e ducation kit - Auckland Museum

Auckland Museum
N e w
Z e a l a n d
N AT U R A L H I S T O RY
e ducation k it
Tamaki Paenga Hira
ACTIVITY SHEETS YEARS 1 TO 8
©Auckland Museum 2005
CONTENTS
PAGE
Booking Information
Introduction to the Resource
Plan of Natural History Galleries
1
2
2
SECTION 1
Teacher Background:
Origins
Land
Oceans
Human Impacts
3
14
26
41
SECTION 2
Curriculum Links and
SECTION 3
Pre and Post-visit Activities
Classroom Activities
Gallery Activitites
ABOUT THIS RESOURCE:
This resource has been designed to meet the needs of
Science classes, Years 1–8
The kit includes:
Teacher Background Material
Curriculum Links and Pre and Post Visit Activities
Classroom Activity Sheets
Gallery Activity Sheets
50
53
63
BOOKING INFORMATION:
All school visits must be booked.
Phone: 306 7040 Fax: 306 7075
A small service charge applies to school groups.
Charges as at 2000 are:
Self-conducted Visits:
free
Gallery Introductions:
free to member schools,
$1.00 per student non-member schools
Hands-on Sessions:
$1.00 per student member schools,
$3.00 per student non-member schools
www.aucklandmuseum.com
1
Natural History
INTRODUCTION
he four natural history galleries form a suite with a logical
progression, which will encourage the visitor who wants to
learn of wonderful and unique life on the islands of New
Zealand to take. The first gallery, Origins, is a journey through time
where we tell the story of our country’s beginning and how we came
to be where we are today with our unique flora and fauna.
T
The next two galleries, Land and Oceans, take the visitor on a topographical journey
from mountain top down to the shore and out to the sea that surrounds us. Their aim
is to present our wonderful natural heritage and excite the visitor with its diversity,
while telling the individual stories and adaptations of certain plants and animals. The
final gallery, Human Impacts, looks at the effects we humans have had on the land and
its native inhabitants. Sharing the gallery space with this last gallery is Matapuna —
the Natural History Resource Centre. It is seen as crucial to all four galleries and is a
place where the visitor will be able to access deeper level information than is possible
to convey in the galleries themselves.
LAND
ORIGINS
TE AO TUROA
MAORI NATURAL
HISTORY
MATAPUNA
Natural
History
Resource
Centre
EAST
GALLERY
LOGAN CAMPBELL
GALLERY
MEZZANINE
GALLERY
FIRST FLOOR
WEST
GALLERY
DISCOVERY
CENTRE
VOLCANOES
OCEANS
Visiting schools may book for the following learning opportunities:
Self-conducted visit with supporting resource material.
Gallery Introduction with Museum Educator (approx 15 minutes), plus resource material.
Hands-on activity session with Museum Educator (approx 45 - 50 mins), plus resource material. Students have the opportunity to handle rock collections, fossils, lava bombs etc. Sessions can be tailored to suit the level and focus of your visit.
Auckland Museum
2
TEACHER BACKGROUND
ORIGINS GALLERY
rigins explores New Zealand’s geological history, our isolation from Gondwana and the
resulting effect on our unique and vulnerable plants and animals.
O
The focus for this kit is the concept of New Zealand’s isolation and the uniqueness of our
flora and fauna as a result of this isolation.
An additional education kit entitled Geology at the Auckland Museum provides a greater
range of information on New Zealand’s geology, rock types and volcanism.
THE EARTH’S STRUCTURE
basins. It solidifies to produce new crust and push4.6 billion years ago the Earth was formed, a es out the older crust symmetrically away from this
dynamic planet where the continents con“spreading centre”. This produces a long
stantly move on a hot fluid interior.
chain of undersea volcanoes, also
Radioactive decay in the centre has
called a mid-oceanic ridge.
Crust
generated a heat engine that
Outer core
powers this motion.
Subduction Zones
Old oceanic crust is heavy and
The Earth is composed of sevdense. Over time, parts of it
3560km
2800
eral layers. The solid inner
sink back into the mantle, crecore is surrounded by a liquid
ating a tectonic plate boundouter core. The mantle is solid,
ary as it slips under another
Inner core
with the top 250 km plastic
piece of crust. Subduction of
enough to move and carry the
old oceanic crust can happen
thin but rigid crust above.
under
continents, such as the South
Mantle
American west coast or under younger
PLATE TECTONICS /
oceanic crust, such as in the TongaCONTINENTAL DRIFT
Kermadec area, just north of New Zealand.
The Earth’s crust is broken into many fragments As the crust goes into the mantle, a deep trench up
called tectonic plates. These move at different to 10km deep develops at the point of subduction.
rates. They spread apart, push past, override and A New Zealand example is the Hikurangi Trough,
dive under each other, constantly moving the conti- which is off the east coast of the North Island.
nents around the globe.
During subduction, sediment that has settled on the
There are three main types of plate boundaries: ocean floor is scraped off the subducting plate
divergent/spreading centres, convergent/ subduc- and gets plastered onto the edge of the upper
tion zones and transform margins.
plate. The compression causes friction between the
two plates, which in turn causes earthquakes and
Upwelling in the mantle forms new oceanic crust, pushes up mountains.
which then spreads apart. The crust ultimately gets
recycled as it cools and becomes subducted under Once this oceanic crust sinks well down into the
younger, more buoyant crust.
mantle, it starts to soften and become plastic
again. But because there are traces of water in this
Sea Floor Spreading Zones
crust, partial melting occurs and this extra hot
The mantle reaches the Earth’s surface through an material rises up in bubbles through the mantle and
opening between two tectonic plates, up to 5km over-riding crust. Once it reaches Earth’s surface, it
under the sea surface in the middle of some ocean gets erupted to form volcanoes.
3
Natural History
World map showing the boundaries of tectonic plates. The arrows show the directions they move in. As the plates move, they
pull apart, collide, grind past or dive beneath one another, the way luggage does on an airport conveyer belt.
Transform Margins
Transform margins occur where 2 plates slide past
each other, neither creating or destroying oceanic
crust. An excellent example of a transform boundary is the Alpine Fault in the South Island, one of
the longest straight lines on Earth.
Fossil ferns found in rocks near Port Waikato grew
in coastal Gondwana forest 140 million years ago.
Fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris have been
found in New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica, South
America and India.
NEW ZEALAND’S GEOLOGICAL ORIGINS
Eighty five million years ago,
New Zealand began to break The Alpine fault,
as seen from
away from the supercontinent space.
called Gondwana where it
had been united with all the
other countries in the southern
hemisphere. As New Zealand
drifted away from Australia
taking with it animals (including
dinosaurs) and plants that
lived on it, the opening
between them began to form
the Tasman Sea.
In the 60 million years since the Tasman Sea
opened, erosion, tectonic processes and climate
change have drastically altered
the shape of New Zealand. These
changes have had a huge impact
on our plants and animals. New
Zealand drifted north away from
Antarctica as a heavily eroded
lowland plain. As it moved,
Earth’s crust stretched and
thinned and the land sank. From
considerable continental beginnings, New Zealand became an
archipelago of small swampy
low-lying islands.
Remnants of Gondwana in New Zealand
Rocks and fossils provide links to our past connection with other countries. Most of the rock types in
the Southwest corner of the South Island match up
with rocks in south east Australia and Antarctica.
As the land area reduced, species that had
evolved here faced advancing waters and destruction of habitats, creating a biotic bottleneck. The
original Gondwanan flora and fauna was considerably reduced. Later the survivors diversified and
Auckland Museum
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Timeline.
Gondwana.
new species evolved. Wrens, moa and giant weta tion of many indigenous animals is a legacy of the
were all affected. Some modern birds are proba- Pleistocene glaciations which ended some 10,000
bly descendants of a single surviving species.
years ago.
New Zealand did not remain a small archipelago
for long. About 25 million years ago, a plate
boundary started to develop through New
Zealand between the Australian and Pacific plates.
The collision between these two plates has pushed
up our mountain ranges within the last 6 million
years. Sediments from the continuous erosion of the
mountains has extended our coastlines to create
new land.
Climate Change and the Ice Ages
In the course of its history, New Zealand has
changed many times in both location and climate
from subtropical to subantarctic. All have had a
great influence on its plants and animals. The climate changes are mediated by tectonic movements
as well as more cosmic events. The current distribu-
5
Natural History
During the last 64 million years there has been a
global trend towards a cooler climate. In the
Paleocene and Eocene the oceans were sluggish
and Antarctica had no ice cap. During the
Oligocene the movement of Australia away from
Antarctica and the opening of the Drake Passage
at the bottom of South America allowed the formation of a cold circumpolar current around
Antarctica. This thermally isolated Antarctica,
allowing an ice cap to form. There was a warming
trend in the late Oligocene-Middle Miocene.
The drop in temperature at the end of the Miocene
is due to the isolation and evaporation of the
Mediterranean Sea. This event decreased the salinity of the oceans, allowing them to freeze at higher
temperatures. The polar ice cap increased in size.
The uplift of the Himalayas drove drier winds over
Northern Africa, and affected rainfall in Asia.
The ice age climate had a large impact on New
Zealand’s flora. This included the expansion of
grasslands in both islands and the growth of alpine
Three million years ago, North and South America shrubs and herbs at much lower elevations than
joined, terminating warm currents around the today.
equator and promoting the warm Gulf Stream in
the North Atlantic. The Gulf Stream is responsible WHAT ARE FOSSILS?
for snowfall on the North Pole, creating the Most fossils are the preserved hard parts of plants
Northern Hemisphere Ice Cap.
or animals, such as wood, shells, bones and teeth.
Less common are the traces of soft parts like leaves
A Touch of the Tropics
and soft tissues. Some fossils show where an animal
25–14 million years ago warm currents from trop- has been, such as footprints and worm trails. Fossils
ical seas washed New Zealand shores and the cli- are found in sedimentary rocks in many parts of
mate was subtropical. Coconuts, corals and cone New Zealand, from sea level to mountain tops.
shells flourished. Warmth-loving plants established.
Some died out later when the climate cooled
again, others adapted and stayed.
The Ice Ages
Earth’s climate has swung between warm and cold
about 50 times in the last 2.6 million years. During
particularly cold periods called Ice Ages or
Glaciations, ice sheets grew on the continents causing sea levels to drop up to 120 m. The frequency
and regularity of the oscillations tell us that it is
changes in Earth’s orbit that controls the amount of
heat reaching Earth’s surface.
2
4
The hard parts
may be buried by
soil, mud, or
sand, which protects them from
further decay or
damage.
Forces deep within the earth may
fold or tilt the
rock and push
some of them up
to form land and
mountains.
1
3
5
When an animal or
plant dies its soft
parts are usually
eaten by scavengers or decay
rapidly.
Many layers of
sediment may
accumulate on
top. Eventually,
they harden into
rock.
We find fossils in
cliffs and road cuttings where natural
erosion or bulldozers
have exposed layers
of rock.
Auckland Museum
6
Animal and plant remains may be preserved as Examples of Fossils found in New Zealand:
fossils in a number of ways:
Giant Ammonite — Ammonites are extinct shellbearing squid, the closest living relative of which is
Shells and skeletons — The most common fossils are the Pearl Nautilus. The cast on display is of the
an animal’s hard skeletal parts composed of bone largest Jurassic ammonite fossil ever found. It was
or shell. These can remain virtually unchanged in uncovered near Kawhia Harbour. Ammonites
the rock.
became extinct at the same time as dinosaurs. This
ammonite is 145 million years old.
