Was looking at my copy of R.M Mcdowall's fishes of New Zealand the other day and was surprised to see the amount of fish species that were put forth by the various acclimatisation societies for introduction into NZ. Some were denied importation due effects on environment or lack of food supply, others died in transit to nz , others made it but have died out over the past century, other introductions may survive in very small isolated populations. Just imagine what would be left of the nz fish fauna if these were to be found in our waters today!?

Here we go: Arctic Char(died in hatchery ponds),Japanese minnow, European gudgeon,barbel (introduced), bream(possibly introduced)bleak,dace,roach(introduced),european minnow,Australian bass(introduced),whitefish(introduced),european carp strains(non koi strains),striped bass,large mouthed bass(speculated introduction but probably unfounded),Australian spangled perch,Murray cod,small mouth bass,Atlantic grayling, giant gourami, cutthroat trout, various rainbow and brown trout sub species,shad species, coho salmon,lake herring,silver carp(introduced), crucian carp(introduced). As you can see many have been introduced but mostly have died out. I have found out that there are reports of people catching some species rather recently to their astonishment! Was surprised that European Pike were not mentioned! Please comment and add to the list.

It took them 3 or 4 attempts at introducing possums. They did introduce red robins, they only wanted the reddest of them... they were all males :slfg: It took a few attempts to introduce sparrows.

Just imagine what would be left of the nz fish fauna if these were to be found in our waters today!?

I would imagine not a lot.

Always scratched my head as to why humans feel they have to introduce species to areas they don't exist in... I guess it is a familiarity thing, but it does completely disregard the natural side of species distribution. Just look at rats, ferrets, stoats et al...

Always scratched my head as to why humans feel they have to introduce species to areas they don't exist in... I guess it is a familiarity thing, but it does completely disregard the natural side of species distribution. Just look at rats, ferrets, stoats et al...

Rats were accidental. ferrets and stoats were introduced to hunt rabbits. As far as i know, most introductions took multiple attempts.

I would imagine not a lot.

Always scratched my head as to why humans feel they have to introduce species to areas they don't exist in... I guess it is a familiarity thing, but it does completely disregard the natural side of species distribution. Just look at rats, ferrets, stoats et al...

Back in the early colonization years it was believed that europeans needed familiar animals to survive.

Hence the term "familiars"

Not quite but a good thought

A familiar (or imp) is an attendant subordinate demon in the form of an animal. So they took a shape that looked familiar.

In Ira's case I am sure a familiar is appropriate...

There was also a case of coarse fishermen illegally bringing in species (I think they were eggs - but someone may correct me here, and I am sure they will) to release so that they had some more freshwater sport fish to catch.

There are Rudd and European Perch (Perca fluviatilis) here as well, I have caught a perch in a lake, it was rather tasty.

We have people releasing rudd and tench into the Taylor Dam :an!gry

Each time the whole thing has to be sprayed and drained - killing everything else &c:ry