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Reptiles of the Poor Knights Islands

16 February 2013 – 8.04pm

Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly recently visited the Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve, off the Northland coast, as part of a research team tracking the at-sea movements of Buller’s shearwaters. The project is led by Graeme Taylor of the Department of Conservation, and is intended to identify the marine environments used by these elegant seabirds, both when raising young and when on migration. Here, Colin illustrates the nine reptile species that occur on the islands.

The Poor Knights Islands have a diverse, abundant and distinctive reptile fauna. It is diverse and abundant because the islands have never had introduced predators, other than pigs that were present on Aorangi Island until their eradication in 1936. It is distinctive as the islands are separated from the Northland coast by deep water, and so remained as isolated islands throughout periods of low sea-level during Pleistocene ice ages. This water barrier impeded lizard movements (and hence gene flow) to the extent that three Poor Knights Islands lizard species are considered to be distinct from their relatives on the mainland and nearby islands.

The Poor Knights Islands looking south, with Tawhiti Rahi in the foreground and Aorangi Island beyond. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The top predator on the Poor Knights Islands is the tuatara, a large iguana-like reptile that is only distantly related to lizards. It lives in burrows, often in an uneasy truce with burrow-nesting seabirds. Our visit to the islands was focussed on one of the seabirds – the endemic Buller’s shearwater – and two of our study chicks were decapitated during our stay, almost certainly by tuatara.

Tuatara, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

A decapitated Buller’s shearwater chick, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Tuatara are considered sit-and-wait predators, waiting motionless for lizards, large invertebrates, or hapless seabird chicks to venture within striking distance of their jaws. As a consequence, their diet is recognised as comprising ground fauna only. It never occurred to anyone that tuatara could catch and eat fully-flighted forest birds – but they can! Many young bellbirds were feeding on fallen karaka fruit around our camp. On the last day of our stay, I was alerted by alarm-calls from the bellbirds, and a commotion in the leaf litter, and was able to snap this remarkable image of a tuatara carrying a freshly killed bellbird.

A tuatara holding a freshly killed bellbird, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The second largest reptile on the Poor Knights Islands is Duvaucel’s gecko. Growing up to 30 cm long, these are New Zealand’s largest and heaviest lizards. Introduced predators have confined them to islands off northern New Zealand and in Cook Strait, where they emerge at night to forage on the forest floor and over rocks and tree trunks.

Duvaucel's gecko, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Duvaucel’s gecko (Hoplodactylus duvaucelii), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The most abundant lizard on the Poor Knights Islands is the much smaller Poor Knights gecko. This species has yet to be given a scientific name, having only recently been recognised as distinct from the widely-distributed Pacific gecko. Poor Knights geckos are extraordinarily variable in their colours and markings, as shown in the following image of 15 that were clustered under a coastal rock.

Poor Knights gecko (Dactylocnemis undescribed species), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

A cluster of Poor Knights geckos, showing their variable colour and markings. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The remaining six lizard species on the Poor Knights Islands are all skinks, only two of which were abundant and easy to find. The largest skink species there is the marbled skink, which also occurs on the Mercury and Alderman Island groups east of the Coromandel Peninsula. Marbled skinks are mainly nocturnal, hiding in seabird burrows and rock crevices during the day. However, we saw a few pregnant females basking in the sun, presumably to get extra warmth to increase the growth rate of their young.

Marbled skink, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Marbled skink (Oligosoma oliveri), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The as-yet unnamed Aorangi skink is much smaller than the marbled skink. It forages at night in leaf litter in areas with smaller rocks (and therefore smaller crevices), presumably to give protection from larger lizards and tuatara that might eat it. This skink is found only on the Poor Knights Islands, and has only recently been recognised as distinct from the ornate skink, which is found throughout the North Island.

Aorangi skink, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Aorangi skink (Oligosoma undescribed species), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Smaller still is another endemic species – Hardy’s skink, which is one of New Zealand’s smallest lizard species. We found Hardy’s skinks living among damp coastal vegetation, but they were secretive and hard to find.