Mummification — When both the hard and soft
parts of an animal is preserved, it is called mum- Belemnites — Belemnites were related to the
mification. Some examples are the mummified ancestors of todays squid. Only the hard bullet-like
remains of moa in caves, the freezing of
tail skeletons remain. Belemnites became extinct
mammoths in ice, or the complete
at the same time as dinosaurs.
preservation of insects in gum.
Trilobites — Trilobites resembled large
Petrification — Dissolved minerals
sea lice. They were the first animals to
that seep slowly through rock
develop hard parts that could be fosoften add to or replace the origsilised and were found worldwide.
inal fossil. This gradual process
They have three parts to their body
often increases the fossil’s weight
hence the name. Fossil trilobites found
and hardness and literally turns it
in the Cobb Valley of Nelson are New
to stone.
Zealand’s oldest fossils, at 530 million
years old.
Moulds and Casts — After a shell has
been buried and the surrounding sediMany other fossils including those of plants
ments hardened into rock, water may creep
and dinosaurs can also be viewed in the exhibition.
through the rock and dissolve the shell. This leaves
a cavity, with the same shape and markings as the NEW ZEALANDS DINOSAURS,
original shell — a natural mould.
PTEROSAURS AND MARINE REPTILES
If a fossil shell was hollow inside it may have filled The Age of Reptiles is known as the Mesozoic era,
with mud and sand during burial. If the shell dis- which consists of the Triassic, Jurassic and
solves, a hardened internal cast of the shell is also Cretaceous periods. At this time, New Zealand was
left as a fossil.
closer to the South Pole. It is uncertain how the
dinosaurs adapted to the cold winters with zero
Carbonisation — turned to soot — Where buried daylight hours, but it is now known that some of
plants and animals decayed in places without oxy- these dinosaurs must have been warm-blooded.
gen, they left a thin flattened fossil behind. These
fossils are rich in carbon and have a black colour. No complete dinosaur skeletons have been found in
New Zealand and the fragments found have not
Trace fossils — leaving tracks — A fossil may also been sufficient to classify as new species or species
be the preserved track, burrow, footprint or even found elsewhere. The first dinosaur bone was disexcrement of a passing animal. Burrow shape and covered by Joan Wiffen in the Mangahouanga
size can often be used to identify the animal that Valley (Hawkes Bay), and was the tail bone of a
once lived in it.
theropod dinosaur. Other dinosaurs fossils indicate
the existence of agile ornithopod dinosaurs and
large fourfooted sauropods.
7
Natural History
Theropod Dinosaurs
Theropods were agile predators that walked
upright on strong hind legs, had short front legs
and large heads with sharp teeth. Tyrannosaurus
and Allosaurus were theropods. The cast on display
is of Cryolophosaurus, an Antarctic dinosaur.
One small species of theropods evolved into the
first birds around 150 million years ago.
Sauropod Dinosaurs
Sauropods were large four footed dinosaurs with
long necks and tails. They were herbivores which
probably lived in herds. A fragment of rib bone
has been found in New Zealand.
Ornithopod Dinosaurs
Ornithopod dinosaurs were bird-hipped
dinosaurs which were herbivorous and
walked exclusively on their back legs. Part
of a pelvis has been found in New Zealand.
Pterosaurs
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, not dinosaurs. They
had bat-like wings formed by a membrane of skin,
although only the fourth finger was elongated to
support the wing whereas all four fingers in bats
are elongated. Two small bones have been found
in New Zealand.
Marine Reptiles Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs and Icthyosaurs
Mosasaurs were giant marine lizards similar to
Komodo dragons. At least five species were known
in New Zealand. Mosasaurs were predators that
grew as long as 12 metres.
Plesiosaurs were predators with small heads, sharp
teeth and limbs which were paddle-shaped. Some
grew to 13metres long. Elasmosaurs were longnecked forms, while pliosaurs were short-necked
forms. The plesiosaur fossil on display was
removed recently from the Kaikoura region.
Ichthyosaurs were fast-swimming marine predators
like dolphins, although dolphins are mammals. They
probably fed on squid-like belemnites.
NEW ZEALAND’S ORIGINAL INHABITANTS
Despite the 80 million years since New Zealand
split from Gondwana, many modern descendants
of Gondwanan animals live on in groups including:
earthworms, frogs lizards, insects, spiders and
tuatara.
Tuatara are
sometimes called
“living fossils” because
they have survived virtually unchanged for
200 million years.
While
they look
like lizards,
they are not
and are in fact a
remnant of a group
of reptiles which
lived during the
dinosaur
age.
Tuatara are carnivorous and their diet
consists
of
earthwor ms,
beetles,
lizards, frogs, wetas, injured or juvenile birds and sometimes even their own young.
They are nocturnal. Tuatara have primitive teeth
which are essentially part of the jaw rather than
separate. Their young have a vestigial “third eye’which covers over after six months of life. Its purpose is unknown. Tuatara may live for over 100
years.
Auckland Museum
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Native frogs of New Zealand, such as Archey’s
frog and Hamilton’s frog, have their own family
Leiopelmatidae. Frogs cannot cross sea barriers so
the ancestors of our frogs must have been present
when New Zealand separated from Gondwana.
Hochstetter’s frog
Leiopelma hochstetteri
Weta have a lifestyle similar to mice. They are nocturnal and feed on a diet of leaves and fruit supplemented by carrion insects and other small animals. Weta habitats range from alpine scree to
city gardens. Weta are harmless.
New Zealand is home to 100 species of these
flightless crickets. A cool windy climate and an
absence of predators has resulted in loss of flight
and an increase in size in many New Zealand
insects. Giant wetas are the largest insect in New
Zealand and can weigh up to 70 g, about the
same weight as a thrush. The Giant weta has
changed little from its ancestors which evolved during the mesozoic era.
Giant weta
Deinacrida heteracantha
Peripatus
Peripatus novaezelandiae
Kauri snail
Pupu rangi
Paryphanta busbyi
9
Natural History
Peripatus or velvet worms may be the “missing link”
between earthworms and arthropods. They have
characteristics of both annelid worms and insects
and date back to around 500 million years ago.
As they would have been unable to make a sea
crossing, Peripatus ancestors must have spread
before Gondwana split. They live in damp conditions and dessicate quickly in dry habitats.
Peripatus eat insects and other small invertebrates.
Land snails The family to which Paryphanta (Kauri
snail) and Powelliphanta belong is the oldest family of land snails, originating 300 million years
ago.
A LAND OF BIRDS
A visitor to New Zealand soon after separation
from Gondwana would have been impressed by
the range of birds. Over the next million years,
these original and early immigrants across the
infant Tasman Sea evolved in genetic isolation into
uniquely New Zealand families.
Ratite Skeleton.
Non-Ratite Skeleton.
Ratites
Ratites are flightless birds with powerful legs for
running and reduced wings. Their breast bone
lacks a keel attachment for flight muscles. They
have no flight feathers and have a distinctive
arrangement of palate bones in the skull. The ratite
group includes moa, kiwi, the extinct elephant bird
of Madagascar, South American rhea, African
ostrich, Australian emu and cassowary. Moa share
a common ancestor with ratites from other parts of
the world. The ancestors were carried with the land
as Gondwana broke up. Eleven species of moa
once lived in New Zealand. Different moa species
had different lifestyles and habits. We know this
by their different shaped beaks and heads. The
Dinornis group ate twigs, Euryapteryx ate berries
and succulent leaves, while Pachyornis ate the
tough local flax. The giant moa was the tallest bird
known, reaching up to 3 metres. Moa swallowed
gizzard stones to help grind up plant food. Moa
died out in New Zealand due to extensive hunting
and clearing of forest after the arrival of the first
people in New Zealand.
Kiwi are more closely related to Australian emu
than to moa, according to DNA evidence. This suggests that rather than being a Gondwanan original, the ancestor flew here around 40 million years
ago. As it lost its ability to fly, it took on mammallike characteristics such as fur-like feathers, a
metabolism and body temperature lower than most
birds, whiskers and a nocturnal lifestyle. Kiwis feed
at night on insects and grubs, sleeping in burrows
(which they dig) in the daytime. Kiwis are the only
birds to have nostrils at the tip of their beaks. They
have a very good sense of smell and weak eyesight. The female lays an egg that weighs one fifth
of its body weight -the largest egg to body ratio
among birds.
Cassowary
Elephant bird
Ostrich
Emu
Kiwi
Rhea
Moa
Global Ratite distribution.
Auckland Museum
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Wattle Birds
The wattle bird family is named after the distinctive coloured wattle feathers around the beak.
They have short wings and are weak fliers, yet are
tree dwellers with powerful legs, claws and beaks.
The family includes North and South (extinct) Island
kokako, huia and North and South Island saddlebacks.
Recent Bird Losses
Many distinctive bird species, many flightless, are
now extinct. Humans are responsible for this extinction. Evidence of their existence comes from bones
found in swamps, caves and Maori kitchen middens. Extinct species include, amongst many others,
South Island adzebill , laughing owl, New Zealand
goose, piopio (thrush) and huia.
Wrens
New Zealand wrens are small, short-tailed insecteaters, many of which were flightless or weak
fliers. A number of wren species are extinct. The
rifleman is the smallest New Zealand bird and is
found in bush throughout New Zealand. The bush
wren is New Zealand’s most recent extinction, last
seen in 1972.
Flightless, Drab and Giant Birds
Many New Zealand birds are flightless, large, dullcoloured and slow breeding, a result of millions of
years of evolution in the absence of predators.
Where two or more arrivals of similar colonising
birds have occurred, descendants of the earlier
arrival show more of these characteristics and are
more vulnerable to extinction.
Kakapo are the heaviest and flightless parrots in
the world. They are nocturnal, ground-dwelling
birds.
Huia
Heteralocha acutirostris
Takahe and pukeko descended from an earlier
swamp hen. Takahe are flightless and heavier than
the more recent pukeko. Pukeko fly but are reluctant to do so.
Rifleman
Titipounamu
Acanthisitta chloris
Kokako
Callaeas cinerea
Weka and banded rail are both flightless. Weka
evolved from an earlier Australian rail, while the
banded rail is similar to current rail species.
Robins and tomtits are both small insect-feeders.
Robins arrived 5–10 million years ago and are
drab weak fliers. Tomtits arrived around 2 million
years ago. They fly from ground to perch to catch
food.
Black and pied stilts. The black stilt probably originated from an ancestral pied stilt established here
millions of years ago. Black stilts are in danger of
hybridising out of existence. The New Zealand
pied stilt sub-species is similar to that found in
Australia and South-East Asia today.
Kakapo
Strigops habroptilus
11
Natural History
MAMMALS
Ground-dwelling mammals never made it to New
Zealand naturally, but bats ,which fly, did make
the journey. New Zealand has been home to 3
species of bat, one of which is now extinct.
The ancestors of whales and dolphins were actually hoofed animals. Around 50 million years ago
these creatures took up a marine existence, developing fins instead of legs. There are three groups
of whales including the primitive extinct form
called archaeocetes (28 million year old fossils
The lesser short-tailed bat is unique to New have been found in New Zealand) toothed whales
Zealand and belongs to its own family. Its ances- (odontocetes) and baleen whales (mysticetes).
tors may have arrived 35 million years ago. It flies
well but also crawls mouse-like on the ground with Shark evolution accelerated around 50 million
its wings folded up.
years ago. Carcharodon found in New Zealand
waters was a giant, with a mouth that could swalThe long-tailed bat has a longer tail and shorter low a small car!
ears. It probably arrived in the last 2 million years
and had relatives in Australia.
