NEW DATE & VENUE:  March 21, 2018, 6:45 PM, UPS Thompson Hall Rm 175, $10.

NEW ZEALAND AND KIWIS WITH MALCOLM WILEY – MARCH 21, 2018 – $10.  Join us on March 21, 2018, 6:45 PM, University of Puget Sound – Thompson Hall room 175, to hear about New Zealand, especially Kiwis!

Handful of Kiwi

Malcolm Wiley will give a brief description of the conservation efforts for endangered birds undertaken by the Department of Conservation – with a focus on kiwi. He knows our own Laurel Parshall, who helped arrange this.

Kiwi monitoring

Malcolm spent 12 years working as a biodiversity ranger for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. He tells us, “Five of those years I was project manager for a project monitoring the survival and breeding success of a population of Great Spotted Kiwi in a mountain valley in the South Island of New Zealand. I’ve also assisted briefly with kakapo, fernbird, mohua (yellowhead), yellow eyed penguin, albatross, petrel, robin, and blue duck work. The rest of my time with DOC was running invasive species control projects including a couple of island rat eradication projects trying to create safe havens for bird species. I actually studied plant ecology at college, but in New Zealand most conservation work is focused on bird species so the opportunity came along to lead a kiwi project.”

Holding albatross, Enderby, Feb 03

Malcolm is back in the northwest now. “Now I actually work for Seattle Public Utilities in the Wastewater section, and I’m still not sure how I ended up in that line of work.”