Hardy's skink, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Hardy’s skink (Oligosoma hardyi), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The three remaining skink species present on the Poor Knights Islands are all widely distributed on northern offshore islands. Two of these (shore skink and moko skink) were ultra-wary, hiding among dense coastal vegetation, and scuttling away at the slightest disturbance.

Shore skink, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Shore skink (Oligosoma smithi), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Moko skink, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Moko skink (Oligosoma moco), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The ninth and final reptile species present on the Poor Knights Islands is Suter’s skink, which is New Zealand’s only egg-laying lizard. These sinuous skinks emerged at night to forage over coastal rocks, readily jumping into rock pools if disturbed. They are excellent swimmers, both on the water surface and along the bottom of pools.

Suter's skink, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Suter’s skink (Oligosoma suteri), Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Graeme Taylor of the Department of Conservation (DOC) for organising and leading the visit, and DOC Northland staff for logistic support. David Boyle assisted with finding some of the more elusive lizard species.

By Colin Miskelly | Posted in Biodiversity, Conservation, Field trips, Reptiles | Also tagged gecko, lizards, skink | Comments (6)

Life through a burrowscope lens (Part 2) – subterranean Poor Knights Islands

16 February 2013 – 8.03pm

Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly recently visited the Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve, off the Northland coast, as part of a research team tracking the at-sea movements of Buller’s shearwaters. The project is led by Graeme Taylor of the Department of Conservation, and is intended to identify the marine environments used by these elegant seabirds, both when raising young and when on migration. Buller’s shearwaters breed only on the Poor Knights Islands, and migrate to the North Pacific after breeding. They breed in rock crevices or in burrows that they excavate in soil. Here, Colin describes some of the wildlife they share their subterranean homes with.

An adult Buller’s shearwater on Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

A burrowscope is a field-hardened endoscope on steroids, used to view the interior of burrows. It can be used to determine whether a burrow is occupied or vacant, to identify what species is in a burrow, and to provide information on breeding success. At least seven species of seabirds excavate or breed in burrows and rock crevices on the Poor Knights Islands, and many other animals also inhabit the thousands of burrows there.

Buller’s shearwater burrows on Oneho hill, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The following images show some of the secrets of underground life on this pest-free nature reserve. During our visit (late January to early February), most of the breeding seabird species had finished breeding, but the Buller’s shearwaters had recently hatched their eggs.

An adult Buller’s shearwater inside its burrow, viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Buller’s shearwater egg viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Buller’s shearwater chick inside its burrow, viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Several species of reptiles live in burrows on the Poor Knights Islands, including tuatara, which occasionally kill and eat shearwater chicks. The smaller skinks and geckos usually move rapidly away from the light cast by the burrowscope, and rarely pose long enough for a photograph to be taken.

Tuatara inside a shearwater burrow on Aorangi Island, as viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

A marbled skink (the dark shape on the right) inside a shearwater burrow on Aorangi Island, as viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Duvaucel’s gecko inside a shearwater burrow on Aorangi Island, as viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Flax snails hide in seabird burrows and under rocks during the day, emerging on damp nights to graze on fallen leaves.

Flax snail (Placostylus hongii) inside a shearwater burrow on Aorangi Island, as viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

In addition to many seabird species, some landbirds also nest in burrows. We found a kingfisher nest in a low bank, with the entrance only 20 cm above the forest floor. The two large chicks inside froze statue-like when the burrowscope was inserted into their hole.

Kingfisher burrow entrance, Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands Nature Reserve. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Two fully-grown kingfisher chicks inside their burrow on Aorangi Island, viewed through a burrowscope. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

By Colin Miskelly | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Bugs, insects and spiders, Conservation, Field trips, Reptiles | Also tagged Buller's shearwater, burrowscope, gecko, kingfisher, lizards, skink, snails | Comments (4)

Critters of Titi Island Nature Reserve, Marlborough Sounds

16 January 2013 – 4.28pm

Titi Island is a 32-ha reserve administered by the Department of Conservation and situated in the outer Marlborough Sounds. The island’s fauna was impacted by introduced Norway rats until these were eradicated in the early 1970s. The island has since been free of all introduced predators. Two species of large flightless insects plus tuatara were introduced to the island between 1995 & 2001 (see below). Te Papa researchers visited the island in January 2013 to attach tracking devices to breeding flesh-footed shearwaters, and to estimate the breeding population of these threatened birds. Our 3-day visit also provided an opportunity to encounter some of the island’s more cryptic wildlife.

