With slightly assist from comic and late-night host John Oliver, the pūteketeke — a wierd, puking chook — has soared to new heights and garnered worldwide acclaim.
On Wednesday, the pūteketeke, a threatened species of Australasian crested grebe, was topped New Zealand‘s “Bird of the Century.” The pūteketeke got here out on prime after a fierce effort from Oliver, who inspired world residents to make use of a loophole to vote for the colorful chook.
Though the “Bird of Century” competitors is focused towards New Zealand natives, Oliver and his crew realized the vote was not really restricted to the nation.
He launched his self-proclaimed “alarmingly aggressive” marketing campaign two weeks in the past on his satirical TV present Last Week Tonight. With his efforts, he even managed to knock New Zealand’s nationwide chook, the kiwi, humbly into second place. (Oliver snubbed the nationwide chook and known as it “a rat carrying a toothpick.”)
The pūteketeke is a weak species with fewer than 3,000 birds left within the wild, in accordance with Forest and Bird, the New Zealand-based environmental conservation group that runs the competitors.
The species is a diving chook that carries its younger on its again and is hardly ever seen on land. The birds interact in weird mating rituals through which pūteketeke grunt and bark to showy mating dances, in addition to present each other waterweeds. Perhaps most notably, the pūteketeke will eat its personal feathers to induce vomiting as a method to expel parasites.
A pūteketeke, additionally known as an Australasian crested grebe, carrying a chick on its again.
Auscape/Universal Images Group by way of Getty Images
The “Bird of the Century” contest is 2023’s variation of Forest and Bird’s yearly “Bird of the Year” competitors, which started in 2005.
As a part of his effort, Oliver crossed late-night TV borders and appeared on The Tonight Show to advertise the pūteketeke. Last week, whereas sitting throughout from host Jimmy Fallon, Oliver — who was dressed as a pūteketeke — joked that the loophole permitting worldwide votes appeared like a “vulnerability” that “somebody could exploit.”
“We were happy to be that somebody, and we are now the official campaign managers for the pūteketeke,” he mentioned, punctuating the proclamation with a flap of his massive feathers.
Oliver and his workforce additionally erected a collection of billboards world wide in New Zealand, Japan, France, the U.Okay., India and Manitowoc, Wisc., encouraging people to vote for the puking chook. The Last Week Tonight workforce even flew a aircraft with a banner advocating for the pūteketeke over the seashores of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
As a results of Oliver’s interference, on-line voting verification programs crashed, and the “Bird of the Century” outcomes had been delayed two days. Officials mentioned the competitors was overwhelmed with a record-breaking 350,000 votes from 195 international locations.
The pūteketeke acquired a whopping 290,374 votes.
Forty-five legitimate votes had been solid below the identify “John Oliver.” All, save one, had been solid for the pūteketeke. (The rogue vote was submitted for the New Zealand fairy tern.)
Thousands of fraudulent digital ballots reportedly needed to be eliminated by vote counters. One such keen chook fan had their votes eradicated after they singlehandedly solid 40,000 votes for the piki toka jap rockhopper penguin. (Oliver himself dismissed the competitor as a “hipster penguin.”)
Forest and Bird mentioned one other 3,403 fraudulent votes got here from a single Pennsylvania native, who submitted their entries each three seconds.
Forest and Bird chief govt Nicola Toki mentioned she wasn’t stunned by the pūteketeke’s win however inspired overexcited voters to channel their power into extra worthwhile initiatives.
“We know birds inspire incredible passion, but we encourage people to channel that passion into productive efforts rather than trying to rig an election,” Toki mentioned in a press launch. “We promised controversy but didn’t quite expect this!”
Some New Zealanders have accused Oliver of fowl play. Many nationwide information retailers tried to drum up assist for the nation’s different native birds, however it was no match for the pūteketeke’s attract.
As is all the time the best way with elections, not everybody was pleased with the result.
The New Zealand tour firm RealNZ even positioned its personal “Dear John” billboards across the nation, encouraging the late-night host to maintain his beak out of nationwide elections.
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