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Photos of NZ


markoshark

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Wow..so fascinating http://weta.boarsnest.net/ and I thought we had big bugs here!

http://www.kcc.org.nz/animals/tuatara.asp

"it hasn't changed it's form in over 225 million years" now that is cool.. :)

we have an alpine weta with anti freeze in their veins, freeze in winter then thaw out and walk away in spring :o

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They look great. What other animals are native to New Zealand? Like what about the surrounding water? Great whites are there or no? We have alligators.. :)

NZ has a very unusual native ecology, no native land mammals apart from seals and bats. Thats why you see a lot of birds and insects taking over niches that would normally be taken by mammals.

So you have flightless birds, huge 'crickets' (Weta), Tuatara that look like a lizard, but aren't actually related, Alpine and flightless parrots, carnivorous snails that eat earth worms.

Because no humans arrived in NZ untill about 800 years ago there is still a record of the original animals. Many were wiped out after the original polynesian migration, and then more when the Europeans arrived. Because the native wildlife evolved with few predators they took a huge hit from rats, stoats etc that people introduced.

As for the sea.. yeah, there are sharks, whales , Orca etc. But thats just normal open ocean stuff

Ian

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kaptiti island is the closest place to you (you need a permit from DoC) dont know what its like. tiri tiri matangi Island is a good place to see them, i think they have released them around the wildlife park at mt bruce too.

best time to hear them is early in the morning just at day break

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