The most well-known of Titi Island’s inhabitants are the tuatara introduced from North Brother Island and from captivity in 1995. At the time, tuatara from the Brothers Islands were considered to be a separate species from other tuatara. More recent genetic research has resulted in all tuatara being lumped back together as a single variable species. We encountered several tuatara inside shearwater burrows that we checked with a burrowscope.

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Three lizard species are known from Titi Island. We found all three species to be present, but were surprised how few individuals we found. Rodent-free islands typically have abundant lizard populations.

Spotted skink (Oligosoma lineoocellatum) among iceplant on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The two spotted skinks seen were among low coastal vegetation, as was the single common gecko found. Spotted skinks occur from Hawke’s Bay south to South Canterbury, but are most abundant on islands in the Marlborough Sounds and Wellington Harbour. They are a sun-loving species, and are most often noticed as they move back under cover when they detect someone approaching. Common geckos occur from Northland to Marlborough and Nelson, and are extremely abundant on many islands in the Marlborough Sounds and around Wellington. They are nocturnal, hiding during the day and emerging to forage at night.

Common gecko (Woodworthia maculata) on dead coastal flax/wharariki on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The single brown skink seen was among a rock outcrop under forest. This species occurs from Taranaki south to north Westland, again being most abundant on rodent-free islands. It does not require as much access to sunlight as the larger spotted skink, and can be found under open forest as well as among grass and shrubland.

Brown skink (Oligosoma zelandicum) on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Weevils are a group of beetles with a bad name, as some species are major pests of crops and stored food products. But they are an extraordinarily diverse group, with the weevil family containing more species than any other family of organisms on the planet. New Zealand has several large flightless weevil species that are mainly or entirely confined to sites that lack introduced rodents. These include the flax weevils introduced to Titi Island from nearby Maud Island in 2001. We found their characteristic feeding sign on flax plants all over the island, but the 2 cm-long animals were only visible at night when they emerged to feed.

Flax weevil (Anagotus fairburni) and its characteristic ragged feeding sign on a coastal flax/wharariki leaf on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The most frequently encountered large beetle on Titi Island was a species of darkling beetle (genus Mimopeus). These also emerged at night, but were often found under rocks and in bird burrows during the day, and their larvae were common in the soil. Darkling beetles are a staple diet item for tuatara on many islands, though tuatara are partial to weta when they can catch them.

Darkling beetle (Mimopeus sp.) on a tree trunk on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

We failed to find any sign of the Cook Strait giant weta introduced to Titi Island from Maud Island in 2001, but did not have an opportunity to search the right habitats at night. The similarly-sized Wellington tree weta were very common, emerging at night and mainly staying in the trees out of reach of hungry tuatara.

Female Wellington tree weta (Hemideina crassidens) on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

We had been warned of tent-eating ground weta before our arrival. These voracious little (2.5 cm-long) weta live in tunnels in the soil and emerge at night to find other insects to eat. If anything is placed over their tunnel entrances, they simply chew through it. Rather than having our tent groundsheets wrecked, we devised the cunning plan of placing snow-foam bedrolls under the groundsheets. This was to little avail – the ground weta still chewed through them!

Ground weta (Hemiandrus sp.) on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Sarah Jamieson eyeballing one of several holes chewed through her bedroll by ground weta on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

We also found several shells and one live animal of the medium-sized native landsnail Rhytida stephenensis. This carnivorous snail grows up to 34 mm across and is found on islands in the Marlborough Sounds and south to Kaikoura, with subfossil records from Takaka Hill.

