Pukaha Wildlife Centre could soon have a new addition to its Takahe family after an egg was laid at the centre for the first time in 20 years.

The resident takahe couple at the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in the Wairarapa were discovered by ranger Tara Swan last week sitting on an egg.

There is a high chance the egg is infertile due to the age of both the male and female takahe but rangers are still hopeful it could be the first takahe chick hatched at the wildlife centre in two decades.

It is a special moment for the Wildlife Centre as takahe were one of the first conservation breeding programmes at the centre from the 1960's.

"If the egg is indeed fertile and a chick is successfully hatched at Pukaha, the takahe programme at the centre would have gone full circle," conservation manager Todd Jenkinson says.

The Department of Conservation lists the Takahe's conservation status as 'threatened'.

Last December their population passed 300. 

- NZ Newswire