NEW ZEALAND AND KIWIS WITH MALCOLM WILEY – MARCH 21, 2018
About 15 ABCers, plus a spouse and some of Malcolm’s co-workers (including his boss) met on March 21, 2018, 6:45 PM, at the University of Puget Sound – Thompson Hall, to hear about New Zealand, conservation efforts and Kiwis!
Map of New Zealand showing sites of restoration work
Malcolm gave us a wonderful presentation about his 12 years working as a biodiversity ranger for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. He studied plant ecology at college, but in New Zealand most conservation work is focused on bird species so he started as a volunteer and ended up leading a kiwi monitoring project for Great Spotted Kiwi in a mountain valley in the South Island of New Zealand. By the way, chasing Kiwis is hard! They have to use specially trained dogs to help out on the scrubby steep mountain sides that are the right habitat for Great Spotted Kiwi.
Restoration work on the many islands of New Zealand
He also spent some time letting us know about several other bird species that he did conservation work with. His slides, audio and video clips were great. We even got to see some of the introduced predators caught on video. The head/bill butting that an adult male Kiwi gave to a stoat (weasel family), to defend the Kiwi nest, was worth cheering about.
He gave us the overview and some really good information about New Zealand’s DOC, the responsible agency for conservation efforts in the 600 islands that make up New Zealand, not just the North and South Islands that the world is most familiar with. He was involved in invasive species control projects including a couple of island rat eradication projects trying to create safe havens for bird species, including a park in the North Island that is used as a pre-release/readying for living in the wild zone for Kiwis. This place also brings in the community to observe and feel a part of the efforts to bring back and hold onto the unique avian diversity of New Zealand.
He also gave us the timeline for the extinction and percentages of the avifauna that has been lost due to man’s arrivals in the islands, both the Maori and Europeans. The bright notes are some of the conservation successes and one or two bird species that were thought to be gone, but small populations have recently been refound!
Malcolm Wiley explains his work with Kiwis in New Zealand
He has lent a couple of books to ABCers, one on the Extinct Species of New Zealand and the other about the geology/geography of the archipelago and sub-antartic islands. Shelley Parker has the second book as she and her husband are planning a trip for January 2019. I have the other and have already read through it. Because Malcolm’s mother-in-law works at the health department, as do I, please contact me for a chance to read these books and return them as well. You can use my gmail e-ddress (knasnan@gmail.com) to text for checking out and returning them during my work week in Tacoma as the health department is located on the corner of 37th and Pacific Ave, fairly central for Pierce County.
Reported by Laurel Parshall