Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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The nutritional value of cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.), midribbed snow-tussock (Chionochloa pallens Zotov), and red tussock (Chionochloa rubra Zotov) for the takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri Meyer)

Kerry A. C. James¹
Peter J. Moore²
James A. Mills²*
John P. Koolaard¹
Roger B. Lavers³*
Christine A. Butts^1†
Bryan P. Treloar⁴
Neville D. Grace⁴
Lynne M. Bang¹

¹New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research Ltd, Private Bag 11 600, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
²Science and Research Unit, Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 10 420, Wellington, New Zealand.
³New Zealand Wildlife Service, Department of Internal Affairs, Private Bag, Wellington, New Zealand.
⁴New Zealand Pastoral Agriculture Research Institute, Private Bag 11 008, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

*Present addresses: J. A. Mills, 10527a Skyline Drive, Corning, New York 14830, USA. R. B. Lavers, 50 Rocking Horse Road, South New Brighton, Christchurch, New Zealand. 

^†Author for correspondence. Email: buttsc@crop.cri.nz

Abstract  A feeding trial was carried out to determine the nutritional value of midribbed snow-tussock (Chionochloa pallens Zotov), red tussock (Chionochloa rubra Zotov), and cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.) for the takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri Meyer), an endangered flightless herbivorous rail endemic to New Zealand. Three captive-reared birds were fed each of the diets for 11 days, during which food intake, faecal plus urinary output, nutrient balances and coefficients of absorption/retention of energy, nitrogen, soluble sugars, starch, and mineral elements were determined. The mean dry matter (DM) intake was of the order cocksfoot > midribbed snow-tussock > red tussock. The proportions of total soluble sugars absorbed from all grasses were in the range 0.8–0.96, whilst the proportions of energy absorbed (0.24, 0.17, –0.29) and nitrogen retained (0.19, 0.15, –0.04) from all grasses were low. Cocksfoot was nutritionally superior to the tussocks for most parameters measured, suggesting that islands with pasture habitat should adequately meet the requirements of takahe.

Keywords  takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri Meyer); midribbed snow-tussock; red tussock; cocksfoot; nutrient balance; nutrient absorption/retention; conservation

R04007; Received 18 June 2004; accepted 14 October 2004; Online publication date 6 December 2004
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand Volume 34, Number 4, December, 2004, pp 333–345

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