The carnivorous snail Rhytida stephenensis on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

By Colin Miskelly | Posted in Biodiversity, Bugs, insects and spiders, Conservation, Field trips, Reptiles | Also tagged gecko, lizards, skink, snail, weevil, weta | Comments (3)

Life through a burrowscope lens – subterranean Titi Island

16 January 2013 – 4.27pm

By Sarah Jamieson & Colin Miskelly

Over the past two (southern hemisphere) summers, Te Papa seabird researchers have been investigating population trends and foraging behaviour of flesh-footed shearwaters. These all-dark seabirds are well known to recreational fishers around the North Island and in Cook Strait, as the birds have the annoying habit of sitting behind boats and diving after bait. This behaviour puts the birds at risk of being hooked and drowning on both commercial and recreational fishing lines. There is also evidence that some birds are deliberately killed by fishers, presumably after they become angry with the birds interfering with fishing. Added to this is the alarming revelation that some New Zealand flesh-footed shearwaters tracked on migration were found to have foraged within a few kilometres of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the east coast of Japan. All this means bad news for flesh-footed shearwaters, which appear to be declining throughout their range.

Flesh-footed shearwater extracted from its burrow in order to be fitted with a tracking device. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Our study has two main parts – estimating numbers on land, and tracking where the birds go at sea. Flesh-footed shearwaters nest in deep burrows that they excavate in soft soil, and both parts of the study require a means to see what is under the ground. Other animals also live underground on the islands where flesh-footed shearwaters nest, and so estimating numbers requires both counts (or estimates) of the number of burrows, and measurements of occupancy rates, i.e. what percentage of burrows is occupied by flesh-footed shearwaters. In addition, to track the birds at sea, we need to not only attach tracking devices to the birds, but to re-catch the same birds some weeks later to remove the device and down-load the data. This requires selecting birds that are incubating eggs, and will have a high motivation to return to the same site after having a tracking device taped to their back feathers.

A burrow on Titi Island – but what lies within? Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

In order to see what species is in a burrow, and whether it is sitting on an egg, we use a device called a burrowscope. This is similar in principle to a surgeon’s endoscope, though of rather more robust design to cope with use in the field. A small camera lens surrounded by a cluster of lights is mounted on the end of a long flexible tube, which is carefully inserted into the burrow. An image from the camera is transmitted to a small video monitor screen, which allows the researcher to see what is in the burrow.

Te Papa researcher Dr Sarah Jamieson using a burrowscope on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Flesh-footed shearwater egg inside a burrow on Titi Island, as seen on the burrowscope monitor. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

On Titi Island in the outer Marlborough Sounds we found three bird species and one large reptile species living in the burrows. The accompanying images show some of the views we had on the burrowscope screen. Our target species (flesh-footed shearwater) looks very similar to its cousin the sooty shearwater, which also nests on Titi Island. The main distinguishing character through the burrowscope is whether the bird has a slender dark bill (sooty shearwater) or a large pale bill with a dark tip (flesh-footed shearwater).

Flesh-footed shearwater inside a burrow on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Sooty shearwater inside a burrow on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Several burrows were found to contain little penguins, which had climbed up the steep slopes from the rocky shore below. These birds had finished breeding for the year, and had returned to shore for their annual moult. The presence of a moulting penguin in a burrow was usually evident from shed feathers at the burrow entrance even before the burrowscope was inserted.

Little penguin inside a burrow on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

The rarest of the burrow inhabitants was the tuatara – an iguana-like reptile unique to New Zealand, and with no close living relatives anywhere else on earth. Tuatara mainly eat large insects and also lizards, but occasionally take small seabirds and their chicks. They seemed to have an uneasy truce with the two large shearwater species, and we found some burrows occupied by both a tuatara and a shearwater.

Tuatara inside a burrow on Titi Island. Image: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa

Information on the Sextant Technology Ltd ‘Taupe’ burrowscope used

By Colin Miskelly | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Field trips, Penguins, Reptiles | Also tagged flesh-footed shearwater, little penguin, sooty shearwaters | Comments (5)

Night Life on the Poor Knights Islands

3 February 2012 – 1.19pm

The Poor Knights Islands, northeast of Whangarei, are perhaps best known as a world-class diving location, but the life on land is no less astonishing and it really comes alive at night.

