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 No...

Antipodes Island parakeet (Cyanoramphus unicolor). This one is on pavement, instead of Antipodes Island. The big news of the month is the return of the survey crew from the Antipodes Island chain with the excellent news that they were unable to find any signs of mice after two mouse breeding seasons have passed and the islands have now officially been declared free of mice.  I have been watching this process over the past several years with excitement, in no small part because I was the captive coordinator for the Antipodes Island parakeet Cyanoramphus unicolor , a unique small parrot found only there. Yes, they are eating a bird. When you live on a cold, windswept, subantarctic island you take what you can get. The other native parrot also eats meat. The Antipodes Islands are a series of small subantarctic islands (2,100 hectares in total) composed of the larger Antipodes Island (~2,000 hectares) surrounded by a number of much smaller islands, all formed by volcanic...