Last week Te Papa Botany curator Leon Perrie and I attended the Uawa BioBlitz in Tolaga Bay. Organized by the Allan Wilson Centre and Groundtruth, the BioBlitz was an intense 24 hours of species discovery. Scientists from a variety of organisations were joined by members of the local community, including kids from the Tolaga Bay Area School, to find and record as many species as possible from the selected forest and marine sites.
Leon and I were focused on the botany and, although many of the plants we found were expected, we did see several individuals of the Naturally Uncommon fern Blechnum zeelandicum. Significant finds by others were the Nationally Vulnerable New Zealand dotterel, long fin eels, a gecko and possibly evidence of both of the remaining New Zealand bat species. Over 500 species were recorded.
Not only did members of the local community get to see how scientists work, but they also shared their own knowledge of the biota with us, including their Māori names and uses. Particularly exciting for me was getting to taste karaka kernels. These had been prepared by the grandmother of one of the students using a family recipe. Karaka were an important food source for Māori in pre-European times and are poisonous if not prepared correctly.
The highlight of the BioBlitz for me was the night walk, where the aim was to look for fish but we were distracted by the amazing invertebrates, including a mushroom-eating slug!
The leopard slug also eats the dehy rabbit bait in some of my traps.
Hi Lara, I wonder whether the species list is available to the public? Sounds like a great place to have a Bioblitz.
Hi Barbara,
The Allan Wilson Centre has made a species list available. You can find it here: http://www.allanwilsoncentre.ac.nz/massey/fms/AWC/documents/Publication/AWC_2015BioblitzSummary2.pdf
Wow, this is terrific. Do you have a methodology for a bioblitz please? A group I’m working with is interested in doing one. Thanks Katherine
Thanks Katherine, if you send me an email at lara.shepherd @ tepapa.govt.nz then I can send you some info and contacts for people that have recently organised bioblitzes. Cheers,
Lara
Nighttime. So easily overlooked with all our rather cryptic beasts.
I believe the karaka kernel can be ground to make quite a useable flour. In what form did you taste it?
Hi Mick,
I’m intending to do some more night explorations, possibly around the Zealandia fenceline – you never know what might be lurking in the dark!
The karaka kernels we ate were just broken into pieces. I’ve also heard it can be made into flour then formed into little cakes – yum!