Researching the Eastern rosella

The Eastern rosella is a bird native to Australia. It is now very common in the North Island of New Zealand, and it lives in small pockets in the South Island, with the largest population around Dunedin. The Eastern rosella was first introduced in New Zealand in 1910 in Dunedin.

In the museums they keep what they call "skins" of birds. Birds are being preserved by keeping only the skin and stuffing this. Most birds at Auckland Museum have been put on a stick. Here is my favourite rosella. I like it because it is one of the brightest birds in the collection, and it's got a small black feather among the red ones on its chest.

I have been taking a variety of measurements to find out whether the Eastern rosella has changed over the years it has been in New Zealand. You might know that animals adapt to different environments, although this happens very slowly over a long time. For example penguins who live closer to the south pole have shorter legs and wings.

What I found out is that the wing length of the rosella in New Zealand is shorter than the wing length of the rosella in Australia. This might be because New Zealand is colder than Australia, and Eastern rosellas have adapted to decrease heat loss.  "Might" is a very important word here, as not many people have researched the Eastern rosella in New Zealand, and there could be many other reasons for the difference in wing length.

This is one of the reasons scientists have to work together. From each research project many new questions arise, and just one scientist would never be able to answer all these questions.

Here I am using a special measuring instrument for birds. It is a wing ruler with a stop. 

The Great Bioblitz

Last week I spend two days at Pourewa Reserve and Kepa Bush, where the great Bioblitz was carried out.  Many scientist and members of the public were invited to help find and count every species to be found in this area.

Pourewa reserve has recently been returned to the local tribe, Ngāti Whātua, and they would like to restore the Maui (life force) of the land.

The aim of the Bioblitz was to find out what lives there now, at the start of this project, so we can over time find out what has changed in the environment. A large area of the land is currently in use as paddocks, which is a monoculture, and lots of weeds grow in the reserve. Ngāti Whātua would like to plant more native plants to increase the variety of life, and this will over time also help increase the different types of insects, birds and other life forms.

Many kinds of detectives were needed – bird watchers, insect catchers, moss and plant gatherers, and bacteria swabbers.

Most species were identified on site by scientists, but some bacteria had to be “taken home” to be looked at. I will share the results with you as soon as we know the final count.

So many school kids, families and scientists enjoyed themselves and learned about the variety of species that we found in the reserve.

My highlight was to spend some time with our very own Bugman, Ruud Kleinpaste, who helped us find some interesting creatures, and had many stories to tell about them.

If you would like to hear some of his stories go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh6KVhdPHeE

Ka kite ano!

Mrs van de Ven

My Wildlife Adventure

Standing on a cliff, wind in my back and looking through binoculars, I was scanning the beach for this magical creature I had been wanting to encounter for many years. And finally there it was, this bird with its yellow band around its yellow eyes returning from a day's hunting at sea. Coming home to climb up the hill and rest in its nest. A little later, our group was watching the yellow-eyed penguins, or hoiho, from very close distance from the viewing hides. They were moving into their nest, and into horizontal sleeping position.

On our way to the viewing hide, we almost stumbled over a young male sea lion, fast asleep in the tussock. These are enormous creatures; the adult male reaching up to 3 metres in length, and weighing up to 400 kg. Although it was beautiful and exciting to see a sea lion for the first time, you probably understand why I didn't want to get too close...

Earlier on we had tramped to a viewing spot to watch a fur seal colony. It was late afternoon, and many mothers were feeding their young pups. Older pups were play fighting, frolicking in the rock pools, or just having a rest on the rocks.

Luckily there was enough wind to be able to see the royal albatross. Otago peninsula is the only breeding place for albatrosses on mainland New Zealand. As these birds are gliders, they need to catch the wind to be able to fly. The royal albatrosses are the largest of the world's seabirds with a body length of 1.2 metres, and a wingspan of 3.3 metres. 

Another special bird we saw was the royal spoon bill, which looks so comical with it funnily shaped bill, and strange hairdo. 

This tour was very ably guided by a young marine scientist, who had just finished her masters degree at Otago University. I wouldn't mind having her job, as I could easily go out each day to watch all these wonderful creatures, and tell their stories to interested people from all over the world. 

See you next time!

Photos courtesy of Shaun Templeton - Elm Wildlife Tours

My Week at Otago University

I just spent a very busy week down south in Dunedin. I attended a Leadership Course at Otago University, School of Business. This is the oldest university in New Zealand, and walking around these beautiful old buildings I felt like stepping onto the set of a Harry Potter movie! 

My days there were possibly a bit like your days at school, starting at 9 am and having morning tea and lunch at about the same time as you at CPS. It only went on a bit longer, till 5 pm, and we had to do homework as well. Sometimes it felt as if my brain was doing a marathon, and I thought this must be how you feel sometimes when you are learning lots of new things at school. I was there with 18 other Primary and Secondary teachers and two lecturers.

Some of the things I learnt were that it is very important for leaders that they:

• keep their promises
• show they care about others
• listen well to others
• treat others with respect
• and ask for feed-back

Which of these five do you think you do best? 

I hope to hear from you!

Regards, 

Mrs van de Ven

Sam's Shrimp

Sam is a seven year old boy who went fishing for the first time. He was on holiday in the Kaipara, north of Auckland. To his surprise he didn’t catch a fish, but this giant shrimp, called Japanese mantis shrimp. A shrimp is not a fish, but a crustacean. It has a powerful spear, which it uses to hunt. You don’t want this creature lashing out at your finger, as it could spear right through it!  Can you tell from the picture how large it is?

The Japanese mantis shrimp is an invasive species, which means it doesn’t belong in NZ, and has a negative effect on the environment. It probably arrived here on a fishing vessel.

Sam donated his catch to the museum, and now it has become part of the marine collection. 

The lady in the picture is Wilma. She works at the museum and is a taxonomist, which means she can identify many creatures and give them the correct label. She told me the scientific name for this shrimp is Oratosquila oratorio. 

Fun fact: in Japan they eat hem as sushi. 

What stands on top of a hill and is full of birds, bones and fishes?

Probably all of you have been here once or more, particularly during the holidays. It's the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and I am lucky enough to work here now! My work desk is in the Marine Science department, where I am surrounded by a lot of very kind and clever scientists, and at the moment I am studying invasive birds. Invasive birds are the opposite of native birds, the ones we all love so much, and some of them you might have studied in school, like the Whio and Kiwi. Invasive birds are birds that came here from overseas, usually on board of ships. Some examples are sparrows, mynas and rosellas. They sometimes compete with our native birds for food and nesting spaces, so can be a threat to our native birds. The more we know about these invasive species, the better we are able to protect our toanga, our treasured native birds.

Ka kite ano!