Wed, 25 Feb 2009 2:23 pm – Posted by Brian Lloyd | 3 Comments
Forest & Bird’s Bat Survey Officer, Top of the South, Brian Lloyd
Tasked with the job of surveying bat populations in the top of the South island, I have spent many summer days setting out bat detectors around the countryside in the hope that they pick up the high frequency echolocation (or clicks) that bats use to navigate their way around.
Short-tailed bat, Photo: Rosalind Cole
Sometimes a seemingly fruitless task , finding populations of these rare and elusive short-tailed and long-tailed bats, contributes to a national picture of the status of these two disappearing species.
Differing not only in appearance, but also with respect to feeding patterns & behaviour, our two bat species share little in common.
Short –tailed bats generally roost in large tree cavities, and in winter are known to stay in their roosts and go into torpor. Like our kakapo, they have a lek breeding system, which is the equivalent of a male sing-star contest to win over a prize mate. Most peculiarly though, is the way that they forage. Unlike most other micro-bats that catch air-borne creatures, short-tailed bats are known to forage on the ground using their folded wings as front limbs. This unusual trait makes them particularly vulnerable to predation. In the central North Island I found several thousand of these wonderful creatures in the large tracts of indigenous forest from Urewera west to Taranaki. A career highlight!
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Published in: General, Native land animals, Top of the South
Tags: extinction, long-tailed bat, short-tailed bat, volunteer
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Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:03 am – Posted by Phil Bishop | 3 Comments
Guest blogger, Frog scientist & conservationist, Phil Bishop
One of the commonest questions people ask me is “Why frogs? What makes them so special to you?” and it’s a hard one to answer.
Often I reply with a flippant suggestion that maybe I was a frog in a previous life, but when I sit down and try to ask myself that question, I realise that at a very early age, roundabout 4 years old, I had an ‘up-close and personal encounter’ with a common British toad and basically fell in love (as much as a toddler could) with amphibians.
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Published in: General
Tags: amphibian chytrid virus, archey's frog, frogs, recovery, research
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Mon, 16 Feb 2009 8:59 am – Posted by Ailsa Howard | 1 Comment
Guest blogger: Chairperson for the Kaikoura Branch, Ailsa Howard
While DOC has been busy crafting dummy sea-lions in an attempt to attract males ashore, the Kaikoura community along with the local DOC staff have been involved in a charade of our own: playing the call of the endangered Hutton’s shearwater through loud speakers, in bid to get them to return to their new breeding site.
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Published in: General, Native land animals, Top of the South
Tags: fundraising, migration, predator proof fence, recovery programme, shearwater, volunteer
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Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:38 am – Posted by Tom | 1 Comment
Guest Blogger, Tom Marshall, Photographer
We’re constantly being reminded in New Zealand not to ‘drive tired’ and ‘take a break every two hours when travelling’, but next time you reach for that Red Bull or coffee hit on the highway, spare a thought for some of our feathered summer tourists.
Our Alaska-bound godwits, Photo Andrew Walmsley
Travelling the length of Aotearoa tip-to-tip would be an impressive feat for anyone at 1600km, but try doing nearly seven times that distance without so much as a pie and an L&P en-route, and you have the astonishing migration of the Bar-tailed Godwit.
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Published in: General
Tags: bar-tailed godwit, migration, technology
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Tue, 03 Feb 2009 1:50 pm – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 2 Comments
Google has just announced a new tool that allows viewers to take a glimpse under the sea, which goes a long way to addressing our “out of sight – out of mind mentality” currently plaguing marine conservation efforts.
Having just rolled out google sky following the ever-popular google earth, google is now giving us a chance to dive into an area that occupies 2/3 of earth’s surface.
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Published in: General, Marine and Coastal
Tags: Climate Change, marine
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Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:14 am – Posted by Mandy | 4 Comments
It’s confirmed, I am a bona fide eco-worrier. Having sailed through my first twenty years oblivious to my planet-destroying habits, I now spend much of my thinking time about how I can minimise my carbon footprint. The increasing onslaught of information about how to live lightly on this planet has me doing very complex equations in my head, which involves various trade offs e.g if I start a worm-farm & NOT use disposable cups to get my daily coffee, then I can travel in my car once a week.
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Published in: Climate Change, General
Tags: Climate Change
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