NZ wildlife questions? Ask them here.

26-12-2007

Where are swordtails and mollies etablished?

27-12-2007

in some of the geothermal areas of the North Island (around Taupo) where the waters are warm enough for them to survive year-round

27-12-2007

the only birds that have successfully established in NZ from self-colonisation since European settlement are the black-fronted dotterel, white-faced heron, nankeen night heron, Australasian coot, spur-winged plover, welcome swallow and silvereye. Cattle egrets are regular migrants but have not yet stayed to breed. The white-winged black tern MAY be breeding here, and the black swan is generally now regarded as having self-colonised at around the same time as it was introduced by man (the numbers grew too fast for it to be otherwise). [I don't think I've forgotten any, but I may have]

27-12-2007

I have a list of the species found overseas on the other thread. When it comes down to it, much as I love NZ wildlife, to your average zoo-goer they would seem a pretty boring lot of animals. Even if a zoo got takahe or kakapo, while we all would drool over it, most visitors would sort of give it a quick look and move on. Antipodes Island parakeet -- "little green parrot, wow"; kakapo -- "big green parrot...why's it in the dark? Can't they turn the lights on?"

If I had a zoo in England, say, and I wanted a NZ section (which I would), I would be trying to get Antips, NZ pigeon, tui, blue duck, kaka....but for most visitors it would just be like, "oh birds, OK, where's the monkeys"

In terms of what's over there now, it would be good to concentrate on maintaining weka, getting the numbers of blue duck and kaka up...I mean there really isn't much hope that many individuals of those species will be coming out of NZ again any time soon. So if the zoos want to keep them they better start breeding them.

27-12-2007

Chlidonias,

Am I correct to assume there are 4 kiwi species and 2 subspecies in either northern and southern browns? I came across this reference The New Zealand Kiwi Species on the internet and while it mentions: quote "There are two species of Kiwi's in New Zealand, the Brown Kiwi and the Spotted Kiwi. Within these two species are six varieties of Kiwi: the North Island Brown, the Okarito Brown, the Stewart Island Brown, the Haast Brown, the Great Spotted, and the Little Spotted." unquote

It then goes on to list 4 Apteryx species instead ...?!! : eek: I my book that would mean 4 different species and not 2 ...

27-12-2007

in the list of introduced birds I posted earlier I inadvertantly left out a whole section of Galliformes!

Ring-necked pheasant
Golden pheasant (recently-established on one small island)
Feral peafowl
Feral guineafowl
Feral turkey
scattered semi-feral chickens

I have just added them in so this post was actually pointless. Oh well.

27-12-2007

that bit you quoted above is very confused. I had a quick look at that site; I don't know who set it up but while most of it's fine there are quite a few errors in it as well (factual as well as spelling etc)

There were formerly considered to be three species -- the brown kiwi (with three subspecies on North, South and Stewart Islands), the great spotted and the little spotted -- but after doing all kinds of DNA studies on them it has been determined that the brown kiwi is in fact at least three separate species.

So:
great spotted kiwi Apteryx haastii

little spotted kiwi Apteryx oweni-- these two species remain unchanged

North Island brown kiwi Apteryx mantelli in the North Island

Okarito brown kiwi (aka rowi) Apteryx rowi at Okarito on the West Coast of the South Island

Southern brown kiwi (aka southern tokoeka) Apteryx australis in southwest South Island and on Stewart Island

then there's the Haast brown kiwi (aka Haast tokoeka) which at the moment is undecided -- it may turn out to be a distinct species but it is more likely just going to remain as a distinct population of the southern brown kiwi (either a subspecies or just a different-looking form)


So you've got five true species, and a sixth undecided type.

27-12-2007

thanks chlidonias. thats an aweful lot of (mostly australian) birds that have been introduced. birds like the kookaburra and owls seem particuarly unexpected choices for acclimatisation societies.

whats happening in terms of eradication?

the moose clearly never established itself and it supprises me so many good mammal books STILL list it as a species existing there. i'm so very glad we don't have stoats and weasels in australia. there are no confirmed colonies of ferrets here as far as i know (though they can be kept as pets) and of course we did get the red fox. i think in the end its feral cats that cause the most damage. unfortunatley for you guys brush-tail possums are more than a worthy opponent.

i get the impression that your department of conservation is actually preserving the exotic frog species. is this a fair statement?

and what about turtles? surely australian long-necks have established themselves? can't those and greek tortoises be kept as pets over there.

