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Weekly Review No. 437 - Ornithology ... Notornis Expedition
Short Film (Full Length) – 1950
In November 1948 New Zealand got its own Lost World story, when a population of takahē — a large flightless rail, long thought extinct — was found in a remote part of Fiordland. The rediscovery of ‘notornis’ (a cousin of the pūkeko), by Southland doctor Geoffrey Orbell, generated international interest. This episode of the NFU’s Weekly Review newsreel series treks from Lake Te Anau high into the Murchison Mountains, where the team (including naturalist Robert Falla) find sea shell fossils, evidence of moa-hunter campsites, and the dodo-like takahē itself.
Attempts to preserve the notornis could be justified by its beautiful colour alone.– The narrator provides a 1950s conservation perspective
Key Cast & Crew
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