A Caravanning Trip in the Rain Despite the weather forecast promising us a very rainy weekend, nothing was going to deter us from heading out. Mum and Dad’s caravan was stocked with the essentials, mine and Tom’s cameras were packed, we all had our raincoats and gumboots, so off we set up the windy Parapara…
Tag: New Zealand
New Zealand’s Largest & Heaviest Native Moth
Click to zoom in There are many names for the largest native moth in New Zealand, and much can be gleaned from a name… The Pūriri Moth (Aenetus virescens) One of the grub’s main host trees is the pūriri tree (Vitex lucens) hence a common name being the pūriri moth. The Ghost Moth Ngāti Kahungunu (the Māori iwi…
A New Zealand Summer Migrant: The Elusive Shining Cuckoo
A Familiar Noise Most, if not all of those that have spent time outdoors in New Zealand’s summer, will recognise this noise: Weep weep weep weep weep woooooop (click to listen). Few of these people, however, will have actually seen the creature that belts out this long, repetitive whistling tune. The reason for this is perhaps down…
A New Zealand Category I Threatened Species: The Flightless Spiny Longhorn Beetle
A Night at Bushy Park Sanctuary Tom and I joined our friend and natural history curator of the Whanganui Regional Museum, Mike Dickison, and fellow naturalist, Lisa, for a night out at Bushy Park light-trapping for insects. Whilst waiting for the trap to draw in the local residents, we took a stroll along one of…
A New Zealand Tūī Feeding on Flax Nectar
Click to zoom in New Zealand’s Endemic Tūī Tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) are an endemic New Zealand bird found across almost all of New Zealand. They range from the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. Tūī are noticeably absent from the Canterbury region although they were found there historically. With native planting, predator control,…
Nice to Bee back in New Zealand: Hive Audits
Beeing Employed Click to zoom in Within a week of being back in the country, we had somehow landed a short-term contract working with honey bees. Emma and I had put on bee suits before and photographed a friends bees but that was the extent of our experience. For this work, we essentially drove around…
Zoomology Turns One Today
A year ago today, Tom and I wrote our first blog post on Zoomology. It has been a very rewarding journey. We have learnt so much with each post we have written, not only about the species and places we have covered, but also about our own ‘voice’. Here are all of our blog posts…
1000 Views This Month – Thank You!
We started this blog last year in November. Since then, this is the first month that we have surpassed the 1000 view mark. We just wanted to write a short blog post to you all to say, ‘Thank you!’ Below are some interesting statistics about our blog’s journey so far: We…
Takahē: The World’s Largest Living Rail
The takahē’s story is quite amazing. Between 1849 and 1898, only four individuals were ever sighted… By the early 1900’s takahē were considered to be extinct.
New Zealand’s Smallest Endemic Bird isn’t a True Wren, it’s the Rifleman
Despite being known as one of the New Zealand wrens, of which it is one of only two surviving species, the Rifleman actually belongs to the ancient Acanthisittidae family. They are often called “wrens” due to similarities in appearance and behaviour to the true wrens of the family Troglodytidae.
New Zealand’s Longest Beetle: the Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis)
The New Zealand giraffe weevil is endemic to our country, and is in fact our longest beetle. It is also the longest beetle in the world of its family.
A Rare and Elusive Species: The Coromandel Striped Gecko (Toropuku “Coromandel”)
…only 28 individuals have been identified and recorded up until 12th November 2014. I am not aware of any updates to the database, but know that additional animals have been found since. I can be sure of this as Emma and I with our wildlife-spotting friends, Sara and Ro, came across two presumably new individuals that night!
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