27-12-2007

the Acclimatisation Societies weren't exactly working by the same rules as they might if established today. They were primarily interested in "bettering" their new countries by releasing animals that could be hunted or that were considered useful. You may notice that most of the birds are actually game birds (waterfowl and Galliformes) for hunting, or small passerines which were brought in to try and control the insect populations which had boomed following the wholesale demise of the native birds. With mammals most are game animals (deer, rabbits etc) -- the mustelids were introduced to control the rabbits! Fortunately they were far-sighted enough to learn from Australia's mistake and no foxes were released here otherwise we'd have nothing left. But then some things were released simply because they weren't here already, like the wallabies and frogs. The little owls were brought in to try and control the introduced passerines which had gone out of control. The kookaburras were introduced on a whim by George Grey onto Kawau Island along with his wallabies. Others (the parrots and doves) are cage birds that have escaped or been released. Species that were introduced but never established included zebra, monkeys, emus, quolls, diamond sparrows, llamas, and dozens of others. And of course back then anyone could bring in animals and release them as they saw fit; it didn't need to be through the Societies.

Eradication is impossible for most species now in NZ. The hunting community gets all het up if the suggestion of shooting out tahr for example is brought up. (And of course the Government always pays attention to any "minority" groups -- a rather big minority group in this case! -- so while tahr could be feasibly eliminated it won't happen). The best that can happen is local control by trapping and shooting. There is talk of a possum contraceptive or virus (but obviously that's a bit of a worry in itself with Australia right next door).

I'm not sure about DoC protecting the introduced frogs. They are endangered back in Australia but I think DoC is more concerned with them spreading chytrid fungus to our native species. There aren't any laws regarding catching, keeping or selling the Australian ones.

As for exotic pets there are very strict laws about importing, but there are quite a few species here that can be kept -- probably about ten or more species of turtles and tortoises, maybe about ten or so mainly-Australian lizards, a couple of species of newts and the axolotl, as well as chinchillas, rabbits, guineapigs, etc. Lots of birds and tropical fish too. Ferrets are now illegal as pets. There are no hamsters or gerbils at all. There are reports of red-eared sliders in the wild and snake-necks are sometimes found but they don't pose any real threat.

27-12-2007

I'm suprised Quolls didn't establish... How different are they from Possums..?

28-12-2007

they were shot soon after release...a common fate of many of the introduced species. Things like deer often had to have legal protection to prevent hunting until they were established. But its a jolly good thing quolls didn't establish here!

28-12-2007

Thanks for replying to my answers. About the "visitor quality": You're not telling me something new here... However, maybe the apt setting/presentation could improve that: imagine a zoo section called "The Lost World of Gondwana" (with a teeth-showing T.Rex-statue at the entrance...) or any other of those silly zoo exhibit titles, showing interesting examples of New Zealand's and New Caledonia's flora and fauna, with a walk-in aviary with NZ birds and a life-size model of a female Giant Moa-hunted-by-an-harpagornis-etc. hidden in the green? The curious (some might even call it rude ) character of the Weka might be just as charming for average zoo visitors as the Grey-winged Trumpeter is now in many zoos. Which makes me ask: Wekas in non-NZ zoos? And the Stuttgart kakas are breeding...well; they poisoned their chicks accidently, but now they hopefully don't any longer.

One (last?) question: any new sightings of the "Fireman kiwi"? Or the Waitoreke?

28-12-2007

I only assume there are still weka overseas, many have been sent away over the years.

The "fireman kiwi" was probably the great spotted kiwi (at that time not yet known to science). The name apparently derived (possibly) from the fact that they go down burrows, like the old-time firemen going down mines to extinguish fires. Another suggestion was from the call.

The waitoreke is a myth, composed of Maori folklore and various European-introduced mammals such as possums, ferrets, etc. When one was shot and the skin and skull presented for examination it turned out to be one of those quolls mentioned earlier. Suggestions that the creature may be a population of otters left behind by random visiting Asian fishermen (or that they were a stray population of sea otters as Heuvelmans would say) is ridiculous. An intriguing possibility may be that they are a relict platypus-like monotreme from Gondwana days but this too is pretty far-fetched.

28-12-2007

what I was saying here was only about mammals by the way. Most of the birds in NZ aren't much of a problem (most are restricted to human-created habitats such as farmland and gardens). The rainbow lorikeets were moved in on by DoC/MaF in an attempt to eradicate them to prevent them spreading into the forests and competing with native honeyeaters. The bulbuls were wiped out (?) by shooting although there are occasional sightings still. Rooks are kept at low numbers by shooting and poisoning. Canada geese and black swans are culled regularly (often through egg-pricking rather than shooting). If we could get rid of mynahs, starlings and magpies that would be great but its not going to happen.

28-12-2007

I heard the term "Fireman" originated from the sound the animal was said to make.

And about the waitoreke: what struck me when seeing specimen of Hydromys chrysogaster in Frankfurt, Poznan and Rotterdam zoo: couldn't it be an unknown NZ form of a Hydromyini species?