PLANTS IN ISOLATION
Eight main groups of plants have evolved on earth,
most of which have been in New Zealand at some
time. These groups are algae, bryophytes (mosses
and liverworts), psilophytes, club mosses, horsetails,
ferns, gymnosperms (conifers, ginkgoes, cycads)
and angiosperms (flowering
Long-tailed bat
Pekapeka
plants). New Zealand
Chalinolobus tuberculatus
has many plants with
links to Gondwana
including algae,
sphagnum moss,
silver
tree
Short-tailed bat
fern,
kauri
Pekapeka
Mustacina tuberculata
and rimu and
LIFE IN THE WATER
primitive
While flightless birds evolved on land, extinction of flowering
large marine reptiles allowed new forms of life to p l a n t s
evolve in the sea. Penguins and whales appeared, such as
and sharks, which already existed, developed rap- rewareidly.
wa and horopito.
However, not all
Around 50 million years ago, a group of diving plants
are
birds took to the sea. Their wings became flippers G o n d w a n a n
and they “flew” under water. So the penguin originals. Grasses,
evolved. Fossils of around 14 extinct New Zealand daisies and orchids
penguin species have been found in rock dated didn’t evolve until
between 40–5 million years old. The world’s after New Zealand’s
largest penguin lived in New Zealand 35 million isolation.
years ago.
Auckland Museum
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MIGRANT ANIMALS
Several bird species, including silver eye, welcome
swallows and spur-winged plover have arrived in
New Zealand over the last 150 years. Many
insects and spiders have also arrived from
Australia. The differences between these and New
Zealand species are often small, but indicate that
the New Zealand forms have been here perhaps
since the ice ages. Since human arrival, more
insects have arrived. Many of these can survive on
plants which humans have also brought eg monarch
butterflies on swan plants.
MIGRANT PLANTS
Plant species arrive naturally on wind, tide and
attached to birds, or through human introduction.
Manuka seeds are tiny and blow in the wind, New
Zealand flax seeds have a wing like structure and
are easily airborne. Mangrove seeds are buoyant
and float well in water. Kowhai are found in Chile
and in the South Atlantic Ocean. It takes about 3
years for seed to drift from South America to New
Zealand. Parapara seeds are sticky and cling to
birds, in fact many small birds remain trapped in
seeds still on the tree and die there.
Kowhai distribution. Kowhai is also found in Chile and Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.
13
Natural History
TEACHER BACKGROUND
LANDS GALLERY
ew Zealand’s plant and animal diversity can be explored by taking a topographical
journey from the alpine zone to a coastal wetland. In all of these habitats adaptation
of organisms to their surrounding environment is observable, as is the interaction between
the flora and fauna living alongside each other.
N
ALPINE ZONES
Southern Alps
Situated on the “Pacific Ring of Fire" — a geological belt of earthquake and volcanic activity —
New Zealand is one of the world’s most active
mountain building regions. The Pacific and IndianAustralian plates slide against each other, vigorously uplifting the land. The South Island contains
the most extensive alpine areas. The Southern Alps
form the island’s backbone. The Alps can grow as
much as two centimeters per year.
The Alpine zone is rich in biological diversity,
despite conditions which can include intense cold,
heat, winds and dryness. Almost half of all native
plants are found here. Just above the bush line are
waist-high tussocks and small leafed shrubs. As you
begin to go higher the vegetation gets smaller, a
response to the harsh conditions of mountain life.
Delicate flowering gentian, celmisia and ourisia
are sheltered by low tussock. The world’s largest
buttercup, the Mount Cook lily, can also be found in
showy clusters.
Higher still, buttercups, daisies and edelweiss
crouch in between boulders. The vegetable sheep,
a type of cushion plant hugs the ground, the leafy
shoots are so dense you can sit on the plants without damaging them.
New Zealand’s alpine habitats are relatively
young, only coming into existence two to three million years ago. This is a short period for so many
specialist plants to have evolved from lowland
ancestors. Ninety five per cent of New Zealand’s
mountain flora is endemic (found nowhere else in
the world).
The alpine weta also evolved from lowland ances-
tors. It is the largest insect of the alpine zone and
can survive being completely frozen. Many alpine
flowers depend on the butterflies, moths and flies
for pollination. Moths fly during the day to take
advantage of the warmer conditions. Also living in
the alpine vegetation are cicadas, beetles, weevils
and grasshoppers.
The world’s only alpine parrot, the kea, feeds on
nutrient rich snowberries to store fat for the cold
winter ahead. Kea retreat below the bushline to
nest. Kea chicks are often hatched in the depths of
winter, needing a good food supply.
The rock wren is a permanent resident of the
alpine and subalpine zones. In winter they may forage among rocks insulated by a blanket of snow. It
feeds on spiders, beetles, flies and other insects.
Central Plateau
The alpine landscapes found in the North Island
are geologically young and are formed by volcanic activity, which still continues today e.g.
Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe. In Tongariro National
Park craters, vents, thermal pools and lava flows
are easily observed. The flora and fauna is not as
diverse as that found in the Southern Alps not having had the time to adapt to specific habitats and
periodically being obliterated by volcanic eruptions. Few native birds are found in the North
Island alpine zone. Pipit, blue duck and the New
Zealand falcon are among the natives present.
Some introduced species are common e.g. hedge
sparrow.
The vegetation includes a few species of tussock,
pygmy broom, a cotton daisy, whipcord hebe and
pimelea mat. There are also fewer exclusively
alpine insects and many which live here are also
Auckland Museum
14
Grasshopper
Mawhitiwhiti
Paprides nitidus
Cicada
Tatarakihi
Melampsalta cingulata
New Zealand Pipit
Pihoihoi
Anthus novaseelandiae
Koromiko
Hebe tetragona
Cave Weta.
Weta taipo
Gymnoplectron acanthocera
Natural History
CAVES
The most common type of cave in New Zealand is
the limestone cave. Other types which exist in New
Zealand are marble, lava, sandstone and igneous
rock caves. Limestone is formed when an enormous
number of shells and skeletons of small marine
creatures are cemented and compacted together
to form rock.
Rain becomes acidic by leaching through organic
leaf litter, taking on carbon dioxide to form a mild
solution of carbonic acid. When it penetrates
cracks in limestone it dissolves the rock, producing
caves. Water continues to drip, creating stalactites,
stalagmites and other cave formations. Specialised
organisms that are found in caves include the cave
beetle that has long antennae and long sensory
hairs to compensate for its loss of sight.
The harvestman, often confused with a spider, is a
predator foraging on the floor of the cave preying
on adult glowworms. The glowworm, New
Zealand’s most famous fly, casts a luminous glow
attracting small insects. The insects become
trapped in sticky threads hanging like fishing lines
from the top of the cave. Once the victim is
trapped, the glowworm pulls in the line and consumes its catch. Emerging from a pupa into brief
adulthood, the female continues to emit a light,
which attracts the male to mate.
Glow worm
Puratoke
Arachnocampa luminosa
15
found at lower altitudes e.g. the one species of
grasshopper (compared with the 12 found exclusively in the South Island Alpine zone).
There are thought to be 60 different species of
cave weta, characterised by long antennae, long
legs and non-aggression. Unlike other weta, they
neither make sounds with their legs nor can they
hear. During the day they scavenge dead animals
on the floor of the cave, at night they venture out
to forage on plants and fungi.
FOREST — THE CHILDREN OF TANE
Beech Forest
Today beech forest makes up almost 45% of the
total area of native forest in New Zealand. New
Zealand has four species of beech, red
(Nothofagus fusca), hard (N. truncata), black (N.
solandri) and silver (N. menziesii). Mountain beech
(N. solandri var. cliffortioides) is a form of the
black beech.
Prolific flowering is usually followed by prolific
seed production. The seed set can be reduced by
a frost just after the flowers are open, wet or
humid weather reducing pollen dispersal. Good
flowering years are often 3–5 years apart.
Birds or other animals do not spread beech seed.
Wind doesn’t carry it far and it doesn’t survive in
the ocean. However beech is widely distributed
throughout the Southern Hemisphere, being found
in New Zealand, South America, Tasmania,
Australia, New Caledonia and New Guinea. Not
only do the trees in the various locations look alike
but they also share the same parasitic fungi, mosses and flightless sucking bugs inhabiting their bark.
The distribution of beech (Nothofagus) provides
excellent evidence for the theory of continental
drift and the super continent Gondwana because
they can only disperse across land.
The mistletoe Peraxilla tetrapetala is found on
some species of beech. It is a semi-parasitic plant
relying on the host tree for water and nutrients,
also being able to photosynthesize like other
plants because it possesses leaves. The mistletoe
has a symbiotic relationship with honey-eaters such
as tui and bellbirds, providing the nectar while
they in turn pollinate the flowers.
Mixed Conifer and Broadleaf Forests
Mixed conifer and broadleaf forests dominate the
lowland regions of New Zealand. These forests are
characterised by a large variety of species. Over
1500 flowering plant species, ferns and conifers
compete for light and space. A typical North Island
conifer broadleaf forest has five layers. The emergent layer is dominated by podocarps e.g. rimu,
kahikatea, totara, and matai. Podocarps belong to
a very old family of conifers, the Podocarpaceae,
which probably originated in Gondwana. They can
live from 500–1100 years. Their tall crowns pierce
through a main canopy of broad-leaved flowering
trees. These include towai, tawa, pohutakawa,
rata, vines, epiphytes, kohekohe, puriri, karaka
and rewarewa, which grow more rapidly than
conifers and are shorter lived. A variety of endemic evergreen species grow in the subcanopy including tarata, the nikau palm, pigeonwood, fivefinger,
lancewood, kotukutuku and tree ferns.
present day
fossil distribution of Nothofagus
World distribution of southern beech.
Auckland Museum
16
Black beech
Nothofagus solandri
Hard beech
Nothofagus truncata
Mountain beech
Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortiodes
Silver beech
Nothofagus menziesii
Red beech
Nothofagus fusca
Mistletoe
Peraxilla tetrapetala
Totara
Podocarpus totara
Rimu
Red pine
Dacrydium cupressinum
Kahikatea
White pine
Dacrycarpus dacrydioides
Matai
black pine
Prumnopitys taxifolia
Towai
Weinmannia silvicola
Northern rata
Metrosideros robusta
17
Natural History
Rewarewa
Knightia excelsa
Puriri
Vitex lucens
At ground level is a twilight world of mosses, ferns,
fungi, creeping herbs and forest floor orchids.
Nikau palm
Rhopalostylis sapida
Nikau Palm
The nikau palm is a tree of tropical origins and was
the only palm in the country to survive the Ice Ages.
It has an important relationship with the kereru
(wood pigeon), providing succulent fruit for its
nourishment and in turn having its seed distributed
throughout the forest. Other fleshy fruit producing
trees also relying on birds for dispersal of seed
include the kohekohe, titoki, taraire, puriri, miro,
tawa, karaka, tawapou.
Kauri
The kauri belongs to the Acaucariaceae family of
conifers, which also includes the Norfolk pine (from
Norfolk Island), and the monkey-puzzle tree (found
in South America). The family evolved in
Gondwana and includes some of the most impressive species of trees in the world. Kauri is found in
forests in Northland and south to near Raglan and
Tauranga where it grows among a variety of hard- Divaricating shrubs
woods and podocarps.
