We’ve put together our top five photography tips to help you capture stunning images of our native wildlife.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
Today’s photo of the week is of a native fern growing next to the Blue Pools on the West Coast of the South Island.
New Zealand is home to about 200 fern species, ranging from ten-metre-high tree ferns, to filmy ferns just 20 millimetres long. About 40% of these species occur nowhere else in the world.
Te Papa Museum is holding an online Science Live event this Friday (16 May) which will take viewers into the secret world of New Zealand’s ferns.
Botany curator, Leon Perrie, will be there to talk about our native fern species. Leon will also be answering questions during the live broadcast.
The event will be streaming live from 2—2:30 pm on the Te Papa YouTube channel.
Photo by Daniel Pietzsch | CC BY-NC 2.0
Today’s photo, of a Stewart Island tokoeka kiwi, celebrates Save Kiwi Week (14 – 20 October).
Tokoeka – literally meaning “weka with a walking stick” (Ngai Tahu) has four geographically and genetically distinct forms—Haast, northern Fiordland, southern Fiordland and Stewart Island.
The Stewart Island tokoeka are unusual among kiwi for being active during the daytime, as you can see in this photo taken by Alina Thiebes.
Stewart Island/Rakiura is probably the easiest place to observe kiwi in the wild, where some 20,000 still survive.
You can find out more about Save Kiwi Week and how you can help to protect kiwi on the Kiwis for kiwi website.
New Zealand’s largest living kauri tree—Tāne Mahuta, Lord of the Forest—is this week’s photo of the week.
With such a majestic name, Tāne Mahuta is an apt choice for Māori Language Week, with its focus on ‘Ngā ingoa Māori, Māori names’.
Tāne Mahuta stands in Waipoua Forest in Northland and is thought to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years old.
According to Maori mythology Tāne was the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatūānuku the earth mother. Tāne was the child that separated his parents’ embrace, bringing light to the earth, and clothing his mother in the forest we have today. All living creatures of the forest are regarded as Tāne’s children.
The tree is a remnant of the ancient subtropical rainforest that once grew on the North Auckland Peninsula.
This photo was taken by C S Jones.
Visit Waipoua Forest
The forests of Waipoua are the garden of Tane Mahuta. Waipoua, and the adjoining forests of Mataraua and Waima, make up the largest remaining tract of native forest in Northland. Good walking tracks give easy access to the most spectacular attractions of the forest: the giant trees Tane Mahuta, Te Matua Ngahere and Yakas. Tramping tracks and routes are also available for those who wish to venture deeper into the forest, especially in the high plateau and ranges.
Learn more about visiting Waipoua
Send us your photos
If you have a great, conservation related photo you want to share with the world (or at least the readers of this blog) send it through to us at socialmedia@doc.govt.nz.
This week’s photo of the week was shared by Sirocco Kakapo, after the recent death of Fuchsia the kākāpō on Codfish Island/Whenua Hou:
Skraaarrk! We are now 124. Fuchsia kākāpō was as lovely as the native flower she was named after and I am so very sorry that she is no longer with us.
The dazzling purple, green and pink colours of our native fuchsia, known as kotukutuku, have been captured beautifully in this photo. Taken at Catchpool, near Wellington, by Biodiversity Ranger Brent Tandy, it is a special reminder of the life and passing of a lovely old kākāpō.
Send us your photos
If you have a great, conservation related photo you want to share with the world (or at least the readers of this blog) send it through to us at socialmedia@doc.govt.nz.
