Archives For Otago

Voluntourists help out in Oteake

Department of Conservation —  April 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

Volunteers experienced hands on conservation work in vast golden tussock, under big open skies, when they removed fences in Otago’s Oteake Conservation Park recently.

Over three kilometres of fencing was taken out over a week, saving DOC $8000. The project was part of one of DOC’s volunteer conservation projects that run throughout the year.

Volunteers Francisca of Chile and Pierre of France standing by a fence.

Volunteers Francisca of Chile and Pierre of France

After a day of removing fences, the volunteers and DOC staff headed back to the nearby Tailings Hut, which was restored by volunteers last year. Evenings were spent preparing food, eating and socialising. Food—and the social experience around it—made up a significant part of the volunteer experience.

The volunteers all had different motivations; some wanted to experience the Oteake landscape that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access (due to lack of confidence in backcountry driving, or not having a four wheel drive). Others wanted a new experience, and some were ‘voluntourists’—a term used to describe a new form of travel where tourists travel while assisting the community.

Volunteers Monica winding wire and Francisca feeding the wire.

Volunteers Monica winding wire and Francisca feeding

The volunteers spent the week removing staples and lightening rods (long pieces of metal between the posts), and manually hand-winding wire into coils for recycling. Removal of the lightening rods was the least-favoured task, with people jostling positions to avoid removing the frustratingly stubborn wire.

Safety is always a concern with volunteer projects, where people undertake an unfamiliar task in an unfamiliar environment. It was an interesting challenge to ensure participants wore the geeky looking glasses and handled the unpredictable wire.

Volunteers Francisca, Paul and Monica setting up the wire.

Volunteers Francisca, Paul and Monica setting up

DOC’s working holidays

DOC runs volunteer working holidays all over the country to allow New Zealanders and overseas visitors to participate in conservation projects. The 2014 programme will be released in June/July. See www.doc.govt.nz or visit your local DOC office for more information.

In Otago, Volunteers , , , ,
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Tagging yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula

Dave Houston —  February 20, 2013 — Leave a comment

Dave supports biodiversity programmes anywhere between Auckland and the Auckland Islands, but specialises in the Chatham Islands and penguins.

Using a band or ring has been vital to the monitoring and conservation of birds for more than 100 years.  Yellow-eyed penguins were first fitted with leg bands as part of a landmark population study by schoolteacher-biologist Lance Richdale in the 1930′s.

flipper-band

A flipper-band on a yellow-eyed penguin

Unfortunately, leg bands proved to be difficult to read and also caused some injuries so, by the late 1950′s, flipper bands became the standard for marking penguins.

The current banding programme for yellow-eyed’s started in the 1970′s and has enabled the monitoring of penguin survival (to a ripe old age of 24 years) and allowed researchers to know the age and history of the individuals at the focus of their research.

Flipper bands are not without problems.  They decrease the underwater efficiency of the bird and, particularly if poorly fitted or maintained, can cause feather wear and injury.  Alternatives to bands have been explored and one under investigation at the moment is the use RFID tags of the same type used in dogs and cats.  While safe and long-lasting, they do have the downside of  requiring electronic readers to find out if a bird is marked and who it is.

Inserting RFID tag

Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust staff inserting a RFID tag into a penguin chick

Whichever method used, it is important to ensure that those applying the tag are doing so correctly in order to minimise the risk to the bird and maximise what we learn as a result.  Penguin chicks get tagged just before they go to sea and I recently took the opportunity to join DOC staff, Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and Massey University Veterinary students and oversee the tagging of this season’s batch of chicks on the Otago Peninsula.