Many unrelated New Zealand shrubs have interlacing or divaricating branches. It has been sugKauri can seal injuries, fight off diseases and bor- gested that this growth form has evolved as a
ing insects by exuding a sticky gum. The gum is defence mechanism for plants in response to the
mainly sugar and water which hardens over time. It pressures of moa browsing. Others argue it is a
was commercially valuable in the nineteenth and response to a harsh climate. The tough interlaced
early twentieth centuries.
outer branches protect the growing tips and seeds,
which are concentrated in the interior of the plant,
Over fifty-three species of higher plants grow in away from moa.
kauri branches. “Perchers" include ferns, orchids,
lilies, shrubs, and tree saplings. They grow in high Some examples of divaricating shrubs include
light at upper forest levels without having grown shrubby pohuehue, matagouri, several pittosporum,
their own tree trunk. Vines e.g. kiekie and rata saltmarsh ribbonwood, weeping mapou, korokio,
attach by roots produced from their stems, while prostrate kowhai, coastal tree daisy.
the New Zealand passionfruit attaches by tendrils.
Auckland Museum
18
Lemonwood
Tarata
Pittosporum eugenioides
Kauri
Agathis australis
Pigeonwood
Porokaiwhiri
Hedycarya arborea
Matagouri
Discaria toumatou
Five-finger
Whauwhaupaku
Psuedopanax arboreus
Weeping mapou
Myrsine divaricata
Lancewood
Horoeka
Psuedopanax crassifolius
Bellbird
Korimako
Anthornis melanura
19
Natural History
Parakeet
Kakariki
Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae
Most of New Zealand’s divaricating plants remain
as shrubs, but in nine cases, they grow into an adult
which is a large-leaved tree. This is a remarkable
change in branching pattern and foliage for the
shrub to more “normal" adult e.g. matai, pokaka.
Lancewood also show a distinct juvenile and adult
stage, argued by some to be associated with
defence against moa browsing. This phenomenon is
called heteroblastism.
Forest Birds
The forest supplies birds with an abundance of
food and with shelter. The thriving invertebrate
community is the mainstay for insect eating birds
e.g. robin, tomtit, fantail, grey warbler and rifleman. The large New Zealand pigeon or kereru is
the only specialised fruit eater, feeding on an
extensive range of native trees and shrubs e.g.
tawa, miro, nikau, supplejack, pigeonwood. Other
forest birds are omnivorous, feeding on a mixed
diet of nectar, fruit and insects, which they vary
according to the season. The rare kokako, bellbird
and tui are all gifted song birds. The yellowcrowned and red-crowned parkeets are fruit and
leaf eaters. Other indigenous parrots, kaka and
the large kakapo are both omnivorous, scavenging
for insects and grubs on the forest floor as well as
sampling nuts, fruit and nectar in the canopy. Moths
form a major part of the diet of the morepork
(ruru) which is New Zealand’s only surviving native
owl. It also feeds on weta, beetles, spiders, some
lizards, rodents and small birds.
Forest floor
Flat or fungus bugs feed by sucking fungi and are
very common under the bark of decaying logs.
Dead trunks and branches also support some termites. Native cockroaches spend the day hidden
under stones, logs and loose bark, emerging at
night to feed on anything they can find. Native
earwigs can also be found in the leaf litter. Some
insects only spend their larval stages on the forest
floor e.g. flies, cicada and stag beetles.
Mites are present in the litter in enormous numbers,
either consuming the litter in vast quantities or
preying on small invertebrates. Tunnel-web spiders,
the trapdoor spiders and the brown vagrant spider
are all found on the forest floor, feeding on the
wide variety of invertebrates.
Most of the snails that live on the forest floor are
very small. They dwell in the litter, under rotting
logs and loose bark, feeding on a variety of vegetable matter. The large snails belong to an
ancient and primitive family of big land snails,
Paryphantidae e.g. the kauri snail (7.9 cm in diameter). They are carnivores with voracious appetites
for worms, slugs and other snails. New Zealand’s
only native amphibians are the most primitive living frogs known, Leiopelma species. Their peculiarities include, lack of eardrums and vocal sacs and
the retention of tail wagging muscles in adults.
They not go through a water-living tadpole stage.
A tiny miniature adult frog emerges from the gelatBlack cockroach
Papata
Platyzosteria
Wet-wood termite
Stolotermes ruficeps
Morepork
Ruru
Ninox novaeseelandiae
Kaka
Nestor meridionalis
Trapdoor spider
Cantuaria gilliesi
Auckland Museum
20
inous capsule that was its egg — its tail is subsequently absorbed. They do require damp conditions, being found under
stones or rotting
logs.
They
become active at
night catching
small inverCommon skink
tebrates.
There are three species of
Leiopelma: Hochstetter’s frog, and
Archey’s frog of the northern North
Island, and Hamilton’s frog on Stephens
and Maud Islands. Lizards living in the forest
are either geckos or skinks e.g. Pacific gecko,
green tree gecko, copper skink and the forest
gecko. The Forest gecko is camouflaged against
moss and tree bark, if alarmed it flattens its body
and freezes. It is nocturnal, eating small invertebrates especially moths.
Mosses and liverworts are primitive land plants, not
fully adapted to life on land. New Zealand has
some 1100 species of bryophytes, which grow in
mats and tufts on the forest floor, on fallen trunks
and on living trees.
Plant communities change as water level decreases. Sedges give way to raupo, then to New
Zealand flax and lastly to scrub containing cabbage trees and manuka.
New Zealand has a wide and varied sedge flora.
Sedges are generally grass-like with narrow
leaves. Raupo is a versatile plant, the lower parts
of the plant normally always under water. They
grow together in large numbers, often forming
dense stands. During the height of summer, a
sausage shaped seed head is formed. Maori used
raupo as a food, a medicine, for thatching and to
make canoes. The most valued part of the plant
was the pollen, which was worked into sweet
bread.
Swamp millet is a slender grass present in wetland
vegetation, while toetoe is a large tussock grass
with drooping flower heads, which can also grow
away from water.
Invertebrates associated with wetlands include
dragonflies and damselflies. These predatory
insects breed in still waters of wetlands and ponds
e.g. lancer dragonfly, sentry dragonfly, gossamer
damselfly and blue damselfly.
Dactylanthus (woodrose) is New Zealand’s only
completely parasitic plant. It lacks green tissue, The nurseryweb spider is common around swamps
growing underground, attaching itself to tree roots and bush edges. It is a close relative of water spiand absorbing their nutrients. In autumn its scented
ders and has an enclosed
flowers open and attract short-tailed bats. The
web which protects the
bats feed on the copious nectar and accidentally
young spiders.
pollinate the flowers. No other bats are known to
pollinate ground flowers.
The cabbage tree
moth is per4. WETLANDS
fectly camWetlands form at the indistinct and ever-changing
o u f l a ge d
boundary between water and land, covering a
against the
number of often quite separate habitats e.g. bogs,
leaves of
swamps, marshes and peatlands.
cabbage
t r e e s .
Wetlands are among the most threatened habitats
Caterpillars
Nurseryweb spider
in the world; in New Zealand ninety per cent have
chew young
Polomedes minor
been destroyed since the arrival of humans. Vital
leaves leaving
for wildlife they are easily damaged by pollution,
distinctive notched
drainage or reclamation.
edges.
21
Natural History
Cabbage tree moth
Epiphryne verriculata
Dragonfly
Kapawai
Procordulia smithii
Damselfly
Tiemiemi
Austrolestes colensonis
Pukeko
Porphyrio porphyrio
Manuka
Red tea tree
Leptospermum scoparium
Cabbage tree
Ti
Cordyline australis
Pied shag
Karuhiruhi
Phalacrocorax varius
White heron
Kotuku
Egretta alba
Paradise duck
Putangitangi
Tadorna variegata
Before European settlement many birds lived in
New Zealand’s vast wetland habitats. Most
wetland birds are adapted for life in wet conditions with specialised beaks and feet.
Dabbling ducks have filter feeding bills e.g.
paradise shelduck, grey duck, grey teal, brown
teal.
Australasian bittern
Matuku
Botaurus stellaris
Reef heron
Matuku moana
Egretta sacra
The scaup, New Zealand’s only diving duck,
probes the wetland floor for freshwater snails.
Herons, bitterns and black shags have fish-seizing bills. Pukeko have long toes to help them
walk on swampy ground. The fernbird is a
perching bird, feeding mainly on insects.
Auckland Museum
22
SPECIES PROFILE: TUI, PARSON BIRD,
Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae
SPECIES PROFILE: KAKAPO, OWL-PARROT,
Strigops habroptilus
• Size : 30 cm
• Distribution : New
Zealand only, found
throughout
forests and towns in the
North, South and
Stewart Islands and
many offshore
islands.
• Breeding : tui
establish their territories in SeptemberOctober and sing from
high perches, especially in the morning and
late afternoon. The female alone builds the nest and incubates the eggs. Both parents feed the young.
• Behaviour : tui are usually solitary. They are the dominant
honeyeater in New Zealand and are aggressive towards
other birds near the nest or a prominent food source. The
song dialect varies in each district.
• Feeding : Preferred diet is nectar, supplemented with fruit
and invertebrates. Nectar sources include kowhai, flax,
pohutakawa, fuchsia and rewarewa. They feed nestlings at
first on small insects and nectar, and later also on berries and
larger insects, spiders and moths.
• The tufts of white feathers around the tui’s neck gave rise to
its early name “the parson bird”.
• Larger and more assertive than most native birds, the tui has
managed to maintain its numbers and even thrive, in a
changed environment.
• The tui is a skillful mimic, imitating the sound of a morepork,
blackbird and even a cat.
• Size: 63 cm, 3.5 kg
• Distribution : New
Zealand only. Found
throughout
the
North, South and
Stewart Islands
before and during
early Maori times.
The population is now
in serious decline.
The
remaining
kakapo have been
transferred to cat and
mustelid free Little
Barrier, Codfish and
Maud Islands.
• Kakapo is one of the most endangered birds in the world.
• Breeding : sucessful breeding requires an abundant supply
of high quality food throughout the 8 month breeding cycle.
Breeding takes place every 3–5 years, during a “mast”
(heavy fruiting) year.
• Kakapo are unique among New Zealand birds and parrots
in having an arena mating system. Males establish a miniature display territory and then call (or boom) to the females
to mate. Females travel several kilometres to briefly visit the
displaying males to mate. Males take no part tending or
defending the nest.
• Behaviour : Solitary. Flightless. An adept tree climber and a
free ranger.
• Feeding : Herbivorous. Kakapo eat a wide variety of fruits,
seeds, leaves, stems and roots. The stout beak is used for
grubbing and grinding.
• Humans, dogs, cats, stoats and rats have all preyed on the
kakapo. Deer and possums have eaten its favoured foods.
Being a ground nester it proved easy prey for such predators.
SPECIES PROFILE: KERERU, NEW ZEALAND
PIGEON, Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae
• Size : 51 cm
• Distribution : They are
found throughout the North,
South and Stewart
Islands and on many
forested offshore
islands. They favour
native lowland
forests dominated by
podocarps,
tawa, taraire and
puriri.
• The timing of
breeding is closely
linked to certain
fruits being avalilable ;
they can breed early or
late, depending on fruiting but
some or all pairs fail to breed in years when fruit is in poor
supply.
• They play a key ecological role in the regeneration of
native forests by dispersing the seeds of large-fruited trees
and shrubs, most of which (e.g. miro, tawa, taraire, puriri and
karaka) are too large to be dispersed by other birds.
• Feeding: Herbivorous, fruits are preferred and in some
parts of the country are the sole diet. When fruits are in short
supply, kereru feed on foliage, especially old leaves of
kowhai, tree lucerne, broom and clover. Flowers of kowhai,
tree lucerne and broom also form an important seasonal part
of their diet.
