The endemic pāteke or brown teal (Anas chlorotis)is New Zealand’s rarest mainland waterfowl. Once the most common waterfowl in New Zealand, they suffered severe declines due to introduced predators like rats and stoats. Intensive predator control and captive-reintroduction programs managed by the Department of Conservation have helped their populations slowly increase. Unlike most ducks, pāteke are mainly active at night or during twilight, spending the daylight hours hiding in shaded, overhanging vegetation. Both sexes of brown teal are darkish brown with a distinctive white eye-ring. Males in breeding plumage have an indistinct green iridescence on the head, females and juveniles are a uniformly dull but dark mottled brown.
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