Friday 27 January 2017

Tuatara , Morepork and Kiwis

Pretty much any native New Zealand species is endangered , critically endangered or extinct . Tuatara are the last of a line that go back 200 million years and which live 150 years or more , nobody know because nobody has outlived then to find out, The one in Invercargill is at least 150 years old and still breeding (hope springs eternal) his girlfriends are mere striplings at 90 years. The kiwi is threatened by all the predators that have been introduced to NZ , possums , cats , dogs , rats etc. Its the chicks that are most at risk . In the wild only 4% survive so conservationist collect the eggs , rear the chicks until the bird is big enough to fight off predators and this way the survival rate increase to 65%. 





 Kiwi I am told are nocturnal. I have read that this is possibly because they have started to forage at night as a way of avoiding predators and that where there are no predators they are seen in the day. Given that some of those predators are active at night I have no conclusion . It is red because I used a special camera setting so as not to disturb the birds , as the exposure was low light with no flash or any external light source except what was already there.











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