• In certain areas they are in serious decline, mainly because
of hunting. Conflict occurs between conservationists who want
to preserve the bird and Maori traditionalists who claim their
rights to harvest the pigeon as of old.
• Possums compete for food and destroy nests.
• Kereru lay only one egg per clutch.
23
Natural History
SPECIES PROFILE: GLOW-WORM, PURATOKE,
Arachnocampa luminosa
• Found along the
banks of streams and in
other damp places
in the bush, as well as
in caves
• The larva is carnivorous. As soon as
it is hatched, it
begins to construct a
tunnel of mucus
and silk which it suspends on silken
ropes from the cave
ceiling or from another suitable support. It
then spins a large number
of silken lines hanging down
from the tunnel. At regular intervals along a line the larva
places little beadlets of sticky mucus. Midges and other
insects, attracted by the glow-worm’s light, rise up and get
stuck on the beadlets. At once the larva hauls up the line and
eats the victim.
• Its lifecycle is about a year, and during this time it casts a
luminous glow.
• As it transforms from pupa to adult fly, the glow-worm
glows erractically. Emerging into brief adulthood, the female
continues to emit a light which attracts the male to mate.
SPECIES PROFILE:
RANGI,
KAURI SNAIL, PUPUParyphanta busbyi
• Found on the
mainland only north of
Auckland, in the
area where kauri historically
grew.
Has been translocated to Great
Barrier, Poor Knights
and the Hen and
Chickens Islands.
• Large and carnivorous, feeding mainly on
worms.
• Their heavy shells, as large as 75mm across, are firmly
attached to their bodies, enabling the snails to climb vertically. They are also able to travel across several hundred
metres across farmland in a night to reach bush.
• Belongs to an ancient and primitive family of big land
snails. Some species still occur in South Africa, Australia and
the South-west Pacific, the greatest variety being found in
New Zealand.
• It does not actually live in kauri but prefers astelias, bushy
undergrowth and scrub.
• Lays large, white eggs with limey shells in depressions in the
ground under leaf mould where the heat from decaying compost hatches them out.
SPECIES PROFILE: LARGE DRAGONFLY,
KAPOKAPOWAI, Uropetala carovei
• Dragonflies have
a very long, narrow
abdomen, antennae reduced to tiny
threads, and two
pairs of large, veined,
gauzy
wings
which glitter in sunlight.
• They are predators, taking flying
insects on the
wing. Their huge compound eyes, linked
by nerves to the flight
muscles, enable them
to locate even very small
prey and immediately to change direction to capture it. The
victim is scooped up by the dragonfly’s thin legs, which are
armed with spines, and taken to the mouth where it is masticated by the strongly toothed mouth parts.
• Dragonflies and their relatives the damselflies have teeth
(hence their family name Odonata, from the Greek for tooth).
• New Zealand has 11 species of dragonflies and six damselflies. Dragonflies are larger and spread their wings when
they are resting, whereas damselflies fold their wings loosely over their body.
• Dragonflies have incomplete metamorphosis. The eggs
hatch into larvae or nymphs which live in fresh water. Nymphs
are voracious feeders, eating insects, tadpoles and even
small fish; in their turn they are the target of predators such
as frogs, birds and trout. After a series of moults the larva
leaves the water, the larval skin splits and the adult emerges.
• The best known native dragonfly is the giant black and
bright yellow “devil’s darning needle” Uropetala carovei.
This large insect has a wing span of 130mm and is found in
boggy seepage areas in forests.
• Dragonflies are the fastest of all insects, capable of cruising at 40 km/hr and increasing their speed in bursts to 58
km/hr. They can also hover and make quick turns up, down or
sideways.
SPECIES PROFILE : NIKAU PALM,
Rhopalostylis
sapida
• The southern
most palm in the world,
the nikau palm
grows from North Cape
down to Banks
Peninsula on the east
coast
and
Greymouth on the west.
Reaching
10
metres in height, it is
New Zealand’s
only palm.
• The nikau’s ripe
berries are an important
source or food for kereru.
• Several parts of the nikau were eaten by Maori: the immature flower; the berries when green; and the “heart” of undeveloped leaves, the cutting out of which unfortunately killed
the tree.
• Nikau leaves were traditionally used to thatch the top and
sides of whare, and for weaving into bags and kete.
• It is slow growing, taking some 30 years before bursting
into flower. The flowers are borne on long spikes protruding
from the stem on the ring scar just below the oldest leaf. The
red berries take three years to ripen.
• The nikau’s stem, up to 10 m tall, is marked with leaf scars
which give it a distinctive appearance.
SPECIES PROFILE: KAURI,
Agathis australis
• The New Zealand kauri
is unrivalled among New
Zealand trees for its
size and grandeur. It can
grow up to 50 m or
more tall, with a massive
straight,
unbranching trunk.
• It is a tree with
an ancient lineage. Its
ancestors were
contemporaries of
the dinosaurs more
than 130 million years
ago. Today, kauri
species exist around the
western Pacific — in the
Philippines,
Borneo,
Malaysia, New Guinea, Vanuatu, Australia, New Caledonia
and Fiji. The family evolved in Gondwana.
• In the forest the kauri plays host to a wide range of plant
and animal life. High up in its crown grow epiphytes, perching plants which are extremely important food sources for
birds. Important animals found in kauri forest include the redcrowned and yellow-crowned parakeets, brown kiwi, pied tit,
kaka and Hochstetter’s and Archey’s frogs. Short-tailed bats
are found in hollow logs on the forest floor.
• Kauri trees normally grow some distant apart, with a
ground cover of kauri grass and the giant, sharp-leaved
ghania. Occasional shrubs and small trees include Kirk’s tree
daisy, hangehange, mingimingi and neinei.
• To Maori, kauri was ranked second only to totara. Its timber
was used for boat building, carving and housing. Kauri gum
was used for fire starting and heating, and as a chewing gum
once it had been soaked in water and mixed with the milk of
puha. The felling of a tree was an important occasion and
was accompained by a ritual.
Auckland Museum
24
25
GENUS PROFILE: FROGS,
Leiopelma archeyi, L. hochstetteri, L. hamiltoni
SPECIES PROFILE: BATS , PEKA PEKA,
Chalinolobus tuberculatus and Mystacina tuberculata.
• New Zealand’s native
frog species are survivors
of
frogs
that
evolved several hundred million years
ago. They are virtually
unchanged
from frogs of around
135 million years
ago.
• All three species
of native frogs are
endangered.
Archey’s frog is found
in Coromandel, and
numbers in the thousands.
Hochstetter’s frog is the most widespread and is found from
East Cape northwards to Whangarei, and is also numbered
in the thousands. Hamilton’s frog is confined to a 600 square
metre patch of scree, called the Frog Bank, on Stephen’s
Island in Cook Strait, and to forests on Maud Island. This population has been described as a separate species but differs
little in form from the Stephens Island population. It is the
rarest of the frog species, numbering around 200.
• These most primitive frogs live in forests under rocks and
stones. They require moisture but not swamps or ponds as
other frogs do.
• All native frogs are earless and croakless — at best they
squeak and pipe softy. Another primitive feature they have
retained is tail-wagging muscles, even though they have no
tail.
• For such small creatures they are relatively long-lived, more
than 23 years in the case of Hamilton’s frog.
• Besides their protective colouring and freezing tactics, the
native frogs may possess a third line of defence against
predators — their unpalatability, derived from glandular
secretions.
• New Zealand’s native frogs do not go through a tadpole
stage like other frogs; instead, adults lay eggs and the young
metamorphose inside the egg sac — their own personal
ponds. After hatching, still with remnant tails, they climb onto
their father’s back and spend the final weeks of development
there.
• New Zealand has two
native land mammals —
the long-tailed bat
(Chalinolobus tuberculatus) and the lesser Short-tailed bat
(Mystacina tuberculata). Each has a
body size of a
person’s thumb and
a wingspan of
300mm.
• Until 1967 there
was a third species,
the greater shorttailed bat. It became
extinct when rats invaded its home.
• The short-tailed bat is the more endangered of the two
species, but new populations are being found as new technology enables scientists to track them down.
• The short-tailed bat is the only bat in the world to forage
on the forest floor. It has several adaptations to assist this
behaviour: robust hind legs with small claws and a way of
neatly furling the delicate outer wing membrane under thicker sections of membrane so the wings can serve as front
limbs. Its unusual hunting habit has also led to its decline, making it an easy target for predators such as cats and rats.
• The long-tailed bat was presumed to have blown over from
Australia 1 million years ago. Today it is widely distributed
in native forests throughout the North and South Islands.
• Both species of bat prefer to roost in old, hollow trees
rather than caves. Fluttering fantail-like in search of insects
along forest marigins, rivers and over lakes, they are often
mistaken for birds or puriri moths.
• Long-tailed bats keep nursery colonies, babies are carried
to the different roosts each night. It is believed both bat
species give birth to just one offspring a year, in December
or January.
• The endangered wood rose (Dactylanthus taylorii) has coevolved with the short-tailed bat and is often pollinated by
it.
• Bats rely on echolocation to detect prey and to navigate
their way through forests in the dark. Bats emit high-frequency sounds, usually through their mouths, in rapid pulses at frequencies too high for the human ear to pick up.
• During winter and sometimes during cool periods in summer
New Zealand bats go into hibernation.
• They are both nocturnal.
• They feed predominately on insects and sometimes berries
and nectar.
Natural History
TEACHER BACKGROUND
OCEANS GALLERY
ew Zealand’s maritime environment extends from sub Tropical to sub Antarctic zones.
The coastline is a diverse habitat including areas such as dunes, cliffs, muddy estuaries,
ocean beaches, rocky headlands and sheltered bays. Each sustains living communities uniquely adapted to the conditions present.
N
ESTUARIES
Streams running to the sea often form estuaries at
the interface — a transition area between freshwater and marine habitats. Although low in species
diversity, estuaries are rich in organic sediments
that support an abundance of life. In the north of
New Zealand, estuaries are lined with mangroves.
Mangroves contribute to the high productivity, their
decomposing leaves releasing nutrients, the trunks
providing shelter and accumulating sediments. At
its highest reaches are the salt marshes. Lower
down eelgrass and sandy mud cover large flat
areas. Just under the muddy surface are beds of
bivalve shellfish such as cockles and the wedge
shell which is a detritus feeder that vacuums plankton off the surface of the mud on out-going tides.
Gastropods such as the mud snail leave feacal
trails on the muddy sand. Also patrolling are
scavengers and algal grazers. Small
crabs and worms are common.
Saltmarsh sea rushes, like mangroves continually
produce new leaves and get rid of the old ones
which are encrusted with salt. The glasswort dilutes
salt by storing water in fleshy stems. Wirevine
grows in a tangled mass. The water snail grazes on
algal films in muddy brackish water at upper tidal
areas. The harbour flea mussel is a small black
mussel that lives on hard surfaces in brackish water,
usually near the tidal limit.
Salt Marsh
Land as opposed to actual shoreline
regularly inundated by seawater,
may take the form of salt marsh. Its
lower most zone, about the mid-tide
level, is often muddy and colonised
by flat mat plants.
Succulents including clumps of glasswort are found living here. Further
inland, plant cover increases becoming a salt meadow of tight turf. At
upper tidal levels neptune’s Necklace
is the most common salt marsh algae.
Its bead like bladders vary in size
according to the substrate, larger
when on bare unshaded mud and
smaller on moist clay.
