THINK Africa, and animals are lions, elephants, zebra, giraffe and rhino among others. In Australia it’s kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes and koala bears. Think New Zealand and you struggle. Animals, what animals?
Did I hear you say sheep? You’d be right, but they don’t count ... well they do. Last time they did a count there were 30 million, while human population is just more than four million. And there are 10 million cattle as well.
But we’re talking wild, indigenous animals here ... and there are precious few. In fact, the biggest mammals are two small bat species that flew across from Australia thousands of years ago. Otherwise there are only marine mammals – seals and dolphins – that swam there.
Then mankind pitched and, as always, messed up everything. Rats arrived with the first Maoris and created havoc because there were no predators. Then came European settlers who brought cats and stoats to eat the rats but none of the birds had ever seen a cat or a stoat and they too were eaten.
In the mid-1800s, Australia’s bush- tailed possums were brought in to be farmed for their magnificent soft, warm fur and they were kept in cages, but some escaped and so began a reign of terror .
Possums are nocturnal, sly, vicious and eat anything from trees, to vines, plants, fruit and of course, birds, eggs and fledglings in nests. Possums even eat kiwis, the flightless national bird that is also nocturnal.
Some 60 species of bird are now extinct as a result of various predators. It has more extinct and endangered birds than any other country which is sad, because New Zealand is light on birds and animals already. There are only about 170 bird varieties. They don’t have snakes, but they do have the white-tailed spider (like other nasties, they arrived from Australia).
But back to possums. When driving through the country, you’ll notice possum road kills by the hundred, probably thousands if you travel far enough, and these road kills are euphemistically referred to as New Zealand’s speed bumps. We never did see a live one. We didn’t see a kiwi either.
Today’s Chiel is Robin Ross- Thompson; E-mail him at
Short on birds and animals
Did I hear you say sheep? You’d be right, but they don’t count ... well they do. Last time they did a count there were 30 million, while human population is just more than four million. And there are 10 million cattle as well.
But we’re talking wild, indigenous animals here ... and there are precious few. In fact, the biggest mammals are two small bat species that flew across from Australia thousands of years ago. Otherwise there are only marine mammals – seals and dolphins – that swam there.
Then mankind pitched and, as always, messed up everything. Rats arrived with the first Maoris and created havoc because there were no predators. Then came European settlers who brought cats and stoats to eat the rats but none of the birds had ever seen a cat or a stoat and they too were eaten.
In the mid-1800s, Australia’s bush- tailed possums were brought in to be farmed for their magnificent soft, warm fur and they were kept in cages, but some escaped and so began a reign of terror .
Possums are nocturnal, sly, vicious and eat anything from trees, to vines, plants, fruit and of course, birds, eggs and fledglings in nests. Possums even eat kiwis, the flightless national bird that is also nocturnal.
Some 60 species of bird are now extinct as a result of various predators. It has more extinct and endangered birds than any other country which is sad, because New Zealand is light on birds and animals already. There are only about 170 bird varieties. They don’t have snakes, but they do have the white-tailed spider (like other nasties, they arrived from Australia).
But back to possums. When driving through the country, you’ll notice possum road kills by the hundred, probably thousands if you travel far enough, and these road kills are euphemistically referred to as New Zealand’s speed bumps. We never did see a live one. We didn’t see a kiwi either.
Today’s Chiel is Robin Ross- Thompson; E-mail him at
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