The Poor Knights Islands are the remnants of a volcanic island chain. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

Aorangi Island where we set up camp. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

In December 2011, I assisted seabird expert Graeme Taylor with his work on the migration of Buller’s Shearwaters. This species of petrel breeds only on the Poor Knights but there are massive numbers there, and in the breeding season they are a common coastal bird all around New Zealand. Graeme had attached geologgers to birds’ legs in March and needed to recapture these individuals to retrieve the data from the little devices. When we retrieved geologgers, Graeme could download the information onto his laptop in the field, so straightaway we could see the amazing journey that these birds take in their non-breeding season – firstly east of New Zealand, then rapidly north across the equator to east of Japan, then across to the North American west coast before shooting back southwest to the Poor Knights. This mammoth trip is an annual event for each bird but until now the precise route of the migration was unknown.

Buller's shearwaters nest only on the Poor Knights. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

DOC's Graeme Taylor holding a Buller's shearwater. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

A geologger on a Buller's shearwater's leg will record its migration around the Pacific. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

Like most petrels, Buller’s Shearwaters nest in rabbit-like burrows and are active on the breeding grounds only at night, so we spent most of our time with our arms down holes or searching the ground for birds at night. This gave us an opportunity to see how the islands transform from being a quiet coastal forest environment by day to a place teeming with night life. Many species of weta, giant centipedes, Placostylus snails, tuatara, numerous lizards, as well as the ever present shearwaters, only show themselves at night.

The giant land snail Placostylus hongii is common on the Poor Knights. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

This Poor Knights giant weta, climbing on DOC ranger Matiu Mataira, was found hiding in our tent. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

A tuatara hunting at night. Photo Alan Tennyson, Te Papa

The Poor Knights are special for two key reasons: (1) they remained isolated from mainland New Zealand during the last glaciation (so have been islands for 10,000s of years) – this led to the evolution of many unique forms of plants and animals; (2) rats, cats, stoats, and other predatory mammals, never became established, so the biota has survived human modifications largely intact.

It’s only when you visit a place like the Poor Knights that you understand what New Zealand was like before human times.

Thanks to Graeme, Keith Hawkins and Matiu Mataira (all Department of Conservation) for facilitating my visit.

By Alan Tennyson, Curator Natural Environment

By Te Papa | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Bugs, insects and spiders, Reptiles | Also tagged Buller's shearwhater, centipede, Poor Knights Islands, shearwater, snail, weta | Comments (5)

A beak with a tale

7 January 2011 – 9.11am

In December last year I was contacted by Department of Conservation staff on Stephens Island reporting that they had found a bone that looked like a parrot’s beak in their vegetable garden, and asking if I could help identify it.

Stephens Island Nature Reserve lies off the northern tip of D’Urville Island in the western approaches to Cook Strait, and has a fascinating conservation history. It was an island ark holding many now-extinct species including Lyall’s wren, South Island piopio and South Island kokako until a lighthouse settlement was established in the early 1890s. Most of the forest was cleared and cats introduced resulting in the local extinction of about 14 bird species (and global extinction of Lyall’s wren), including South Island saddleback, kaka and yellow-crowned parakeet in addition to piopio and kokako. The island was then inhabited by lighthouse keepers and their families for the best part of a century, and so it was quite possible that one of those salty sea-dogs had buried an exotic pet parrot in their garden (aargh me hearties!). The feral cats were eradicated by 1925, and the island retains many important animal populations, including the bulk of the world’s tuatara, and an endemic frog.

The parakeet beak found on Stephens Island (middle) compared with two reference specimens in the Te Papa collection. Photograph reproduced courtesy of Colin Miskelly

The maxilla (upper beak) reached me this week and is shown in the photograph - it is the brown bone in the middle. To the left is the maxilla of a yellow-crowned parakeet, a species resident on Stephens Island until about 1900. To the right is the maxilla of a female Antipodes Island parakeet, a subantarctic species much larger than the mainland parakeet species. The beak found in the vegetable garden on Stephens Island is of a male Antipodes Island parakeet (which are larger than females), but how did it get there?

