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Archives For 30/11/1999

Moving Gem: A sea lion translocation tale

Department of Conservation —  26/01/2012

By Lucy Hardy, DOC Ranger, Coastal Otago

Last week sea lion mum Gem decided to have her first pup on Tomahawk Beach, a busy Dunedin beach popular with dog walkers.

Female sea lions are sandy coloured and can be difficult to see on the beach, so DOC erected a fence around the pair to stop unsuspecting dog walkers getting a surprise.

Keen volunteers from the local Tomahawk Smails Beach Care Trust, the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and DOC, kept an eye on Gem and the pup, providing visitors with information about the New Zealand sea lion and advice on keeping dogs under control.

Staff knew that Gem would get hungry and head out to sea leaving her young pup alone and vulnerable. The unanimous decision was made to move the pair to a safer, quieter location.

The transfer team assembled early in the morning at Tomahawk Beach on Friday 20 January. DOC staff from Coastal Otago, Otago University researchers, Nathan McNally and Amélie Augé, New Zealand Sea Lion Trust members, Stevi Broni and Shaun MacConkey, local vet, Tony Malthus, and Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust ranger, Leith Thomson, were all part of the team. We also had Brian McKay on hand with a 4wd – the last thing we needed was to get the DOC trucks stuck on the sand with TV crews filming.

The plan was to sneak up on Gem while she was asleep. When we arrived she was awake so the team had to loiter in the dunes, trying to look casual, for about 20 mins.

Finally Gem put her head down for a nap. Nathan sprang into action with the net and the wranglers moved in.

Once Amélie had control of the head (that’s the part with the sharp teeth) the others jumped on. It took four people to restrain Gem while local vet Tony Malthus prepared the sedative. The pup was easily picked up and put into a cage.

After the sedative was administered the team waited for Gem to settle down. After 5 minutes it was obvious the dose wasn’t enough. Gem was feisty and wasn’t having any of it, so vet Tony administered another one, and the wait continued.

DOC ranger Mel Young and Otago University researcher Amélie Augé jump at any chance they can get to cuddle a sea lion. “They smell of a fresh beach towel,” says Mel.

Finally Gem succumbed to the sedative and it was safe to roll her onto a tarp…

The media were there catching all the action.

It took all of our strength to lift 110kg Gem onto the back of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust vehicle and then we were off to the new secret location.

By the time we arrived at the release site Gem was wide awake and pretty keen to get off the back of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust vehicle.

The pup was tagged (number 9015), weighed (10kg) and a DNA sample was taken. Amanda did the honours and carried the pup to her new home.

Without mum, sea lion pup 9015 is looking a bit forlorn (but still very cute). Luckily, the separation is brief…

So, without further ado, the vehicle door was opened and Gem was off…

Stepping back to freedom.

Feeling the good old earth beneath her flippers.

Gem heads straight to her pup.

Reunited.

Sharing a kiss.

A happy ending.

Gem and pup ‘9015’ remained very close to the point of their release for three days. On the fourth day, Gem finally got hungry enough to head out to the sea.

In January 2002 another sea lion translocation was completed successfully. This involved Leone, and her pup Lorelie, who were moved from Smaill’s Beach.

Like Gem, Lorelie was Leone’s first pup. Leone is now 16 years old and has raised 7 pups successfully. Lorelie is now 10 years old and has raised at least 2 pups successfully (that we know of).

All the female breeding sea lions on the Otago Coast are descended from one female ‘mum’. Check out the New Zealand Sea lion Trust website for the Otago Sea Lion Family Tree.

The New Zealand sea lion is listed as Nationally Critical, the highest threat classification in NZ – a status shared with kiwi and kakapo. Breeding is mostly restricted to the NZ subantarctic, although a slow return to mainland NZ is now occurring. There are currently 8 – 10 breeding females in the Dunedin area.

In Marine, Native animals, Otago ,
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Top and tailing on the gold trails – Part 2: Otago camping

hchristophersdoc —  30/12/2011

By Herb Christophers, 30 December 2011

In the North Island, gold mining was a key part of Coromandel’s early development. Similarly, in the South Island, Otago was the centre of the gold rush in the 1800’s. Today, both Coromandel and Otago offer great family camping and sight seeing, and a golden opportunity for those who like to get off the beaten track.

We had a look at Coromandel camping on Monday. Now let’s have a look at Otago.

