Rotokare Reserve.

[Ianab]

Though this might be of interest. This is a small lake reserve a few miles down the road from us. It has been a "reserve" since forever, but was neglected until recently. Possums  / rats  / ferrets etc play havoc with the native wildlife and vegetation. So some of the locals got together and decided to a something a bit better. The whole reserve is now fenced with predator proof fencing, like not even a mouse can get in except by accident. It's free public access, but you have to drive though double electric gates, and the whole place is trapped in case any critter does get in. (Don't stick our finger in the funny crates with an egg in them  :D)

Anyway, Lil said she wanted to do the "Ridge Walk" out there. Sounds a bit suspect if you know what the ridges out that way are like. But no kids over the weekend, so lets hit it. 



Warning signs are for wimps.  :D



 Ahh, that might be what they mean. Heading uphill by the boundary fence. Feel The Burn.  :-\



Not to the top yet, but starting to get some views. 



Looking down on the lake from around the ridge. 



Follow the fence 



Local resident.



Flowering Clematis vines all over the place.



Coming down off the ridge gets up back into the rainforest with the ferns and palm trees.



Forget going "off trail", the supplejack vines will win every time.  >:(



Oh, and it was our 5th wedding anniversary, so Lil had her dress, a mini of wine with her, and picnic snacks were in my pack  ;D

Anyway, the "warning sign" said 2.5 to 5 hours for the walk, and reasonable fitness required.
We did 2.5 including picnic lunch and some wine, so Lil is happy with her fitness. And I kept up :D. The track officially has 1120 stairs!!!

Just a note. NZ has NO natural mammal predators, and the only native land mammals are bats and seals. So the local wildlife have evolved in the environment. Kiwi birds for example are flightless and nocturnal, because that was the best way to avoid the (now extinct) native eagles. But they lay a single huge egg, and the chick that hatches out is basically left to fend for itself. Free meal for a ferret. An adult bird is able to handle itself, and fight off a cat or ferret, but a new hatched chick isn't. Same sort of thing with other birds (native parrots etc) whose nests are raided all the time. In the reserve without the introduced predators they do fine.  

Some of the native birds can handle the new scenario. Tui are a boisterous little honey eater that love urban gardens with the exotic flowering trees in the off season, and are smart enough to avoid being eaten. Kereru are a big fat pigeon that loves to hang out in urban gardens with all those tasty berries. Morepork is a small owl, than also does well in urban areas, and learns to hunt moths around peoples porch lights. 

But other species are only here because of reserves like this. 
http://www.rotokare.org.nz/

[LIL]

 


While we were out spending time together, we also went to one of Ian's happy places. Before we could get there we had to go through some locals. Pretty friendly bunch really. 😂😂

[thecfarm]

Enjoyed the post.
predator proof fencing,I find that interesting.

[Ianab]

predator proof fencing,I find that interesting.

Imagine an ecosystem with NO mammal predators? 

It's probably unique to pre-human NZ (~800 years ago) and some small offshore Islands. 

There is a goal to eradicate many of those introduced pests from the mainland, but it will be a huge mission. It's been done on various Islands, and in the fenced reserves, so it's theoretically possible. There are places in NZ where people have Kiwi birds wandering in their gardens at night, or penguins nesting
under the houses, But they have to be ruthless with their predator control if they are going to breed there.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I'd love to take that walk. beautiful country.

[Ianab]

Went for a short walk out at the reserve today, just for some fresh air after computer building and too much Christmas food.

This is some of the natural forest in the swampy ground around the top of the lake. Nothing really worth milling, so it's been left standing.



 

Small bush stream flowing into the lake. There will be small Eels, galaxid fish and freshwater crays in there, but they are mostly nocturnal.



 

Where an old tree has fallen over, you get a Light Tunnel in the canopy, and a jungle of regeneration top soon full it in.



 

This is a "NZ Robin". Not even related to a Robin, but that's what it's called. The Maori called it a toutouwai. While not technically endangered, they are small, ground feeding and trusting... Not a good combo with introduced predators.  :-[ 



 

How tame? This is wild bird hoping I will kick up some dead leaves  so he can look for bugs....



 

This is a Tui or Parson Bird to the early European settlers. These aren't endangered as they are both fiesty and predator wary, and have actually adapted to suburban living.  This would be a juvenile, just fledged as adults have all black/ blue plumage.  The orange spot on it's head is the pollen from the flax flowers it's been feeding from. Notice how it's beak and flower have the same shape? Bird gets nectar, flowers get pollinated.. win win.



 

Looking out over the marshy ground at the top of the lake, at the mature "swampy" forest from the earlier pics. They say there are Fernbirds living there. Never seen one, but they are Ninja level camouflage experts. There could be 10 of them in the shot, and no one would know.  :D



 

Looking out over the lake from the lower walkway.



 

This the entrance gate. It's like an Airlock. Push a button and the first get opens. Drive in and push another button, the first gate closes, and the 2nd only opens after that. I'm not 100% sure what you do of a pest follows you in, but it's probably OK to get out of the car and club it death? 



 

This is the fence that extends around the whole reserve. As a backup it's also trapped inside and out. Currently they don't even have mice in there, but a lot of effort is put into keeping it that way.



 

Since the original post they have introduced Hihi birds, an endangered species that has been extinct on the Mainland since ~1800. Not sure of they have a stable breeding population here yet, but they have feeding stations set up to help them. The Reserve Trust has the proven record that the Conservation Dept will trust them with endangered species. I didn't see one today, but I could hear their call.

Anyway, the reserve is actually open 24/7. You can go and explore at night, maybe see a Kiwi, and even camp overnight. Took the girls out one night for a Girl Guides trip. We didn't get to see a Kiwi, because a dozen tween girls aren't exactly stealthy. But you could hear them, close enough to rustle the leaves. You can hear them call from a mile away on a still night.

[customsawyer]

Interesting place. I don't want to even think about the cost of that fence, much less the maintenance.

[thecfarm]

No mice? 
That airlock must be working.
I want one at my house.  :D
One of your pictures with the big tree that fell down, reminded me of when my father was cutting big pine on this land. Those big trees really open up the forest.

[Ianab]

Funding is always an issue. The Trust runs on a mix of Govt conservation funds / Corporate Sponsorship and Donations. Most of the labour input is volunteers. And yes it costs millions to set up this sort of reserve.

This is a larger and longer established fenced reserve that's actually in the suburbs Wellington.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia_(wildlife_sanctuary)

That's where Lil almost stood on a Takahe, and there are only about 200 of them in existence.  That's up from about 50 a few years back. But you know, best not to stand on one.  :D

They have got the kiwi population on the reserve up to about the max the reserve can support (about 300 birds) so they have been rehoming them to other areas. They don't have to be 100% fenced, but they need the intensive trapping of predators if you expect the birds to breed and survive long term. An adult Kiwi is a decent size . strong and feisty bird, and can defend itself.  New born chicks however get taken out by stoats or cats when they leave the burrow.

And if your natural instinct is to hop along the ground looking for bugs flicked up by larger (and now extinct) animals, yeah, that's a problem too.

[Ianab]

No mice?

Yeah the are down to that level of pest control currently. But they still have "footprint monitors", and traps inside, because a  fence is only 99.9x effective.

NZ native wildlife is pretty unique, having evolved with NO mammal predators.  So they adapted to the Apex predators being Eagles and Falcons. Growing too big for an Eagle to eat worked, until humans arrived from Polynesia about 1300 AD. In pre human days, only about 700 years ago, being flightless and nocturnal was a Huge survival plus because eagles don't fly at night.