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Fauna of New Zealand

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{{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}}

Image:Karuwai at August 2005 Health Check.JPG is a national symbol of New Zealand.]]

The animals of New Zealand, part of its biota, have an unusual history because, before the arrival of humans, less than 900 years ago, the country was mostly free of mammals, except those that could swim there (seals, sea lions, and, off-shore, whales and dolphins) or fly there (bats). However, as recently as the Miocene, it was home to the terrestrial Saint Bathans mammal, implying that mammals had been present since the island had broken away from other landmasses. The absence of mammals meant that all of the ecological niches occupied by mammals elsewhere were occupied instead by either insects or birds, leading to an unusually large number of flightless birds, including the kiwi, the weka, the moa (now extinct), the takahē, and the kākāpō.

File:Tuatara (5205719005).jpg, sometimes described as a "living fossil"]]

File:18 Sea shells background in Akaroa Beach, New Zealand - free stock photo.JPG

Because of the lack of predators, even bats spend most of their time on the ground. There are also about 60 species of lizard (30 each of gecko and skink), four species of frog (all rare and endangered), and the tuatara (reptiles resembling lizards but with a distinct lineage).

Some butterflies of New Zealand are endemic, while many species have been introduced and some species of butterflies periodically migrate to New Zealand. The Australian painted lady has been known to migrate from Australia to New Zealand in times of strong migration in Australia.{{cite journal|last=Dingle|first=Hugh|author2=Zalucki, Myron P. |author3=Rochester, Wayne A. |title=Season-specific directional movement in migratory Australian Butterflies |journal=Australian Journal of Entomology |year=1999 |volume=38 |issue=4|pages=323–329 |doi=10.1046/j.1440-6055.1999.00117.x}}

Invasive species

Humans first arrived via the Pacific islands, in several waves at some time before 1300 AD,

"[https://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19826595.200-rat-remains-help-date-new-zealands-colonisation.html Rat remains help date New Zealand's colonisation]". New Scientist. 4 June 2008. Accessed 2008-06-23 bringing with them the Polynesian rat (kiore) and the domesticated dog. Europeans later brought pigs, ferrets, stoats, mice, rats, dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, and many other mammals. Of these, the rats, ferrets, cats, stoats and dogs have all seriously impacted the New Zealand fauna, driving some species to extinction.{{How many|date=November 2021}} Brushtail possums were introduced from Australia for a fur industry, and deer from Europe as game animals, both seriously damaging the forest habitat of many birds.T. T. Veblen and G. H. Stewart (1982). "The effects of introduced wild animals on New Zealand forests". Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 372 397.

In recent years,{{when|date=November 2021}} successful efforts have been made to remove possums, rats, ferrets, and other mammals from many large and small offshore islands in an effort to return these places to something more closely resembling their pre-human state. An estimated 30 tons of dead possums were removed from Kapiti Island, for example.{{when|date=November 2021}} Similarly, efforts are being made to control such species in selected locations on the mainland. In a further step, in certain mainland reserves mammals are being eliminated within predator-proof fences creating ecological islands. Examples are Zealandia in Wellington city, from which about a ton of dead possums was removed after the installation of a mammal-proof fence, and the Maungatautari Restoration Project.

See also

{{Biota of New Zealand}}

;Fauna

;Other

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References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{cite book|last1=King|first1=Carolyn M.|last2=Barrett|first2=Priscilla|title=The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JI-xQgAACAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195584776}}

External links

{{Commons category|Animals of New Zealand}}

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20110201071734/http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals Native animals] at the Department of Conservation
  • [http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biosystematics/invertebrates/faunaofnz/index.asp Fauna of New Zealand] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511112914/http://landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biosystematics/invertebrates/faunaofnz/index.asp |date=2012-05-11 }} at Landcare Research
  • [http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/databases/db_category.asp?DB_Coll_Category_ID=1 Animals databases] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527123644/http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/databases/db_category.asp?DB_Coll_Category_ID=1 |date=2012-05-27 }} at Landcare Research

{{Oceania topic|Fauna of}}

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