Central Otago

Bikers on the Otago central rail trail

Dropping into Central Otago from the Mackenzie Country marks a change in many respects. Apart from the colour of the rugby jersey, the colour of the land changes too. The typical schist rock begins to show itself and the sun, if it is possible, gets hotter in summer. The Lindis Pass is usually a thoroughfare to further down to Wanaka or around to Alexandra in the Cromwell Gorge.

Lindis Pass Hotel

9 Mile Historic Reserve

To get some insight to the gold mining history of the Otago region, the disused Lindis Pass Hotel that dates from the late 1800s, provides an opportunity to see how isolated the Central Otago region was and how difficult it was for travellers over the pass.

Located at Nine Mile Historic Reserve, the building is undergoing restoration work as the stonemason stabilises the rock in the remnants of the hotel that sits in the middle of the campground.

Keep an eye out for the turn off because the campsite is not signposted, nor is it visible from the road. From SH8 take Old Faithful Road opposite Timburn Road and continue alongside the Lindis River until you get to the campsite. For those who persist, the rewards are worth the effort of going down the six kilometre gravel road—even for smaller camper vans. The road is part of a working farm, so be wary of other users. At the campsite there is a loo, water is from the Lindis River, and an interpretation panel that keeps the memory of the hotel alive.  On a hot dry, sunny Otago day, this is a perfect place to camp. And it’s free.

St Bathans and Naseby

If you are down in Central Otago doing the rail trail, there is a golden opportunity for side trips to historic mining sites in the region. St Bathans is an old gold mining town near the foot of the Hawkdun and Dunstan Ranges, 60 kilometres north of Alexandra, on the road to Ranfurly. Established in 1863 to service the area’s goldmines, St Bathans is a place that time has passed by and the streets are straight out of mining history. There are no facsimiles here.

Oterehua frost Otago Central Rail Trail

St Bathans was typical of a gold mining town because the first buildings were probably not intended to last very long, due to the fickle nature of gold mining. Unexpectedly, some have survived and form an eclectic mix of mud brick and timber buildings including the town hall which has been restored.

Camping is available at the St Bathans Domain campsite. It’s a basic DOC site with toilets and water from a tap. There are nine tent sites and it’s free to stay there.  You can always stay in Ranfurly, or in any of the small towns like Wedderburn on the way around the Central Otago rail trail or even Naseby, another former gold mining town where DOC manages the old Post Office. The building contains much of its original fittings and equipment and is currently leased as a craft shop and information centre. A camp ground at Danseys Pass coach inn has the basics of camping on hand and sits adjacent to an old arboretum (tree collection to those who had wondered). The site provides access to Oteake Conservation Park at Buster diggings with gold mining relics like mine tailings and water races.

Oteake – Homestead campsite

Golden hills in Oteake

Getting into a Graham Sydney landscape can be as easy as a visit to Oteake Conservation Park. Over 64,000 hectares of the St Bathans, Ewe, Hawkdun, Ida and St Marys ranges form the park with outstanding landscapes including mountainous high country, rolling tussock hills, scree, wetlands and shrubs.

There is a network of huts in the park but for those driving around and looking for a less adventurous access to the park, the Homestead Campsite is a good starting point. This basic campsite has water on tap and toilets. Like many of DOC’s more obscure sites, it’s free to stay there and provides an ideal platform for exploring options for mountain biking, 4WD, fishing, and easy tramping in the nearby St Bathans and Hawkdun Ranges. From SH85, turn into the Ranfurly end of Loop Road, then into Hawkdun Runs Road and follow the road to the campsite. There are two unbridged fords to contend with but these are not an issue in summer.

In Camping, Historic, Otago, Recreation , , , , , , , , , ,
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Farewell to Barry Lawrence, passionate conservation worker, advocate and friend

Department of Conservation —  16/12/2011

Every Friday Jobs at DOC will take you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

Today we profile Programme Manager, Barry Lawrence, who died at home last Wednesday after a short battle with cancer. Never one to blow his own trumpet, we decided to do it for him…

Barry in the field with the mōhua he worked so hard to protect

An active member of the Wakatipu Environmental Society since the 1980s, two-term councillor with the Queenstown Lakes District Council, mayoral candidate, school teacher, dry stone dyker, shearer, DOC volunteer and most recently DOC Biodiversity Programme Manager, Barry’s contribution to the community and conservation over the last 30 years has been enormous.

As a councillor, he drew up the provisions of the 1995 District Plan controlling subdivision and protecting local landscape values. Out of the office he became a staunch protector of these values, spending countless voluntary hours preparing submissions and appearing at the Environment Court.

The importance of this work and the regard that Barry was held in was recognised in 2008, when he was awarded the Queen Service Medal for services ‘to local body affairs and the environment’.

