malcolm

once saw a weta from cantebury on tv. i think it was alpine. beautiful creature, black body with white markings and red knees. really stood out and fairly large maby second biggest in nz???

pretty sure your allowed standard electric fences at your house. we used to have one for our dog, the kennel club suggested it i think?. you could always booby trap your garden/house/room. nothing like a bucket of acid balenced on the top of the door to say go away. just dont fall for/into your own traps.

just had a look at the butterfly site monarch.org.nz and there all about breeding heaps and releasing them. i know of a monarch lady in dunedin who would keep captive butterflies, at least over winter and release in summer. she and others also increase the survival rate of caterpillars to increase the butterfly population. but thats a different situation to releasing a previously introduced predatory frog. it would be nice to all get the chance to breed nz natives though, some on this forum would surely have the ability?

like this then this and they go

excuse me while i try 2 post my first pic wohoo i is not a r3tard today

thanx for the input, i wont go rushing into anything, just wanted to have a discussion really. good to hear frogs are returning in some areas of our country. im still finding whistlers easy enough too

i have already talked to dr phil and he seemed to think it was an ok idea, the large scale breeding part anyway. he didnt say dont release into the wild although i dont know if i said that was one of my possible inentions, i would of course see him again and let him test individuals pre release. as for snails etc, i dont see how they would be affected by an animal that doesnt eat aquatic snails and as far as i know carries no snail diseases? i was planning on releasing in a pond which i know used to have a few croakers 4 or 5 years ago. it is partly polluted by blackhead quarry rock sludge discharge and waste water. it does have ducks on occasion but thats all. i visit this pond several times a week at various times of day to go surfing, so know it intimately. of course these frogs can travel 1 km in a day/night so that has to be consiered. what sort of constraints are the kakapo, takahe and kiwi put under before release i wonder. heck this is years away and just all pie in the sky stuff at this stage thank you though for making me think from a different angle

1 samoyed dog 1male cat 1 female mum cat with 4 k1tt3ns (very cute) one red eared turtle in a tank with an oscar 3 gold fish and 4 mature whitebait in outdoor pond 28 (at last count) 2 year old sothern bell frogs in 3 separate tanks, these will be farmed when mature. two wild male whistlers in the garden. 10 red admiral caterpillars on my native tree nettle this has to be the best website ever

arnt harvest men quite venomous? does it hurt much?

cheers museumchic, i have and will do my research. there is no real threat to nz natives from my idea because i live in dunedin, and the natives are thousands of miles away.

arnt they wolf spiders, that carry their egg sacs, dont have any real web nest and actively hunt kind of like a white tail.

but what if the frogs or tadpoles were completely clean garanteed, that wouldnt be bad for environment. after all you cant kill whats already dead or gone(frog populations). i was wanting to breed large numbers of sothern bells and release tadpoles into old deserted ponds to start a new population, to do my part. if the frogs have been in captivity for a number of years and have no outside influences they must be clean?!

8 or 9 years ago i found a jewelled gecko running accross the road, i almost ran it over. i took it home to show off its flawless beauty, and ended up keeping it for a couple of months before releasing it in a safe bush area. what should i have done according to the law? the road was a good km from its assumed natural habitat

yea i read they can listen for and follow other frogs (whistling) calls so they can eat them. have defenitely lost a few of mine to bigger brothers and sisters in feeding frenzies!

you could try a small piece of mince on the end of a very thin piece of stick, or a dried flower stalk or strong thin piece of grass stem. anyway stick the piece of low fat meat on the end of your "fishing pole" and wiggle it in the tank not too close to the frogs nose. huhu grubs are the best food ive found so far, fed using fishing pole method. one big grub can last a frog a month in summer.

whistling frog tadpoles can overwinter in dunedin if they are fat enough. but they would be hard to find in wild, as i would assume thy hibernate at bottom in sedement.

i have about 30 sothern bells almost 2 years old now, and noticed they dont or cant really feed if they are too cold. they may attempt to catch food but will spit it out. im in dunedin and have most of them in a sun warmed tank, so they were too cold to eat for about 3 or 4 months. as long as they stay cold and keep there metabolism low they should be fine. that doesnt sound like the problem though, i originally bought 4 tadpoles from the pet shop which were green frogs from taranaki.one survived metamorphosis but was small. it got sicker and was very hard to feed, eventually it died. you need to start with massive healthy over fed tadpoles if you want any chance of success. and beware of diseased animals