Pūteketeke are pictured in Lake Alexandrina on South Island, New Zealand, on this undated handout picture.

Leanne Buchan/Reuters

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Leanne Buchan/Reuters

Pūteketeke are pictured in Lake Alexandrina on South Island, New Zealand, on this undated handout picture.

Leanne Buchan/Reuters

A threatened chicken known as the pūteketeke landed the highest spot in a New Zealand chicken contest after comic and discuss present host John Oliver unleashed a zany, worldwide marketing campaign on its behalf.

The New Zealand conservation group Forest & Bird held the competition for Bird of the Century, asking individuals within the nation and overseas to vote for his or her favourite threatened species amongst dozens of contestants.

The Last Week Tonight host stated his employees requested Forest & Bird if they might marketing campaign for the pūteketeke, a local water chicken with a particular black-brown frill round its neck, and the group agreed.

“I don’t think they understood quite what they were unleashing when they said, ‘Go for it,’ ” stated Oliver, dressed as a pūteketeke, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

To increase help for the species, which he known as “magnificent” and “charming,” Oliver did a Last Week Tonight segment hyping the pūteketeke and took out billboard adverts for the chicken in New Zealand, the U.S., India, Japan and elsewhere.

“This is what democracy is all about: America interfering in foreign elections,” he joked on his present.

The meddling paid off.

Forest & Bird announced Wednesday that the pūteketeke gained the competition with a whopping 290,374 votes.

By comparability, the North Island brown kiwi secured second place with solely 12,904 votes.

A billboard at a bus cease promotes comic John Oliver’s marketing campaign for the pūteketeke to be named New Zealand’s Bird of the Century on Saturday in Wellington.

Nick Perry/AP

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Nick Perry/AP

“We promised controversy but didn’t quite expect this!” Forest & Bird Chief Executive Nicola Toki stated in an announcement. “We’re stoked to see the outpouring of passion, creativity and debate that this campaign has ignited.”

Even New Zealand’s incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon applauded the discuss present host for vaulting the pūteketeke to victory.

“Congratulations to campaign manager @iamjohnoliver and all those who gave their support to the Pūteketeke,” Luxon stated in a tweet.

Also often known as the Australasian crested grebe, the pūteketeke has a sharp black beak and an extended white neck and is thought for its unusual behaviors.

The species boasts a weird mating ritual, carries around its young on its again within the water and has been recognized to eat its own feathers earlier than vomiting them again up.

“Pūteketeke began as an outside contender for Bird of the Century but was catapulted to the top spot thanks to its unique looks, adorable parenting style, and propensity for puking,” Toki stated.

According to Forest & Bird, there are fewer than 3,000 of the birds throughout New Zealand and Australia, however that quantity was even decrease a number of many years in the past and has been steadily growing thanks partly to conservation efforts.

The group famous that greater than 80% of the native birds in New Zealand are on the threatened species checklist.