Where t see New Zealand Wildlife Behavior at its Best

Parking Meters Aiding White Flippered Penquins
White flippered penguins nest and breed only on Banks Peninsula and Motunau Island, in Canterbury, New Zealand. The white flippered penguin is considered endangered as there are only about 3,750 breeding pairs left. Visitors to the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch might not think twice about paying to park, but they could be surprised to learn that each time they feed the parking meter, they’re helping save a penguin.

The “Park for Penguins” campaign has been set up to support the penguin recovery program at Le Bons Bay on Banks Peninsula, and in the past two years the popular tourist attraction has donated NZ$21,300 in car-parking revenue.

For more information on the International Antarctic Centre, please visit http://www.iceberg.co.nz/
Saving Hector’s Dolphins
As it gets colder in Canada, things are heating up in New Zealand. Anyone for a swim? And you would be helping to save the world’s smallest-and possibly rarest-dolphin, the Hector’s dolphin.

The Hector’s dolphin species is divided into two sub-species:
* South Island Hector’s dolphin
* Maui’s dolphin

Overall, the Hector’s dolphin species is estimated to number fewer than 8,000, down from close to 30,000 in the early 1970s.

Classified by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) as “nationally critical,” there are only about 110 Maui’s dolphins.

The first cruise company to gain international Green Globe 21 certification, Black Cat Cruises (http://www.blackcat.co.nz/) has taken hundreds of thousands of visitors on viewing and wild dolphin swimming cruises on Akaroa harbour. Part of Black Cat’s sales revenue goes back into a fund for dolphin research, education and other environmental projects.

Black Cat’s dolphin swimming code includes not issuing flippers to swimmers, floating quietly in the water, and removing suntan lotion, which could potentially impact dolphin behaviour.
Dolphins, Dolphins and More Dolphins
There are 13 different species of dolphins found in New Zealand’s coastal waters.

The wild bottlenose dolphins are most the popular wild dolphins to swim with and the activity is available in the northern part of the North Island.

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) advises that swimmers should not try to handle, ride or be towed by a dolphin.

If you are approached by a dolphin when swimming, remain calm and let the dolphin make contact with you if it wishes to. Do not attempt to control it, chase it or pull on it when it chooses to leave. Do not attempt to stop the dolphin.

Here are a couple of links to organizations that offer swimming with wild dolphins:

http://greatsights.co.nz/luxury-bus-tours/Swim-With-The-Dolphins.php

http://www.explorenz.co.nz/site/default.aspx

Kakapo Chicks Released
Five rare kakapo chicks have recently been released from their temporary outdoor pens, and are now roaming free on an island sanctuary in New Zealand’s deep south. The only survivors of their kind, a large flightless nocturnal bird that is the world’s rarest parrot, the chicks are members of just 124 kakapo in existence.

Once prevalent throughout New Zealand, kakapo now live only on predator-free Whenua Hou / Codfish Island, under the care of the Kakapo Recovery Program. This year the program successfully bred 33 kakapo. Their goal is to establish at least one self-sustaining unmanaged population in a protected habitat.

http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz/

Native Birds Get iPod
It’s for real, iPods are being used to help settle one of New Zealand’s rarest birds into their new homes deep in native forest, away from warm-blooded predators.

Conservationists hope the kokako will breed better in older established native bush, where mammals that could prey on them do not live.

The unusual step, known as acoustic anchoring, has come about because the birds respond to the dialects of their kokako friends and neighbours but not to songs by birds outside their home area. To ensure the birds stay where they are safe, Waikato University PhD student David Bradley has recorded kokako bird songs from original habitats that will play over loudspeakers in the new homes at dawn. “The idea is that the birds being released should be familiar with these songs, as they’ve been recorded very close to where they came from. So that encourages them to hang around instead of fleeing,” Bradley said.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/land-birds/kokako/

September 10, 2009   Posted in: New Zealand