In 1986/87 the New Zealand Wildlife Service (one of the parent departments for the current Department of Conservation) embarked on an ill-conceived (and ill-fated) attempt to establish an insurance population of Antipodes Island parakeets on Stephens Island by releasing about 15 captive-reared birds. One or two pairs bred successfully, but all the resulting young and most of the adults gradually disappeared. It transpired that the birds had adopted their ancestral habit of entering burrows in the ground, but instead of finding storm-petrel chicks to snack on they found hungry tuatara that turned the tables. The two remaining adult parakeets were recaptured and returned to captivity in 1988.

The chance find of this out-of-place parakeet maxilla in the vegetable garden on the island suggests that a tuatara formerly resident at that site enjoyed an exotic feast about 23 years ago.

By Colin Miskelly, Curator Terrestrial Vertebrates

By Colin Miskelly | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Reptiles | Also tagged beak, maxilla, parakeet, stephens island | Comments (1)

Taranga / Hen Island – 1933 and 2010 – In the footsteps of Edgar Stead (Part 1)

15 December 2010 – 7.43am

Edgar Stead (1881-1949) was a Canterbury naturalist famous (among other things) for exhuming the enormous Okarito blue whale skeleton now in Canterbury Museum, breeding the Ilam strain of rhododendrons and azaleas, and being an astute observer of New Zealand birds. His magnificent homestead ‘Ilam’ is now the Canterbury University staff club, and was the main set for Peter Jackson’s film ‘Heavenly Creatures’ (as the Hulme family lived there after the property was sold to University of Canterbury).

1. Roland Stead fishing in Dragon Mouth Cove, Hen Island, December 1933. Photo: Edgar Stead. Macmillan collection, 2001.59.381, Canterbury Museum. Permission of Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

As part of a project to publish the wildlife diaries of Edgar Stead, I am revisiting some of the islands that Stead camped on during the period 1929-1947. The main focus is describing how the ecology of the islands has changed since Stead’s time. The visits also provide an opportunity to take photographs to illustrate the diaries. This includes re-taking photographs from the same photopoint that Stead used.

2. Colin Miskelly in Dragon Mouth Cove, Hen Island, December 2010. Photo: Colin Miskelly.

Stead and his companion Major Robert Wilson visited Hen Island, off Whangarei, for 6 weeks in Nov-Dec 1933. They were joined for the second half of the trip by Stead’s wife Dot and their 11-year-old son Roland. The main purpose of their trip was to describe the juvenile plumage of the North Island saddleback, a species then confined to 500 ha Hen Island. North Island saddlebacks have since been translocated successfully to a dozen other islands plus Karori Sanctuary.

3. Pycroft’s petrel, Hen Island, December 2010. Photo: Colin Miskelly.

Other species studied by Stead on the island included the (then) recently described Pycroft’s petrel, kaka, kereru (New Zealand pigeon), tuatara, Duvaucel’s gecko and the egg-laying skink.

4. Tuatara, Hen Island, December 2010. Photo: Colin Miskelly.

Stead published several short scientific papers after his visit, including one on the ‘Maori rat’ (also known as Pacific rat or kiore). The Department of Conservation administers Taranga / Hen Island as a Nature Reserve. In 2011 the Department intends to eradicate kiore from Taranga, freeing it of introduced mammals. This action is supported by Ngatiwai as tangata whenua, who have DOC’s agreement to maintain a population of kiore on nearby Mauitaha Island. Kiore are regarded as a taonga species by Ngatiwai, but have had severe impacts on many species on Taranga including tuatara, most lizards, and large land snails (Paryphanta and Amborhytida).

5. Rat-eaten Amborhytida tarangaensis snail, Hen Island, December 2010. Photo: Colin Miskelly.

By Colin Miskelly, Curator Terrestrial Vertebrates

By Colin Miskelly | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Field trips, Reptiles, Whales | Also tagged edgar stead, Hen Island, petrel, Taranga | Comments (11)

Fossils uncovered!

6 September 2010 – 9.08am

Sphenodontid, collected 13 Dec 2001, St Bathans. Vinegar Hill, Site 1, New Zealand. Field Collection 2002-2004. Te Papa.

Normally fossils are found in the field but in this case Te Papa technicians and I have been rediscovering an early accumulation of fossil reptiles and fish held in Te Papa’s collections that have not been examined for decades.

