Black Robin Map

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Chatham Islands, New Zealand - home of the black robin.

The Chatham Islands are part of New Zealand.
The islands are small, surrounded by rough seas and strong winds. They are about 850 kilometres east of Christchurch. They are the first inhabited lands in the world to see the sun each day!

Can you find the Chatham Islands in an atlas?

Here's a map of the Chatham Islands - can you see the islands where the black robin's live?

A short history of the islands.....

• The Moriori people were the first inhabitants of the Chatham Islands. They called it Rekohu, ‘Misty Skies’ because of the mists that sometimes cover the islands for days at a time.
• When the Maori people arrived, in the 1840's they called the islands ‘Wharekauri’.
• In 1791 Europeans arrived and gave the islands their English name – the Chatham Islands.

• People killed many birds and almost all the seals for food and clothing as well as clearing away the forests for farming.
• People brought animals to the islands. Cows and sheep, which ate the native vegetation and trampled the forest floor, killing new seedlings that were trying to grow, and pigs that dug up the roots of trees.
• People also brought rats, cats and possums to the islands. This was disastrous for the black robin and the other birds living in the Chathams.

• Before people arrived on the islands the black robin had lived in safety for thousands of years.
• The black robins were losing their homes to farming.
• Their food in the forest was being eaten and trampled by farm animals and pests.
• There were not as many trees to live in or places to find insects to eat.
• The cats killed adult black robin and the rats and possums preyed on the robins nests, eating eggs and killing chicks.
• Black robins used to be found on many of the islands in the Chatham Islands group, but are now found only on Mangere Island and South East Island.