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Mangroves — Trees In The Tide
The New Zealand mangrove migrated to our sheltered shores from tropical places further north.
Mangrove roots are surrounded by oxygen poor
mud and the tree is immersed in salty water twice
each day. To survive in this challenging environment
it has a number of special features. Pencil like projections emerging from the mud are special “air
breathing” roots, pneumatophores. They are covered with corky water resistant bark and arise
from an underground root system.
Underground roots form a
strong network that stablises the tree against
tidal currents. Leaves
have water storing
cells and a shiny cuticle with white hairs
underneath to protect
them from sunshine glare
reflected off the water.
Flowers occur in small
clusters. Seeds are not
dispersed in any of
the usual ways.
Instead an already
germinated young
plant, a propagule,
is dropped from the
plant. It can begin to
grow where it dropped, or
it may be carried by the tide to grow elsewhere.
Mangroves support whole communities of organisms. The mud snail is found within mangrove scrub
and on mudflats. It eats surface mud, digesting the
organic parts and excreting the rest in a continuous
string. The mud whelk can be found scavenging on
both mud and mangrove flats. The mud flat horn
shell is a herbivore and deposit feeder, locally
dense in depressions. The cat’s eye feeds on algae
when the tide is in. The modest barnacle is New
Zealand’s most common encrusting organism.
Larvae settle on any hard surface, including mangrove aerial roots. Rock oysters can also be found
27
Natural History
Mud snail
Titiko
Amphibola crenata
Cat’s eye
Atata
Turbo smaragdus
Spiny tubeworm
Pomatoceros caeruleus
Large dog cockle
Glycymeris laticostata
Hermit crab
Pagurus novazelandiae
Stalk eyed crab
Macrpthalmus hirtipes
Common cushion star
Patiriella regularis
Arabic volute
Pupu rore
Alcithoe arabica
Snapping shrimp
Alpheus novaezelandiae
Rock borer
Anchomasa similis
Mason worm
Thelepus spectabilis
Hearth urchin
Kina pakira
Echinocardium australe
Sea grass
Zostera novazelandica
on pneumatophores and mangrove trunks. The
spiny tubeworm is a common bristle worm, living
inside a tough tube, often found in clusters.
Crabs
The numerous holes in mud are home to tunneling
crabs. They are most abundant among mangroves
but can be found high up the estuary beyond the
marine mud, burrowing into clay. The tunneling mud
crab is endemic; it leaves its burrow to feed when
the tide is out. It is territorial. Apart from the tunneling mud crab, the more common crabs of the
estuary are the stalk-eyed mudcrab and hairyhanded crab. Both have similar habitats to the tunneling mud crab. The hermit crab is common, its
softbody protected by a gastropod shell. The crab
moves to a larger one as it grows. It eats organic
matter and decaying animals.
The harbour top shell is an algae eating herbivore
that lives on mud. Cockles are often found in dense
beds just below the surface on sandy mud flats. The
Arabic volute is a carnivore, which suffocates its
prey. The cushion star is a common omnivore with
4–7 arms. The long tailed stingray feeds on molluscs and invertebrates. The snapping shrimp burrows into mud. Its nipper creates an audible “snapping” noise and it eats organic debris. Sand mason
worms are mobile worms, feeding on fine organic
particles. Its fragile conical tube is made from sand
grains. The date shell lives deeply buried in softmud and is common amongst eelgrass. The heart
urchin lives buried in soft sandy mud. Pipi form
dense beds in coarse shelly sediments of harbours
and near mouths of estuaries.
Plants
Life in and by the sea is not easy. Only specialised
plants survive, plants that are able to cope with
salty conditions. Taupata grows on dryland by the
sea, above the high tide. Roots may still extend into
the saltwater table and leaves can be sprayed
with saltwater. Tough thick leaves with a glossy
cuticle are typical adaptations against glare and
water loss. Plants occasionally flooded by the tide
include glasswort and the searush. Mangroves
occur half in and half out of the tide. Salt glands
in the leaves excrete salt absorbed by the roots.
Completely covered by the tide — the only New
Zealand flowering plant able to live below midtide is eelgrass. Flowering and pollination takes
place under water. Behaving more like a seaweed,
eelgrass absorbs nutrients directly through its
leaves, which only have thin cuticles and no stomata.
BORERS
Wood borers
Woodborers are both destructive and useful.
Destructive in that they can cause extensive damage to the wood of boats and wharves, expensive
copper sheathing is the only effective protection,
useful because they break down deadwood that
has drifted out to sea. Our oceans would be full of
Auckland Museum
28
Banded dotterel
Tuturiwhatu
Charadrius bicinctus
Pied stilt
Poaka
Himantopus
himantopus
Little blue penguin
Eudyptula minor
Caspian tern
Taranui
Hydroprogne caspia
Black-billed gull
Karoro
Larus dominicanus
Fairy prion
Titi wainui
Pachyptila turtur
Wandering albatross
Toroa
Diomedea exulans
29
Natural History
wood if not for these important recyclers. A type of
isopod, and a relative of the garden slater uses
“rasp and file” mandibles to tunnel beneath the
surface of the wood. An amphipod lives in holes
bored by the isopod. Teredo settles on wood as
larvae bores into wood using razor-sharp shell
valves and coats its burrow with calcium carbonate.
Stone borers
Rock boring molluscs (piddocks) have shell structures similar to the sharply ribbed drilling bit of an
oilrig. They drill down by twisting and rocking the
two shell valves against the stoney substrate,
enlarging the hole as the shell grows. No food is
derived from the stone, the substrate providing
protection for the organism. The piddocks extend
siphons up into the seawater to collect food. The
date mussel uses chemicals instead of physical
abrasion to sculpt its stony home. It protects itself
from the acid with a thick, tough outer covering.
BIRDS OF THE OCEAN AND THE SHORELINE
Birds have adapted to take advantage of every
habitat found along New Zealand’s shoreline.
Mudflats are rich feeding grounds for huge numbers of birds. Cliffs, rocky ledges and stacks provide breeding sites for a wide variety of sea birds.
The open ocean is a feeding ground for the larger
varieties of petrels. For each of these distinct environments the birds found there have evolved specialised behaviours, physiological components and
physical structures to allow them to cope with the
demands of the conditions present.
Wading birds
Wading birds specialise in probing for food in the
soft mud of estuaries and harbours.
New Zealand is the destination for some of the
world’s Arctic waders. Breeding in the Arctic, they
undertake a spectacular journey from one end of
the earth to the other, to spend the northern winter
in the Southern Hemisphere e.g. bar-tailed godwit,
lesser knot, turnstone, Pacific golden plover, rednecked stint, sharp-tailed sandpiper, whimbrel.
Some Waders breed locally and migrate within Petrels
New Zealand and feed alongside Arctic migrants New Zealand has many petrels, a group that
e.g. South Island pied oystercatcher, pied stilt.
includes albatrosses, mollymawks, shearwaters, prions and storm petrels. Feeding at sea, their effortPenguins
less gliding flight enables much of their lives to be
Penguins are flightless seabirds found only in the spent far from land. Predators have now driven
Southern Hemisphere. Descended from flying them to breed on inaccessible islands and headbirds, their wings are now short, stiff flippers. They lands.
fly underwater, propelled by flippers alone. Their
short, densely packed feathers form a smooth, Larger species build open nests, but most medium
firm, water-resistant coat. Their legs are short and and small species nest in burrows.
on land give them their distinctive waddle e.g. blue
penguin (the world’s smallest penguin), Fiordland e.g. fluttering shearwater, black petrel, flesh-footcrested penguin and yellow eyed penguin.
ed shearwater, mottled petrel, fairy prion, and
broad-billed prion.
Plovers and Dotterels
These small waders have a rounded, plump body, Albatrosses and Mollymawks
short legs and a short bill and tail. The bill is Nearly three-quarters of the world’s albatross
adapted for picking up vertebrates from wet sand species can be found in the New Zealand region.
or mud. When feeding they characteristically All have a graceful, soaring flight. Many follow
“walk and stop”, or “run-stop-peck” e.g. New boats especially fishing vessels. Large numbers of
Zealand dotterel, banded dotterel, shore plover, albatrosses come to grief by swallowing baited
wrybill and spur-winged plover.
hooks. Mollymawks are small albatrosses e.g. royal
albatross, wandering albatross, buller’s mollyShags
mawk, black browed mollymawk.
New Zealand has twelve breeding species of shag,
about a third of the world’s shag species.
SANDY EXPOSED BEACHES AND DUNES
Unprotected except by distant headlands, these
They are mostly seen in sheltered coastal waters, beaches are formed by ocean waves and prevailbut sometimes far inland near lakes, streams and ing winds. An exposed sandy shore is one of the
rivers e.g. black shag, pied shag, little shag, spot- most exacting and extreme habitats, supporting a
ted shag.
group of highly specialised plants and animals.
These have to withstand drying by unchecked
They are excellent fishermen, diving into the water onshore winds, and cope with burning salt spray,
and seizing fish with their strong beak.
high temperatures and low nutrients. Pakiri (north
of Auckland) is an example of a sandy exposed
Gulls and Terns
beach.
Gulls and terns usually prefer coastal situations
near shore. They are sociable, feeding in flocks They are composed of sand, gravel, or a mixture
and breeding in colonies. Terns are more aerial of both. Gravel beaches tend to be steep and
and dainty than gulls with narrower pointed wings tiered; sand beaches have a gentler gradient. The
and usually a deeply forked tail. Terns have short- highest part of the intertidal area is generally the
er legs and smaller feet e.g. Arctic skua; black- steepest. Dunes occur above the spring tide line
backed gull, red-billed gull, black-billed gull, and out of reach of waves, formed by the action of
black fronted tern, fairy tern, and caspian tern.
wind. Fine sands are blown inland until they meet a
dune crest, log or other obstruction — they gradually build up to form a dune line.
Auckland Museum
30
While not as diverse as the rocky shore, open
sandy beaches are rich in molluscs, especially
bivalves.
Tuatua
Paphies subtriangulata
Ostrich foot
Struthiolaria papulosa
Toheroa
Paphies ventricosa
Violet snail
Janthina janthina
Shells found in the strand line usually come from
animals that lived within and just beyond the wave
zone. However, on-shore winds can cause pelagic
ocean drifters to strand on the driftline. Larger
items are carried further up the shore creating the
upper strand line. Items tend to get progressively
smaller all the way down to the lower strand line.
Both open and protected beaches are divided into
three zones: upper, middle and lower. On the
sandy shore these areas are characterised by the
upper strand line, lower strand line and beneath
the water line.
Characteristic bivalves include the tuatua and the
toheroa. Echinoderms and worms are also present.
Knobbed whelk
Kakara
Austrofusus glans
Helmet shell
Semicassis pyrum
Sandhopper
Namu mawhitiwhiti
Corophium acutum
Upper Strand line
Ostrich foot shells are common at below low tide
on sandy and sandy-mud flats in estuaries and on
the open coast. They are sometimes washed ashore
in vast numbers.
The knobbed whelk is a carnivore found from low
tide to deeper water in fine sand or silty mud habitats throughout New Zealand. The shells are often
washed up on beaches.
The helmet shell is plentiful on open sandy beaches. It feeds on bivalves and sea urchins.
Cask shell
Pupu tangimoana
Tonna cerevisina
The hairy trumpet lives on reefs among brown seaweed covered in a thick hairy coating.
Portuguese man-of-war
Physalia physalis
By the wind sailor
Velella velella
31
Natural History
Violet janthina shells use a raft of bubbles to float
on the surface of the ocean. They feed on other
floating organisms, like the by-the-wind sailor and
portuguese man-of-war.