Barry was a great teacher, shown here teaching colleagues how to mist net

The 1990s saw Barry unleash his passion for species and habitat protection, firstly by developing and staffing the first DOC volunteer mōhua and bat survey projects in the Dart and the Caples. Subsequently employed full time as Programme Manager Bio-Assets in 2002, Barry grew this work into much larger-scale pest tracking, trapping, treatment and bird monitoring programmes, the results of which we all enjoy today.

Barry and Ray Molloy at a local 1080 operation

Great examples of Barry’s relentless pursuit of restoring and maintaining the natural environment in the Wakatipu include protecting mōhua; saving bat habitat from development proposals in the Routeburn; getting a local power company to get on board with falcon research; demonstrating the importance of farm shrublands to falcon habitat; working with a local jet boat operator to fund research into black-fronted terns in the Dart and the Rees; and most recently developing a host of sites for kōwhai plantings.

Barry in his element – an evening filled with friends, stories, food and drink (and a giant haggis!)

In addition to all of Barry’s species and habitat protection, he also led the Area’s RMA advocacy work. With his considerable prior knowledge and skill in this field he was able to secure all manner of gains, large and small, through the process. The recent agreement with a Queenstown property developer to remove a 50 hectare block of mature wilding pines seeding the upper Shotover is a great example of Barry both seeing, and more importantly, seizing the opportunity.

A happy Barry – post beer and looking a bit woolly

Despite all of this work, it is many of Barry’s other more personal attributes that friends and family will remember him by – his ability to cut to the nub of complex issues (1080 being one), his big laugh, long hours in the field, a love of whiskey, beer, cider and Jimmies mutton pies, the DOC staff pig farming collective and his all together far too animated story telling (while driving) on dodgy trips up to Macetown, are just some of the many things we’ll all miss!

Put really simply, as Barry liked things put, he was good fun to be around. He is survived by his wife Pauline and daughters Rebecca and Meg and will be greatly missed.

Check out Barry on YouTube in this Shrublands Foodstore for NZ Falcon clip.

In Jobs at DOC, Otago , , , , , ,
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Kiwi Ranger – at a place near you!

Sarah Mankelow —  14/12/2011

Kiwi Ranger is a fun, interactive programme for kids of all ages – from 3 to 103! It’s a great way for families to explore new places together and learn something as well as having heaps of fun. Each Kiwi Ranger place has its own booklet full of fun activities and walks to do, developed by Mick Abbott and Carli Richter of Shades of Green. Complete the activities to earn a badge – unique to each location – and the title of Kiwi Ranger.

Blank Kiwi Ranger badge.

Blank Kiwi Ranger badge

It’s only in the South Island so far, but with more sites coming on board, it will soon be at a place near you!

In fact, where would you like to see Kiwi Ranger go next?

Design a badge for your favourite place and be in to win a fabulous books and brochures prize pack!

Entries close 1 February 2012-the winner will be announced on the DOC website.

Worksheets available online at www.doc.govt.nz/kiwiranger

Check out the badges for the current sites below for some ideas-and to plan your next family holiday!

Aoraki/Mt Cook Kiwi Ranger badge

Aoraki/Mt Cook Kiwi Ranger badge

Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park

Come and marvel at high snow covered peaks–including Aoraki/Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. Experience stunning glaciers and lakes filled with huge icebergs. Take the Scavenger hunt challenge to explore the park and track down its special features in all its nooks and crannies. Spot amazing plants, birds and animals in the stained glass windows in the Visitor Centre.

Come and be an Aoraki/Mt Cook Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the national park visitor centre.

Kids say…
“I am going to reuse, recycle, reduce and limit the amount of water I use” 
“I pledge to promote our beautiful surroundings and protect our country”

Arthur's Pass Kiwi Ranger badge.

Arthur's Pass Kiwi Ranger badge

Arthur’s Pass

Kea, kiwi and kakariki are some of the incredible New Zealand birds you may hear or spot on your Arthur’s Pass Kiwi Ranger adventure – in our old alpine village high in the Southern Alps.

Close your eyes and fill up your senses by finding a spot where you can smell the spray from the Devils Punchbowl waterfall; or take your shoes off and, very gently, let the moss between your toes. Interview a ranger to find out how you can help the clever kea keep out of trouble, or come and join in the Kea Krypton Challenge as part of our summer programme  in January 2012.

Come and be an Arthur’s Pass Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the national park visitor centre on SH 73, Arthur’s Pass village.

