DOC Biodiversity Ranger, Bruce Postill, talks about his trip to the inaugural Australasian Bird Fair in Sydney and the wonderful gift received for New Zealand Rock Wren Recovery.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
DOC had a delegation of 14 staff—from rangers to the Director-General—at the recent World Parks Congress in Sydney.
Continue Reading...
A Mr S Claus has been detained after flying into New Zealand air space with undeclared animals, unwanted organisms and CITES listed threatened species.
Mr Claus has been unable to provide documentation to show that the has passed biosecurity clearance
The animals—nine reindeer—were impounded on arrival and Mr Claus has so far been unable to provide documentation to show that they have passed biosecurity clearances.
“This is a blatant breach of both CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and New Zealand’s biosecurity laws, ” says a senior DOC spokesperson.
“The contents of a bag have been found and appears to hold many personal items that Mr Claus insisted were gifts, and also contained a number of rare parrots from tropical countries. This could be a real feather in the cap for busting a bird smuggling ring“.
Mr Claus insisted he knew nothing of the parrots and was just asked to pass the plain brown wrappers onto someone else on the other side of the border.
The sledge that Mr Claus was riding is made from a rare hardwood from an un-sustainably managed rainforest. The wood is on the CITIES threatened species database of prohibited timbers. Exotic spiders were also found crawling under the vehicle; Claus claimed he hadn’t used it in nearly 12 months.
He was dressed in polar bear fur from his head to his foot and his clothes were tarnished with ashes and soot. His gumboots were covered in dirt and reindeer faeces which carried numerous diseases including didymo.
Mr Claus was wearing gumboots covered in dirt and reindeer faeces
Furthermore, Claus was suspected to be under the influence of illegal drugs. His eyes were too twinkly, he was far too merry, his cheeks were too rosy, his nose like a cherry. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke encircled his head like a wreath.
Picked up (only by specially trained rodent dogs) was a small mouse—undetected by staff due to its lack of stirring
When I was studying marketing at university one of my lecturers said, “if you want to communicate a message simply and effectively, ask a young person what they would say”. I was reminded of that as I watched this year’s winning entries for The Outlook for Someday – sustainability film challenge for young people. The winners’ ability to get their messages across in simple but creative ways is really inspiring.
DOC sponsored a special biodiversity award for The Outlook for Someday challenge and at a ceremony in November two teams from Newmarket Primary School in Auckland were announced as the joint winners of that award.
One of the winning films is ‘The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds’. It’s about a group of young people who protect birds and share a message that we can all become nature’s guardians. The judges said the film uses “a wonderful and creative mix of media.”
Newmarket Primary School students and makers of The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds, with Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman.
Watch The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds.
The other winning film, ‘Sam the Superworm’ is about saving our food and tells the story of how everyone, including a small stripy worm, can help protect nature. The judges said this film is “a fabulous tale about taking action on behalf of biodiversity in an urban environment.”
Newmarket Primary School students and makers of Sam the Superworm collect their award
Watch Sam the Superworm.
The winning films are showing on TVNZ 6 each night this week (from 13-17 December) on Freeview or TiVo channel 6, and SKY or Telstra channel 16. Each programme will be shown at 6:30pm and again at 8:30pm.
To enter The Outlook for Someday challenge, young New Zealanders have to make a sustainability-related film that’s up to 5 minutes long, using any camera. People can enter as teams or individuals.
Entries for the film challenge came from all over New Zealand and were made by individuals and teams from primary, intermediate and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions.
Well done to everyone who competed in this year’s film challenge and I’m sure next year’s entries will be just as strong.
Auckland’s giant kākāpō – named Kiri te Kākāpō by Verran Primary School – has become a star attraction at the 10th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which began in Japan this week.
Auckland's giant kākāpō 'Kiri te Kākāpō' sporting her lovely plumage of conservation messages
Our man in Nagoya Andrew Bignell (DOC’s International Relations manager and head of the NZ government delegation at the Japanese meeting), reports that even while the team was unpacking the bird people were stopping to talk and take photographs!
“Having the kākāpō here has been a wonderful start and has given a morale boost to the delegation to see a bit of home displayed in such a prominent position.”
Curious onlookers stop to check out Kiri te Kākāpō at DOC's display at the 10th meeting of the CBD in Japan
Kiri and her plumage of messages is the heart of DOC’s display at the CBD’s fair showing the best examples from around the world of International Year of Biodiversity education and awareness activities.
On Thursday, the bird will take centre stage at a special ceremony in which the CBD’s executive secretary Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf will accept a selection of the more the 20,000 messages New Zealanders have composed.
Andrew will present Dr Djoghlaf with a beautiful kākāpō poster made for the Words on a Wing action by year 3 and 4 pupils from Auckland’s Albany Primary School.
How did a flightless parrot make it all the way to Japan?
Happily the wonderful team at Air NZ came to the rescue. They organised for Kiri to arrive in Nagoya in good time and in excellent nick. They’ll also fly her home again when the meeting finishes on the 29th.
The team at Air New Zealand form a scrum with Kiri te Kākāpō as a farewell before she sets off on her big OE
Kiri te Kākāpō is all wrapped up and loaded into the cargo hold for her flight to Japan
While you’re still thinking about biodiversity, check out the song Verran Primary School wrote for Kiri.
Te Papa’s naming competition for the Wellington kākāpō
And the winner is… “Mātārere” which means forerunner/harbinger. The winning entry came from a kākāpo fan in Norway who faxed her entry to Te Papa. Thanks to our brainy bird experts at ZEALANDIA, Te Papa, and DOC for serving as judges.
The winner of the competition was initially going to win an annual family pass to ZEALANDIA, but because she lives a little too far away to get to enjoy that prize she’ll receive a bag of goodies from Te Papa instead.
Find out more
