Tūrangi’s Tongariro River Trail great opportunity to see blue ducks

Whio can be seen more easily in Tūrangi than perhaps any other town in New Zealand. Photo / Department of Conservation

There are only 3000 of them in the world, but if you want to see them, you might only need to take a few steps from central Tūrangi.

Whio, or blue ducks, are unique to New Zealand, usually being found only in remote areas; the href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/department-of-conservation/" target="_blank">Department of Conservation’s (DoC) website calls them “an iconic back-country species”.

However, there is a thriving population in the Tongariro River at Tūrangi, with many often visible from the Tongariro River Trail that winds along the awa’s banks.

With Love Taupō's school holiday biking treasure trail in full swing along the route, now is a great time for families to hunt the blue ducks - although these ones are strictly just for looking at.

The easiest kind to find are of the wooden variety, stuck to trees along the banks for kids to seek, with a letter on each unscrambling to form a potentially prize-winning answer.

For a challenge, families can try to spot the real thing, either swimming in the river or chilling out on its banks.

With Love Taupō's school holiday biking treasure trail in full swing, now is a great time for families to go searching for blue ducks.

Department of Conservation senior biodiversity ranger Sarah Tunnicliffe said blue ducks were fascinating animals that not many people knew about, in part because they could be hard to spot.

“I think people don’t realise that they’re there. They’re pretty well-camouflaged unless you know what you’re looking for.

“If people are looking out on to the river and see the rocks, sometimes you notice the rocks actually have beaks and wings!”

Tunnicliffe’s expert advice for spotting the rare birds was to begin by listening for their unusual call.

“They sound very different; they don’t quack, they whistle or growl.

“Listening out for them when you’re on the river is probably one of your first signs.”

The next step involved patience, she said.

“Then, keep your eyes open. Sometimes they’re low-flying, coming into the river - they can be bobbing around on the rapids, and if you look on the river rocks in the river you might find some.

“Once you get your eye in, you can spot them.”

Although not the flashiest looking duck, they had some features that made them unlike any other, including a whistling call, a rubbery beak and a love of whitewater unmatched by any rafter.

Their rock-imitation act served as a handy adaptation as the ducks’ biggest threat came from above, she said.

Before humans arrived in New Zealand, bringing with them mammals that today threaten the whio, it was the now-extinct Haast’s eagle they had to worry about.

“Even though they evolved to be well-camouflaged from the air, if you were a Haast’s eagle, you wouldn’t see them because they look like stones, but ground predators hunt by smell, and they’re pretty smelly.”

DoC senior ranger Sarah Tunnicliffe said whio are amazing to see, if you know how to spot them.

Today, the whio was classed as a threatened/nationally vulnerable animal by DoC, with their main threats being introduced predators, habitat loss and climate change.

In Tūrangi, their main problems were stoats, which take eggs, chicks and even adult ducks when they are moulting, nesting or otherwise vulnerable.

The problem was so severe that currently, they would be unlikely to survive without human intervention.

“They’re also what we call conservation-dependent, which means they need help with predator trapping to survive.”

“The more trapping that can be done along river corridors, the better for the ducks.

“We’re lucky that we have a few community groups around here doing the trapping, which is really cool.”

Whio are only found in fast-flowing rivers, in which they swim against the current to catch their prey; small, freshwater creatures that often need to be pried off rocks with their beaks, which is where the rubber-like covering over their beaks comes in handy.

It might take some perseverance to spot them, but the opportunity to see the whio so close to town was well worth it, she said.

“A friend of mine calls these the ‘suburban whio’. Nowhere else can you see them from State Highway 1, if you know what you’re looking for.

“They’re definitely not your average duck.”

• Love Taupō's Taupō Treasure Trails are on from now until April 28 in Taupō, Tūrangi and Mangakino, with mystery prizes up for grabs. See Love Taupō's website for details.
• For more information on whio, including a recording of their whistling call, see DoC’s website.

Milly Fullick is a journalist based in Taupō. She joined the Taupō & Tūrangi Herald team in 2022.