‘Puking’ pūteketeke crowned New Zealand bird of the century after 'alarmingly aggressive' John Oliver campaign

Competition receives record number of votes after comedian exploited loophole in voting system
NZEALAND-CONSERVATION-PUTEKETEKE
The pūteketeke  - also known as the Australasian crested grebe - engages in an elaborate set of mating dances
Leanne Buchan Photography/AFP vi
Matt Watts15 November 2023

A bird that pukes, grunts, growls and has bizarre mating rituals has won New Zealand’s Bird of the Century title after the intervention in the poll by comedian John Oliver.

The pūteketeke  - also known as the Australasian crested grebe - was crowned the winning bird in the annual contest after British-American comedian Oliver launched a global “Lord of the Wings” campaign for the bird to be crowned the winner.

The host of the HBO show Last Week Tonight exploited a loophole in the system that allows anyone to vote from anywhere for a bird.

Taking on the role as the puteketeke’s campaign manager, Oliver asked people to vote for the animal, that has never won the title before, on his weekly show.

He appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon dressed as the bird and erected billboards in countries including New Zealand, Japan, France and the UK.

The competition received a record more than 350,000 verified votes from 195 countries, crashing the verification system and delaying the results for two days.

The pūteketeke is known for carrying its young on its back, sharing chick-rearing responsibilities, and eating its own feathers to induce vomiting as a method to expel parasites. It has a chorus of grunts, growls and barks and engages in an elaborate set of mating dances, including the “weed dance” where the birds offer each other water weed and the “ghostly penguin” where they rise chest to chest. “They are weird puking birds with colourful mullets. What’s not to love here?” Oliver said on his show last week,

“This is what democracy is all about - America interfering in foreign elections,” he added.

But his campaign, that he called “alarmingly aggressive” ruffled feathers in some circles, with a concerted effort by many in New Zealand to thwart what they perceived to be “American interference” in the bird election.

Thousands of votes had to be discarded as fraudulent including 40,000 votes cast by a single person for a penguin. Another person from Pennyslvania cast 3,403 votes for their choice with one arriving every three seconds.

“We promised controversy but didn’t quite expect this. We’re stoked to see the outpouring of passion, creativity and debate that this campaign has ignited,” said Nicola Toki, chief executive of competition organise, the environmental conservation organisation, Forest & Bird.

The puteketeke began as “an outside contender”, she said but “was catapulted to the top spot thanks to its unique looks, adorable parenting style, and propensity for puking.”

“Congratulations to campaign manager John Oliver and all those who gave their support to the pūteketeke,” New Zealand’s incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon wrote on X.

New Zealand’s national bird, the North Island brown kiwi, came second on 12,904 votes, while the world’s only alpine parrot, the clever kea, came third with 12,060 votes.

The competition was launched in 2005 to raise awareness about the plight of New Zealand’s native birds, many of which are threatened, on the brink of extinction or already extinct due to the introduction of pests, human activity and declining habitats.

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