Rams horn shells are the internal shells of a small
squid that live in water about 200–2000m deep.
Thousands can be found washed up on open
coastal beaches.
Sand hoppers are amphipod crustaceans that Beneath the water
spring up and down when you disturb a piece of Paddle crabs emerge from their offshore sandy
seaweed or wood lying on the beach.
burrows to hunt at night. The paddles on the rear
legs help the crab to swim and burrow.
By-the-wind sailors are colonies of hydroids that
resemble jellyfish. They rely on wind to skim along The fan scallop can swim by snapping its shell shut.
the surface of the ocean. Portuguese man-of-war The tuatua is a surf clam with a truncated end usuor bluebottles are large, gas filled sacs. These ally just above or lightly covered with sand.
keep the colony of animals afloat and acts like a
sail.
The geoduck lives about 20–40 cm in the sand, offshore, in calm water beyond breaking waves, so
Cask shells are very large, thin shelled molluscs that they are not normally subjected to dislodgement or
live in moderately deep-water. They are active predation.
carnivores feeding on burrowing bivalves and
echinoderms.
Small animals on a sandy beach
From the strand line to the dunes, a sandy beach is
Low Strand line
no place to live unless you happen to be one of a
The pink sunset shell lives buried deep in the sand select cluster of crustaceans, insects, spiders and
feeding on surface detritus with its long siphons.
their relatives, who have adapted to the harsh conThe necklace shell uses its teeth (radula) to drill ditions. Here temperatures vary between extremes.
holes in the shells of its victims.
Wind and salt spray suck away the moisture, the
sand shifts and tears. The strand line is a transient
The sand dollar or snapper biscuit is a flattened environment. Seaweed and carrion (the bodies of
urchin that is eaten by snapper.
birds, fish, seal) provide food for a specialised
group of invertebrates, which speed up its decomThe wheel shell burrows in fine sand and eats the position. Other invertebrates, shore birds and
organic matter between the sand grains.
lizards eat them in turn.
The tiger beetle is a predator of small insects and
is well camouflaged on greyish-white sand dunes.
Necklace shell
Tanea zelandica
Cake urchin
Kina papa
Fellaster zelandiae
The sand scarab is a bulky beetle which leaves
conspicuous tracks in the sand from its nocturnal
wanderings. During the day it burrows deep in the
sand, the plump larvae can be found under partly
buried logs.
The ground beetle has short stocky legs, which help
this predator to burrow through sand.
Our largest native earwig is the shore earwig. A
scavenger and predator, it hides under driftwood,
seaweed and stones. Females are often found
brooding eggs.
Fan scallop
Chlamys zelandiae
Wheel shell
Umbonium zelandicum
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Kelp flies lay eggs in freshly stranded kelp. Their conditions, from dry most of the time to wet all the
maggots thrive in the kelp and help to break it time. Just who lives where depends upon the pardown.
ticular conditions present.
The black spider-hunter wasp stings and paralyses
small wolf spiders, then takes them to its nest in the
sand. An egg is laid on the body, which is later consumed by the developing wasp larva.
The native bee burrows through the loose, hot, dry
sand above high water to nest in the damp sand
beneath.
Sand hoppers are one of the main decomposers of
stranded kelp. They flee predators by burrowing
into the sand with their peculiar sand-digging leg
paddles.
The sand centipede can be found in damp sand
under driftwood.
The endangered katipo spiders make a tangled
cobweb at the base of dune plants and debris.
The black cockroach is found at the top of beaches, in driftwood piles, under stones and other
debris. It makes an objectionable smell when disturbed.
The common copper butterfly lives in the dunes
where its caterpillars feed on leaves of the tough
pohuehue vine. At most this butterfly lives for 10
days, so time is limited for egg laying.
The surging water, crashing against the rock and
rushing through crevices, makes the exposed, steep
rocky shore a dangerous place. Animals and plants
need to be well adapted to live there. Animals
adapt in various ways. Often their bodies are
streamlined to lessen the effect of onrushing water.
Many have powerful means of clinging to the rock.
Others are especially fleet of foot so they can take
cover quickly. Those that have no special adaptations have to rely on the shelter provided by
crevices, seaweed or other animals. An example of
this type of shore is Piha on Auckland’s West Coast.
The highest plants covered by water are karengo,
while at low tide mark, streamers of kelp stand up
from their tough, woody holdfasts. Agar weed on a
rock overhang helps hide sponges in the tide pool.
Paua and cooks turban shells graze on the seaweed forest. At high tide level the barnacles and
snakeskin chitin are getting their brief twice-daily
immersion. Above them, spray barely reaches the
crusts of lichen. Beneath the karengo fronds, red
anemones share a crevice with the purple rock
crab just above the mussel zone where hunchedreef starfish tear prey off the rocks before receding with the tide. Blue maomao feed on small animals in mid-water while a cruising snapper picks
busily among the mussels.
An example of a moderately sheltered rocky shore
The convolvulus hawk moth sucks flower nectar at is Oneroa on Waiheke Island.
dusk and caterpillars feed on native shore convolvulus.
At the highest point of a jagged outcrop of sandstone, a pohutukawa sends tenacious roots down
ROCKY SHORE
into cracks that reach almost to the wave splash
The hard shores offer very different habitats from line. Clinging colonies of surface creatures: barnathose of sandy beaches and mudflats; consequent- cles, oysters, little black mussels, tube worms and
ly the animal and plant communities that occupy green mussels form bands across the rocks. Below
them are quite different. The ebbing and flowing the mussels, pink corralline algae is fringed by
tide influences an amazing variety of plants and small red algae. Below that flapjack swirls in the
animals compressed into just a few metres of rocky swell.
shoreline. In that narrow space species have
evolved to cope with an array of environmental
33
Natural History
Sand scarab
Mumutawa pango
Pericoptus truncatus
Common copper butterfly
Pepe parariki
Lycaena salustius
Agar weed
Pterocladia lucida
Common tiger beetle
Papapa
Neocicindella tuberculata
Black cockroach
Papata
Platyzosteria novaeseelandiae
Snakeskin chiton
Papatua
Sypharochiton
pelliserpentis
Snapper
Tamure
Chrysophrys auratus
Seashore earwig
Mata
Anisolabis littorea
Ground beetle
Megadromus vigil
Katipo spider
Latrodectus katipo
Karengo
Porphyra columbina
Cook’s Turban shell
Karaka
Cookia sulcata
Paua
Haliotis iris
Lessonia kelp
Lessonia variegata
Neptunes necklace appears on low rocky surfaces
in single clumps. Between rocky outcrops, storm
debris; shells, seastars and dying weed from deeper places, collects on sand.
Less exposed coasts e.g. Stanley Bay, Devonport,
provide greater security and more variety. Wave
action wears at softer mudstones creating undercut
slabs and steps. Some slabs break off, the undersides rich with life; mostly small organisms that
present little profile even to the gentle waves.
Neptunes necklace
Homosira banksii
Red sea anemone
Kotore moana
Actinia tenebrosa
The edge of the wave-cut platform is densely covered with neptunes necklace. Pink coralline algae
covers large areas. Intertidal plant growth is good
but less diverse than on moderate exposed shores.
Piddocks (rock borers) are plentiful in the stone,
their dwelling holes visible through broken slabs.
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Common sea urchin
Kina
Evechinus chloroticus
Flapjack
Carpophyllum
maschalocarpum
Bladder kelp
Macrocystis pyrifera
Common bull kelp
Durvillaea antarctica
SEAWEEDS
Seaweed (algae) comes in a wide range of forms,
colours and sizes. Seaweed can be divided into
three main groups — green (chlorophytal), browns
(phacophyta) and reds (rhodophyta), they all possess chlorophyll and photosynthesis; the variation in
colour is obtained from various pigments. They are
generally zoned down the shoreline with greens
near the top (uppertidal level), reds around the
middle (intertidal) and browns near the bottom
(subtidal). However there is considerable overlap.
e.g. sea lettuce, karengo, neptune’s necklace.
Other brown alga includes bull
kelp and bladder kelp. Bladder
kelp is the fastest growing plant in the world,
growing up to 50 centimetres per day.
Gigartina (red algae), are commonly found in
large numbers all around New Zealand’s coastline.
Most species are probably endemic to New
Zealand. There are two main groups — those with
large flat blades that can be up to one meter long;
and smaller, branched ones, normally up to twenty
centimeters high. Several are used commercially
for the production of carrageenan (a clear, jellylike substance).
Paua live beneath stones and ledges at low tide
mark. They browse on red and brown seaweed
and coralline. The blue-greens of paua shells are
influenced by a diet of mostly brown algae, while
the deep reds and browns of paua shells are influenced by a diet of mostly red algae and bladder
kelp.
Animals in Seaweed
Living in seaweed has several advantages. They
are usually continually moist, dense enough to provide protection, but open enough to venture to and
fro and a supply of algal tissue on hand. Many
seaweed dwellers are tiny gastropods and crustaceans.
Top shells feed by scraping up little plants and
debris thct settle on the surface of the seaweed.
Carpophyllum (brown algae) is an endemic genus Catseye are found in neptune’s necklace and
to New Zealand with four species. Plants are up to Corralina. Cooks turban graze on fronds of flaptwo meters long and form a very distinctive brown jack and kelp.
to black band at the low tide level. They possess a
180 degree twist at the base of the stalk — a fea- The hairy seaweed crab camouflages itself by
ture only found in Carpophyllum species — which attaching seaweed and other various flora and
enhances the plant’s ability to stay attached during fauna to its shell. During the day they hide amongst
extreme wave action. All species possess rounded seaweed, rocks and bury themselves in sand.
air filled bladders that assist in keeping the plant
buoyant e.g. flapjack.
The kina is a type of sea urchin. Its usual food is
seaweed.
35
Natural History
Flying fish
Maroro
Cypselurus lineatus
Sunfish
Ratahuihui
Mola mola
Yellowfin tuna
Thunnus maccoyii
Broadbill swordfish
Paea
Xiphias gladius
Black marlin
Makaira indica
Offshore Fish
Imagine the ocean as a multi-storey hotel. The fish
that live in the top stories (near the surface) are
called pelagic species. Those that live on the lower
floors (in deep water) are demersal species. Then
there are some that live in the basement (near the
ocean floor). A huge variety of species inhabit this
oceanic hotel but many share some common feaAdaptations help organisms avoid predators, tures: they range widely, are often large and are
obtain food, produce more healthy young and an important catch for commercial and recreationwithstand different environmental conditions. These al fishers.
special characteristics have allowed different
types of organisms to inhabit every possible living Among the residents are the worlds fastest fish —
space in the seas.
the sail fish; the largest bony fish — the sunfish and
the acrobatic flying fish.
Sub Tidal Cliff
Wherever land and oceans meet abruptly a “wall Tuna are swift surface fish of tropical and temperof mouths” can be found — an environment teem- ate waters. They migrate in large schools and are
ing with creatures. The Poor Knights Islands marine common around New Zealand. There are six
reserve, remenents of a series of extinct volcanoes species found in New Zealand e.g. yellow fin tuna.
off the continental shelf of New Zealands northern They are economically important.
east coast, is a good example.
