New Zealand Conservation News

New Zealand sea lion ( Phocarctos hookeri ) Seal hunting in New Zealand has a long history, as old as human habitation in the country.   New Zealand fur seal/kekeno ( Arctocephalus forsteri ) and New Zealand sea lion/rapoka ( Phocarctos hookeri ) colonies were found commonly throughout New Zealand's mainland coastlines before the arrival of Maori.   New Zealand sea lions appear to have been exterminated from the North Island entirely by 1500 AD and New Zealand fur seals were missing from at least the northern half of the North Island by this time as well.   When Europeans arrived New Zealand fur seals had been eliminated from all of the mainland except for the south-western South Island and New Zealand sea lions could no longer be found on the South Island except in the regions around Stewart Island. Sealing was the first European industry in New Zealand and began in 1792.   European sealing was driven by the demand for their hides and oil in Europe and North America.  

Small white butterfly ( Pieris rapae ) Today I have a little story based around a research paper which I just read. It turns out that female butterflies have an organ in their reproductive tract that is similar in some ways to a stomach/intestine.   This organ, called the bursa copulatrix, digests the male butterfly's spermatophore proteins but little was known about how it functioned before this study. The study was carried out on the small white/small cabbage white/white butterfly ( Pieris rapae ).   The small white is not a New Zealand native, but was introduced to New Zealand long ago and is now well established throughout the country, even reaching the subantarctic islands.   The small white caterpillar eats human agricultural crops (cabbage and other brassicas in particular), and so has been able to spread from its native range in Europe, Asia, and Africa across the globe following human agriculture and is now found in North and South America and Australia as wel

Yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus) Most people believe that New Zealand is entirely free of snakes.   While that is largely correct, it is not entirely correct.   There are four species of snakes which have been found naturally in New Zealand.   All of them, however, are sea snakes.   The most commonly seen species is a type of hydrophiine sea snake, the yellow-bellied sea snake ( Hydrophis platurus, formerly Pelamis platurus ), while the other three species are all types of krait. The hydrophiine sea snakes are a fully pelagic (ocean-going) species of snake which does not ever need to come to land for any reason and are much better adapted to life in the open ocean than the kraits.   They hatch their young live (viviparous), so they do not need to return to land to lay eggs.   Although they cannot drink salt water, they drink fresh water as it strikes the surface of the ocean during rainy periods before it has a chance to mix with the seawater.   As a result, th