Measuring head length

Ranger Mel Young showing Wane Begg and Jim Fyfe the best way of measuring head length

Assisted by volunteers willing to crawl through flax, gorse and nettle, we visited several sites, going to nests found earlier in the season, before locating and capturing the chicks.  Bags are used to restrain the birds while they get weighed, measured and tagged before being released back at their nest site.  The weight tells us how good the food supply is (5-6 kg is the normal range) and measuring the head and feet of the chicks gives us an indication of the sex – the males are slightly larger.
Volunteer Monika Fry with penguin chick ready for weighing

Volunteer Monika Fry with penguin chick ready for weighing

Also along for a day was Jeff Corwin of “Animal Planet” fame, filming for the third series of “Ocean Mysteries”.  Jeff, trailed by his camera crew, enthusastically crawled through the shrubbery, helping capture and measure chicks.  Later in the day he assisted researcher Dr Thomas Mattern with the retrieval and deployment of GPS/dive loggers attached to the parents of some of the chicks we tagged as part of a long-term project looking at where the birds feed.
Ranger Mel Young talking penguins with Jeff Corwin

Ranger Mel Young talking penguins with Jeff Corwin

The opportunity to assist with this work, and spend a few days on the beautiful Otago Peninsula in no less than spectacular weather, was very much worth the being stung by nettle, scratched by gorse, bitten, beaten and pooped on by penguins.

Waiting on penguin

Dr Thomas Mattern and Jeff Corwin waiting for a GPS-fitted penguin to return

Postscript

Since my visit some 57 adult yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula have died suddenly, possibly due to a marine biotoxin.  Birds found dead on the beach have been identified by their tag, enabling rangers to locate the nest and keep a close eye on their almost-fledged chicks.  Understanding how the penguins encountered the bio-toxin will be helped by the GPS and dive logger data.

penguin foraging tracks

Yellow-eyed penguin foraging tracks. Credit: Dr Thomas Mattern

In Native animals, Otago , ,
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Not your typical thieves in gold-mining era campsites

Department of Conservation —  January 21, 2013 — 2 Comments

New Zealand has an extensive history of gold mining. The principal New Zealand gold fields were Coromandel, Nelson/Marlborough, Central Otago and West Coast. DOC has as many as 1000 gold-mining sites on lands it manages, and some of these are currently used as campsites.

Grant Jacobs the author of the blog, “Code for life”, shares a recent experience he had while on a camping trip at a gold-mining era campsite. He writes*:

“[When] camping in New Zealand, small items left lying around are at risk from thieves. I was reminded of this whilst sitting on the foundation stones of what was once an old gold miner’s hut, the iron remains of the roof and perhaps chimney at my feet, reading a novel with my tent pitched on the other side of the clearing where the thief stalked.”

Tent across the clearing at an old gold mining campsite. Photo taken by Grant Jacobs.


Tent across the clearing at an old gold mining campsite

“Some of these camping grounds are now, and probably were then, home to indigenous thieves. As I sat on the foundation of the miners hut, my back against a tree, I became aware that one such cheeky thief was prowling my tent on the other side of the little clearing.”

A weka under the outer fly of the tent looking for items to steal. Photo taken by Grant Jacobs.


A weka under the outer fly of the tent looking for items to steal

“Those not familiar with weka might think that they would only steal food, but stories say that weka will steal seemingly anything portable that attracts their attention. Of the non-edible objects, lore has it that a bit like the gold miners, they prefer shiny things.”

Weka have a bit of a reputation for pilfering small objects. They will take the objects to the nearest cover to investigate them. For this reason it is best not to chase weka but to simply watch where they go and retrieve the objects a little later.

Because of its scavenging habit, the weka can be problematic for conservationists. Some subspecies are threatened, but moving them to offshore islands can disrupt other threatened wildlife species. For example, weka released onto Codfish Island, where they haven’t lived in recent times, threatened the viability of the Cook’s petrels there and had to be removed.

Make sure you check out Grant’s full blog post.

*All text and photos from the blog “Code for Life” are copyrighted content of Grant Jacobs.

In Camping, Coromandel, Historic, Native animals, Nelson/Marlborough, Otago, West Coast , , , , , , ,
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