The upper jaw of a billfish is shaped like a long
Here mixtures of currents, temperatures, nutrient spear. This group of fish includes marlin, broadbill
flows and diminishing levels of sunlight with depth, swordfish, sailfish and spearfish. They are wide
provide the ecological “seabed" for a profusion of ranging surface fish that feed on other fish and
plant, sponge, coral, shell, and fish life. Diverse and squid. About five species of billfish occur seasonalcolourful life forms can be found between depths ly in New Zealands offshore waters, commonly
of 30–70 metres. Every piece of the wall is occu- around the northern part of the country. They are
pied with creatures crowding and encrusting one important recreational and commercial fish, and
another in astonishing displays of community life.
average 2–3.5 metres in length.
THE UNDERWATER WORLD
Marine organisms continually battle for survival in
the harsh world under the sea. Few marine animals
die of old age because most are victims of predation. These organisms have had to adapt to all the
different conditions that can be found in the sea; it
is a case of adapt or die.
Auckland Museum
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Kahawai
Arripis trutta
Fins: power, keel and brakes
Fish control their movements with fins — much like
a yacht uses it sail, keel and rudder. The tail fin
pushes against the water, providing much of the
forward power.
Dorsal and anal fins act as keels to prevent the fish
from rolling and pitching. Unlike the fixed fins of
cartilaginous fish, bony fish fins can be unfurled to
act as brakes and as paddles for low speed swimming or if treading water.
Trevally
Araara
Pseudocaranx denrex
Fins of different shapes have evolved to suit different lifestyles.
To reduce drag, fast fish like the yellowtail kingfish
and kahawai have “V” shaped tail fins.
Oblong sunfish
Ranzania laevis
Leather-jacket
Kokiri
Parika scaber
Carpet shark
Pekapeka
Cephaloscyllium
isabella
Finely scaled kingfish generate speed by rapidly
flexing their rigid “V” shaped tail. To fuel the necessary muscles, kingfish have oxygen rich fatty tissue, which readily gives up oxygen when required.
Kahawai have large coarse scales that inhibit body
flexing, Instead stiff movements of its broad tail
produce power and movement.
Broad, flat fins give good manoeuvrability and
control, but little speed.
e.g. the scarlet wrasse is a bottom fossicker which
uses its pectoral fins for fine control while feeding.
The tail acts as a rudder but is moved for bursts of
speed and direction change.
Fish needing rapid acceleration, such as predators
that lunge at prey, take in the aerodynamic features of a dart, with fins set well back.
Slow swimmers like seahorses are often armoured
for protection.
Elephant fish
Reperepe
Callorhynchus milii
While most fish swim with side to side motions there
are other ways of getting about.
e.g. flexing large dorsal and anal fins — oblong
sunfish; curving entire body in snake-like waves —
37
Natural History
snake eel; rippling dorsal and anal fins — rough
leather jacket; waves passing along large winglike pectoral fins — smooth skate; ripple body and
fins — lemon sole.
All cartilaginous fish are carnivores, their teeth
adapted for different foods. Predatory sharks like
mako or great white have sharp sometimes serrated teeth, like steak knives, for slicing through flesh.
Shellfish feeders, like the elephant fish, have stout
Cartilaginous fish: Sharks, Rays and Chimaeras
flattened teeth to crack open prey. Two of the
New Zealand has 61 species of shark of which half world’s largest fish, the whale shark and basking
are harmless dogfish.
shark, don’t use teeth to feed at all ; instead they
use modified gills to filter small animals from the
Cat sharks are the largest shark family named for water.
their cat-like eyes e.g. carpet shark.
When some large predatory sharks (like the great
Mackerel sharks include mako and great white white) are attacking, the mouth opens and the
sharks. Mako are a popular game fish, putting up lower jaw rolls forward; at the same time it rolls its
a strong fight if caught.
eyes back and the final strike is made blind.
The great white is the largest and most feared of Sharks have evolved special sensors (ampullae of
predatory sharks; large individuals will prey on lorenzini), that detect tiny electrical currents promarine mammals. Usually solitary.
duced by their prey.
Cowshark have 6 or 7 gill slits; most sharks have 5. Electric rays have further developed this sense.
Kitefins belong to the large and important group These stout bodied rays have electric organs in
of sharks, the dogfish. The pygmy shark at 27 cen- each wing to detect electric fields and stun prey.
timetres is one of the smallest sharks.
All cartilaginous fish fertilise their eggs internally.
New Zealand has 17 species of skates and rays, 9 Males have claspers, used to place sperm in the
are endemic. Like many seabed dwellers they have female.
flattened bodies. e.g. eagleray.
Many produce live young, but some lay eggs.
Chimeras are cartilaginous fish with a single pair
of gill openings, smooth skin and a large dorsal fin
spine. The mouth is small, with teeth fused into
plates e.g. elephant fish (makorepe).
Mako
Isurus oxyrinchus
Basking shark
Reremai
Cetorhinus maximus
Great white shark
Mango tuatini
Carcharodon carcharias
Eagle ray
Whai manu
Myliobatis tenuicaudatus
Auckland Museum
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SPECIES PROFILE: BLUE PENGUIN, KORARA,
Eudyptula minor
SPECIES PROFILE: NEPTUNES NECKLACE,
Homosira banksii
• Penguins occur
only in the Southern
Hemisphere. They
are flightless seabirds
with non-folding
wings. Their food is
principally fish,
squid and crustaceans.
• The little blue
penguin is the most
common
New
Zealand penguin occuring form Northland
down to Stewart Island.
• At 300mm in height,
the little blue is the smallest
of all penguins.
• It is an impressive ocean traveller, having been recorded
swimming 113km in 34 hours.
• Unlike most other penguin species, the little blue tends to
remain in one area, rather than disperse across the Southern
Ocean during its non-breeding season.
• The little blue has dropped in numbers close to large centres of population. The traditional causes of their decline
stoats, dogs and vehicles still exact a toll, although efforts at
conservation such as providing nesting boxes have had some
success.
• Our most common
seaweed, a string of olive
brown beads, is
neptune’s necklace.
• The beads vary
a lot in shape and size,
depending on
where they grow, for
this plant is
extremely adaptable.
It may be found
on exposed or sheltered
rocky
shores, or carpeting the
floor under mangrove forests.
• Each bead of these neptune’s necklace plants is a knobbly
bladder filled with water to prevent desiccation between
tides.
• Plants with the largest bladders live in the mangrove estuaries, lying open to direct sun among the breathing roots.
They are exposed for most of each tidal cycle, so their water
needs are especially great. These plants have far more
branches than usual, and are also peculiar in not being
attached to anything. The palisade of mangrove roots is
enough to keep them in place as they rise and fall with the
water movements.
• The unattached form of this plant reproduces asexually,
from broken fragments.
• The attached form reproduces sexually, each is distinctly
male or female. The sex organs look like tiny goose-pimples
scattered all over the bladder. The plant squeeze out their
clusters of eggs or sperm in sticky masses which break apart
into a cloud. All plants release their eggs and sperm at the
same time (when high tide washes over them), to maximise
fertilisation.
SPECIES PROFILE: ROYAL ALBATROSS, TOROA,
Diomeda epomophora
• Albatrosses soar
over the Southern ocean in
search of food.
Their streamlined bodies
and long slender
wings enable them to
fly for weeks at
a time without landing.
• They invest
much effort in breeding and raising
chicks, so much so that
some breed only
every 2 years. The royal
albatross incubates
its eggs for up to 83 days.
Once the chick is hatched the adults feed it regurgitated fish
and squid gathered during lengthy, long-distance fishing
expeditions.
• In order to prepare itself for the years it will spend at sea
before returning to its birthplace to breed (6–15years), the
fledging requires great quantities of food. Between 216 and
303 days hatching, the chick is finally ready to fly.
• Albatrosses are monogamous, needing both parents if
breeding is to be successful. Eggs are continuously incubated
and the chicks fed for a long time. They develop a genuine
pair bond over their long lives.
• A vital ingredient of the breeding cycle is the courtship ritual. It is very intricate, with much bill snapping and groaning.
• Over the past 20 years some species of albatross have
declined at a significant rate, unwitting casualties of the
bluefin tuna fishing industry. 44 000 albatrosses and petrels
were being killed each year in the Japanese fishery which
covers huge areas of the Southern ocean.
39
Natural History
SPECIES PROFILE: EELGRASS
Zostera novazelandica
• A flowering plant that iscompletely submerged by the
tide.
• Vast pastures of
eelgrass can be found
in all large sheltered harbours and
can also be
found on rocky coasts
in minute havens
of shelter, where a
suitable bed of
sediment has built up.
• Stems are completely buried, fibrous
roots spread widely
and penetrate deep into the
black sulphurous mud. All these underground parts of the
plants interweave to form a firm sod-like mat, which consolidates the lower shore and extends beyond low tide and
across tidal channels.
• The leaves have a thick cuticle which seems to be an adaptation against desiccation when the leaves are left exposed
to wind and sun.
• Eelgrass help to accumulate sediments. It has an important
biological role in the productivity of coastal waters beyond
low tide mark. It draws out nutrients which would otherwise
be bound in the deep airless mud that its roots penetrate.
Eelgrass mobilises minerals by drawing them up into tissues,
to be dispersed when the plant dies or is eaten.
• It secretes considerable amounts of phosphorus, a mineral
essential to the growth of planktonic plants.
• Eelgrass oxygenates the water which is essential for all life
found under the water
• Eelgrass plants produce flowers, which are tiny and fertilised underwater, so they are not often seen.
SPECIES PROFILE: KINA, SPINY SEA URCHIN, SPECIES PROFILE: COMMON MUD CRAB,
Evechinus chloroticus
Helice crassa
• Have no real
brain, or head. Kina
may move in any
direction.
• Snapper, red
moki, blue cod and
crayfish feed on
small urchins.
• Lives under
ledges
and
in
crevices, clinging
with its tube feet.
• It is covered with
spines, like a small
hedgehog; in soft these may wear away a hollow where it is
attached.
• It does not move fast; in fact it does not have to move at all
as it can wait for food to attach itself to its spines.
• Where there is abundant seaweed, masses of kina devour
large forests.
• Some kina may be as old as 15 years, and grow as heavy
as 1kg.
• For Maori, kina are a delicacy. When the kowhai are in
bloom is when the gonads or roe of the kina become bright
and swollen.
• Kina spawn in spring when eggs and sperm are produced
by gonads of sexually mature kina (3–4 years old). A few
days before full moon they are released. The eggs and
sperm fuse to create minute larvae that float away in the
plankton until they settle 2–3 months later.
• Crabs are one of
the important scavengers of the
coastline, cleaning up
organic
scraps
and in turn providing
animals such as
fish and birds with an
important source
of protein.
• Like all crustaceans, crabs are
joint legged, have
two pairs of antennae
and moult their shells as
they grow larger.
• Crabs protect themselves in a number of ways. Their shelllike cover or carapace acts like a suit of armour, and they can
give a potential predator a painful nip with their powerful
claws.
• A mudflat at low tide reveals countless tiny burrows, the
homes of common mud crabs.
• Mud crabs are extremely wary of any large moving object,
they scuttle for cover when approached.
• Seabirds and kotare are predators of the mud crab, as
well as fish.
• Outside their burrows are heaps of tailings and tiny dung
pellets, which the crab cleans out as the tide goes out. This
allows easy access to the burrow when needed.
• They feed on the minute particles of organic matter with
which the mud is impregnated.
Auckland Museum
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Recorded information: (09) 306 7067
Administration: (09) 309 0443 Fax (09) 379 9956
School Bookings: (09) 306 7040 Fax (09) 306 7075
Email: [email protected]
www.aucklandmuseum.com
AUCKLAND MUSEUM
The Domain Auckland
Private Bag 92018 Auckland New Zealand