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An island colony of Haast weka that the Department of Conservation wants dead are an important sub-species worth protecting in their own right, according to the scientist who conducted DNA tests on the birds.
About 70 weka live 4km offshore from Okuru, Haast, on the Maori-owned Open Bay Islands, dubbed New Zealand's own Galapagos due to their isolation from mainland pests.
In an unprecedented move, DOC and the Maori trustees have agreed the birds can be killed - and possibly eaten in a cultural harvest - to protect skinks and leeches also living on the islands.
DOC says DNA testing done in 1999 showed the weka were a hybrid of South Island and North Island weka, and it did not want them released on the Haast mainland - where they originally came from - in case they breed with the western weka.
However, the decision to put the island colony on death row has angered some of the Maori owners and Haast locals, and surprised the scientist who discovered the unique strain.
The Greymouth Star has obtained a copy of the DNA report by Professor David Lambert, who now works at Griffin University in Australia. A leading scientist, he is respected as an expert on ancient DNA.
Speaking from Australia, he says his 1999 data indicated multiple origins of the Open Bay Islands weka.
"However, I would not think that this could easily be used to justify them being shot," Lambert says.
"I think one could argue that the Open Bay Island population is a variant of the total weka diversity and just as important as any other variant."
His report noted that Maori muttonbirders moved weka around, probably before Europeans did.
However, Haast locals still believe the weka found on the islands could only have come from the Haast mainland.
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson says last week she had not yet been briefed on the issue.
Weka supporter Chris Carter says that while the bird is a pest on the island, he would like to see them brought to the mainland rather than be culled.
The former Conservation Minister says that the bird is an endangered species and he believes there are quite a few conservation minded people or even companies who will not mind picking the tab on transporting the wekas, a population of around 70, from the island to an area in New Zealand.
But Weka farmer Roger Beattie disagrees, saying that the best option and cheaper option would be to farm the bird and eat it, saying that no farmed animal has ever gone extinct.
He also believes that Doc would not agree to having the wekas transported to any site on the mainland because the birds are mongrels and Doc would not want to risk the genetic purity of the other wekas.
But Carter says there are many sites around New Zealand that have no wekas present and they can always be put in a reserve, where they could be monitored.
He says there are not more than 7000 wekas in the whole of New Zealand and culling the birds is option that Doc can do without.
DOC says a final decision on the fate of the weka had not yet been made.
Weka are a protected species and are believed to have mostly died out in mainland South Westland.
