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The Black Robin - A Chatham Island Story
The Black Robin - A Chatham Island Story
Television (Full Length) – 1989 Nature Documentary
Wild South
TVNZ’s Natural History Film Unit was founded in...
Seven Black Robins
One of the three original docos on which this film is based
Moa's Ark : To the Lifeboats
David Bellamy pays tribute to Don Merton
Kea - Mountain Parrot
Award-winning bird documentary also directed by Rod Morris
The Black Stilt
Another dramatic rare bird story from Rod Morris
Ghosts of Gondwana
Another award-winning natural history story directed by...
The Unnatural History of the Kākāpō
Another dramatic conservation story
Weekly Review No. 437 - Ornithology ... Notornis Expedition
A doco on the rediscovery of the takahē
Kapiti Hono Tatati Hono - My Island, My Home
A doco on the people who live on bird sanctuary Kapiti...
Moriori
A doco on the Indigenous people of the Chathams
Looking at New Zealand - The Fight to Save the Saddleback
Skills used in the robin's rescue were pioneered here
In the mid 1970s the Chatham Island black robin was the world's rarest bird. With only two females left, the ante for a conservation rescue story would be hard to up. Enter saviour Don Merton and his Wildlife Service team. Their pioneering efforts included abseiling the precious birds down cliff faces, and left-field libido spurs for the talismanic 'Eve' of her species: Old Blue. This classic Wild South edition united three award-winning films that were foundational for the Natural History Unit (now NHNZ): Seven Black Robins, The Robin's Return, and Black Robin.
I remember the nerves that came over them once they realised that they had that real black robin in their hands. Those guys changed, knowing what they were entrusted with and what was ahead of them. I recall Dick Veitch. Once they had that box with the bird in it, and secured it on his pack, he was just a different person. It was the awesome responsibility of getting that precious bird down that cliff and across.– Cameraman Paul Donovan, in Wild South: Saving New Zealand’s Endangered Birds, by Rod Morris and Hal Smith, 1988
Availability
Available to purchase on DVD from Natural History New Zealand