 cm in length), chunky and cryptically patterned wader with bars, stripes and spots in shades of brown ranging from buffy-white to nearly black, with longitudinal stripes on the face and crown. It had a long bill, with a short neck, legs and tail. The outer tail feathers were narrow and stiffened, a modification to produce the distinctive roaring sound of the nocturnal "hakawai" aerial display. The species differed from others in the genus by details of plumage patterning and shading – in having a scalloped breast and flanks with rufous and cinnamon tinges.
Behaviour One of the few people to make any kind of field study of the South Island snipe was naturalist Herbert Guthrie-Smith who reported on a 1923 visit to Big South Cape Island in his book Sorrows and Joys of a New Zealand Naturalist (1936):
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