Ever wondered what a baby kakapo looks like? Check out conservation superstar Sirocco as a fuzzy 185 gram chick.
Continue Reading...I’m all for a whitebait fritter, but I wonder how many people realise that they are eating the young of some of our rare native fish as they chow down on this kiwi classic?
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The online world is pretty new to DOC staff, but this week we saw how quickly things can blow up – in a remarkable and positive way!
It started a few days ago, when BBC aired the episode of their new series “Last Chance to See” which featured our favourite kakapo, Sirocco. In fact, what REALLY caught people’s interest, was when Sirocco got a bit ‘up close and personal’ with presenter Mark Cawardine. 650 000 Youtube hits later – and New Zealand’s very own kakapo had been catapulted into the international spotlight.
Within a matter of hours after Sirocco’s starring perfomance on “Last Chance to See”, his Facebook page jumped by another 750 friends, and now boasts 2500 online ‘friends’ who are besotted with kakapo and what we do to look after them here in New Zealand.
Department of Conservation staff have been amazed by the response that viewers of the BBC programme, starring Stephen Fry and Mark Cawardine, has evoked from the British public. This morning, Sirocco’s antics even featured in “The Sun” newspaper in the UK.
The show “Last Chance to See” is a remake of the series that the late Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine recorded for radio and published a book on in 1990.
Many of the comments posted on Sirocco’s rapidly growing Facebook page send words of support and encouragement to kākāpō recovery as well as many offers of donations to continue to increase the survival of the kākāpō.
I’ve been acting a wee bit as Sirocco’s “publicist” during this time (he couldn’t keep up with all the media interest on his own!) – and we decided that he could definitely benefit from having a Twitter account. So, yesterday, to celebrate the amazing response we have had, we launched a Twitter account for him www.twitter.com/spokesbird (it’s case-sensitive i think too).
When I last checked his Twitter account this afternoon – I found that more than 1500 people are now following his regular Tweets (he prefers to call them “Skraaarks”) which are all about kakapo conservation in New Zealand. We’d love for you to join up to follow him too – so by all means, get on Twitter, and I’ll make sure Sirocco sends out plenty of relevant kakapo information.
What I think is really cool about all of this is that it reminds us that while we may not have megafauna such as lions, tigers or bears in New Zealand – our charismatic, unique and special wildlife is of great interest to people around the world.
And the neat thing about using all of this social media palava, is that we can connect with people all over the world, who are showing a genuine interest in the conservation of our precious native wildlife. That is, they’re not just seeing the Youtube video and having a giggle (although how could you not!?), but they are also taking the time to reach out via the internet to find out A) more about kakapo and B) what they might be able to do to help the species. This is an amazing situation – and one we are watching with great interest!
I thought i’d finish up by posting one of the HUNDREDS of messages that people have posted on Twitter and Facebook, from a lady called Leia in the UK.
“I too saw you on “Last chance to see” all the way over in Wales, UK, what a star you are 🙂 I hope you and your kind are around for many more years to come and that there’ll always be lovely and dedicated people around to help you out :)”
It makes me real proud to be a kiwi (or should i say kakapo today!?) when people around the world are looking at how we do conservation in little old Aotearoa.
Sirocco the superstar and his 'publicist' in quieter times... he sure does keep me busy!
NZ on Screen’s Nature collection of Natural History New Zealand documentaries bring home how much our national identity is tied up with our natural identity.
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I remember reading journal stories at school which talked about tuna (eels) and being terrified of them through their descriptions about them lurking in rivers with big teeth. As a city-born lassie I thought they were everywhere and they would bite my feet off. Since moving to Wairarapa I understand this is not the case – our eels are in massive decline.
Longfin eel image captured by Alton Perrie at Greater Wellington Regional Council
Here in Wairarapa DOC, iwi and Greater Wellington Regional Council officers have unofficially decided to spend a year promoting tuna, particularly the endangered longfin, to our community to highlight what an exciting species it is. Hopefully we can raise awareness and people will start to respect this incredible fish who migrates from Tonga when its only a few millimetres long.
So far this year we’ve got some eel stories in the media including on Good Morning on TVNZ, tuna were a topic that children who attended our Ngahuru, Enviroschool’s Wairarapa day of learning could understand more and see them get fed at Pukaha Mount Bruce where some big longfins live and we were lucky enought to have Caleb Royale, a scientist from Te Wananga o Raukawa, to host a field trip at Papawai marae.
To finish off our year of promotion we’re working with Rangitane o Wairarapa to publish a teacher’s resource on tuna. Joseph Potangaroa has written up everything he knows about them both scientifically, historically and culturally, found some awesome photographs and developed resources children can do in class to learn.
Hopefully if we can help bring tuna alive then the next generations will help us to restore our land and stop over-fishing of such an incredible species.
We’re currently drawing up a bid for funding so our plan can become action so watch this space and maybe I’ll upload the document when it comes into action! Let’s hope everyone can start to develop an understanding of how important tuna are for NZ and not be scared of them any longer.
Here in Wairarapa, goodness gracious I’ve never seen so many eels, that many over here that the drains at Te Hopai used to be 8 feet deep, just a mass of eels going out to sea. I’ve seen that, and we just put in a big wire, no barb and just pulled them out, out of the drains. Big wide drains, about 12 feet wide. The drains were thick with eels. You could hear them at night like ducks taking off and you know they’re running.
From an interview with Wiremu Aspinall 2001
Some interesting facts about eels you may not know:
- Eels breed once in their lives and then die
- Females don’t mature until they’re 34 years old, males until they’re 23-25
- A female longin eel can have between 1-20 million eggs
- They swin 6,000 kilometres to deep warm trenches, possibly off the Tongan coast where each eel lays or fertilises eggs. All the adults then die.
- The eggs develop into tiny see through creatures called leptocephalus. These drift on currents back towards the New Zealand coast.
- Leptocephalus develop into glass eels. Between July and November large numbers of the tiny eels enter waterways. A week later glass eels develop dark skin pigment and become elvers.
- Elvers can climb straight up wet rock faces and other obstacles as they move inland.
More information on tuna can be found on the DOC website, you can watch an edition of TVNZ6 Meet the Locals where they look at eels, you can order a very special DVD called Longfin and you can head to Pukaha Mount Bruce and watch the daily eel feed with DOC rangers.