 Kids say….
“I will plant trees and flowers for the bees”
“I won’t have long showers, and I will tell my mum to use organic cleaners” 

Franz Josef Kiwi Ranger badge.

Franz Josef Kiwi Ranger badge

Franz Josef

Franz Josef is a really special place with a huge icy glacier right next to lush green rainforest… and then the beach is really close to that! Great walks will take you to all these places – even to Okarito – ‘O’ for awesome!

It’s a great place to Rock on! Take two river rocks to make your own rockflour fingerprints! It’s raining its pouring? Make your own rain gauge to discover why they call it rainforest!

Come and be a Franz Josef Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the national park visitor centre 13 State Highway 6.

 Kids say …
“I liked finding out which trees grow on the West Coast compared to where I live on the other side of the mountains”

Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary

 Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Journey into our forest of knowledge. Experience lush cloud forest and behold a myriad of rare birds and plants – including kaka, robin, saddleback, kiwi and rifleman. Walk through our pest-resistant fence and go back in time to a world without mammalian predators. Stretch your ears and do a sound map of bird song or find water creatures in the streams and ponds.

Come and be an Orokonui Ecosanctuary Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the Ecosanctuary visitor centre.

 Kids say…
“I will make bird feeders”
“I will not let our native animals go extinct.  I will kill pests.” 

Nelson Lakes Kiwi Ranger badge.

Nelson Lakes Kiwi Ranger badge

Nelson Lakes

 It’s amazing to stop and listen to tui and korimako/bellbird singing in the forests of Nelson Lakes – how they combine with the whoosh of wings, whispering winds or the lapping of waves on nearby Lake Rotoiti to create a symphony of sound.

A sound map is just one of the fun things to do here as part of Kiwi Ranger – or you can get up close and personal with eels/tuna, taste the sweet honeydew and more.

Come and be a Nelson Lakes Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the Nelson Lakes Visitor Centre.  

Kids say…
“I will cut pine trees down and shoot pests”  

Mt Aspiring Kiwi Ranger badge.

Mt Aspiring Kiwi Ranger badge

Mt Aspiring

Mt Aspiring National Park is part of the Te Wähipounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area which means it’s so special that protecting it concerns all people. Explore what lives in its high mountains, remote wilderness and river valleys by becoming a forest detective, doing a scavenger hunt or pinpointing pesky pests. Be creative and sketch your favourite rock – how did it become that shape? Check out other kids having heaps of Kiwi Ranger fun in our new video!

Come and be a Mt Aspiring Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at Mt Aspiring National Park (Wanaka) and Makarora visitor centres.

Kids say…
“I will never feed kea”
“I will make sure my cat never hurts birds”

In Canterbury, National parks, Nelson/Marlborough, Old Conservation Week posts, Otago, Recreation, West Coast
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It’s your place, have your say…

Andrew Lonie —  20/01/2011

Managing DOC land… How hard can it be?

Well, it’s certainly easier if people tell us what they think. If you’ve got a treasured family campsite, or favourite fishing spot you’d like kept unspoilt – or if you’ve got a gripe about the way wildlife or one of your special places is being managed, we’d like to hear about it.

4WD trip in Oteake Conservation Park. Photo: C Babirat.

4WD - a popular form of recreation on DOC land

 
In Otago and Southland, DOC is seeking comment on what you value (or don’t value) on conservation land by way of a Google Maps mashup. This is an early-bird chance to have input into DOC’s Conservation Management Strategies (more formal consultation will take place later in the year).
Hoiho and chicks. Photo: C Pullar.

Hoiho - an iconic southern seabird - and chicks

It takes about 20 minutes – you can stick electronic pins with comments on a map, showing what you value in different locations and how you’d like it to be managed. There’s also a short survey to complement this and to tell us a wee bit about you.
Stewart Town, Bannockburn Sluicings, Central Otago. Photo: A Lonie.

Stewart Town, Bannockburn Sluicings - one of my own favourite spots

DOC is looking for feedback in other regions too, by different means –  find out how in the Consultations section of the DOC website. But for the Deep South:

Tell us what you value on conservation land in Otago
Tell us what you value on conservation land in Southland

Have your say by adding comments to the Google map.

The Google map lets you mark and comment on places you value

Once you’ve completed the survey you’ll have the option of later receiving the survey results, and being kept up-to-date with DOC’s conservation management plans. And finally, we’d also love to hear from your family and friends on what’s important to them – please pass it on!
Blue Lake, St Bathans. Photo: R Suisted.

Summer family fun at Blue Lake, St Bathans

In Historic, Native animals, Otago, Recreation, Regions, Southland
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