When the Colonial Museum opened in 1865, the Director James Hector, wanted to show New Zealanders natural wonders from around the world, so he set about acquiring all sorts of natural history objects from museums in other countries. Some spectacular fossils were among his acquisitions and Te Papa still has these today.

The fossils that we have now registered and re-housed include skulls and teeth of long extinct reptiles – ichthyosaurs (“fish lizards”) and plesiosaurs (think Loch Ness Monster) – as well as remains of ancient fish – particularly shark’s teeth.

Plesiosauria, collected Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. Te Papa.

Dozens of the ichthyosaur, plesiosaur and fish remains originate from the Jurassic Lyme Regis fossil beds in Dorset, England. This site is one of the most famous fossil localities in the world because the giant reptile remains found here in the early 1800s, most famously by Mary Anning, were clearly of extinct species – yet at the time the concept of extinction was virtually unheard of. Dinosaurs, for example, were only discovered later. Te Papa’s fossil reptile and fish collection also includes more recently acquired specimens, such as dinosaur footprint casts from North America, dinosaur eggs and fragments of a 19 million year old ancestral tuatara from Central Otago.

Te Papa’s Natural Environment Imaging Supervisor Jean-Claude Stahl has been photographing many of these fossils and examples of them are shown here. Many others can be accessed through Te Papa’s Collections On-line browser.

Fossils in Te Papa’s Collections Online

Posted by Alan Tennyson, Curator of Fossil Vertebrates

By Te Papa | Posted in Fossils, Reptiles | Also tagged Collections Online, Fossils, vertebrate palaeontology | Comments (0)

Sphenodon punctatus

12 July 2010 – 4.15pm

At the halfway point of the school holidays already, and it’s time to bring out the big guns. We need to keep the kids entertained, and what better way than with a real life sphenodon punctatus? Great idea, and luckily for us, there’s several real ones, just up the road at Victoria University. Even luckier for us, they don’t mind dropping by Te Papa and showing them off.

So it was that several of us were all in NatureSpace at the same time to see our own repitilian ripsnorter.

Charley and Spike in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

His name was Spike, and he was very gracious, sitting in his box waiting for a cameo while his handler Sue gave us a full and thorough rundown of the world of a tuatara.

Sue and Spike from Victoria University at NatureSpace, July 2010 | (c) Te Papa 2010

And interesting? Boy was it! Did you know these amazing things?

Tuatara metabolism is so slow that they can survive for maybe five years without food.
A tuatara is born with a third eye. It’s a sensory organ that helps the newborn monitor its melatonin levels. Melatonin is a chemical that people and other animals have to help their bodies maintain circadian rhythms, which are the routines programmed into our (and a tuatara’s) brain. The third eye closes over as a tuatara gets older (and by old we mean OLD, because the oldest alive that we know of, Henry from Southland Museum is 110, and they could possibly get as old as 250).
A tuatara can hold its breath for nearly an hour. And, if that’s not enough, they can grow their tails back, if they’re careless and lose it under the fridge. And if you’re looking for more interesting information, how about this one, which I found care of the Ngati Koata trust,who look after Tuatara on Takapourewa Island in Cook Strait: A young tuatara will hunt during the day, to avoid being eaten by an adult tuatara at night.

After Sue had give her most excellent talk, the children set about to make their own tuatara. Ours were crafty cardboard creations, and there were some pretty fine and imaginative examples, such as the leopard print, or the one with the big black bushy eyebrows. And then there was the more realistic examples, as shown below: two pictures are examples of classic tuatara behaviour: sunbathing on rocks and devouring insects. And the bottom picture is the one I think sums it up: Xandi with his own rockstar reptile - the perfect end to a perfect day.

A tuatara crunching into a nice juicy waterbug in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

three tuatara sunbathing on a "rock" in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

Xandi in NatureSpace with his fantastic creation | (c) Te Papa

By discoverymike | Posted in Kids, Reptiles | Also tagged Discovery Centres, Discovery Hour, kids, NatureSpace, school holidays | Comments (3)

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Sphenodon punctatus

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