North Island Takahē

Cranial bones of Nordinseltakahes ( the lower large bone ) compared to a smaller living species of the purple chicken.

The Nordinseltakahe ( Porphyrio mantelli ) is an extinct flightless bird of the North Island of New Zealand. He lived exclusively on the North Island and was significantly larger and more delicate than the closely related Südinseltakahe. It is believed that the two had an almost identical Takahes life.

The Nordinseltakahe was first known by subfossil bone finds. She was originally widespread on the island, but was gradually pushed back. As Aussterbeursache the increasing forest cover of the mountains after the last ice age and the area occupied by bone finds hunting suspected by the Māori. However, the forest cover is hardly conceivable as Aussterbeursache because bones were usually found from Takahes in places that are not excluded directly to open grassland.

It was long assumed that the Nordinseltakahe extinct shortly after the settlement of New Zealand by Māori. However, Phillips led to 1959 evidence that the Nordinseltakahe until the late 19th century survived in remote areas such as Ruahine, similarly, as did the Südinseltakahe.

The Nordinseltakahe was described by the Māori as " Mohoau " and described as a bird with blue feathers that resembles a purple chicken.

1898 a copy of the Nordinseltakahe in the Tararua area at the southern end of the North Island was captured by a surveyor named Morgan Carkeek and taken to the house of Roderick McDonald of Horowhenua, who for a long time kept the bellows there. The bird was then identified by locals as Mohoau and caused great excitement among Māori, because he was already so rare that only the older residents of the bird still existed.

By 1910, around it was common to use the Māori name Mohoau for people who had lived long in the wilderness, and as a result, had unkempt.

The scientific name is reminiscent of Walter Mantell, who discovered the first bone of the Nordinseltakahe.