Latest news with #DepartmentofConservation
The Spinoff
6 hours ago
- General
- The Spinoff
We need to stop talking about cats and actually do something
Right now, the Department of Conservation is asking for feedback on the Predator Free 2050 strategy. The biggest question: should feral cats be added alongside rats, ferrets, stoats, weasels and possums? Allison Hess argues it's a no-brainer. Gareth Morgan kicked things off with his infamous Cats to Go campaign in 2013. He said things people didn't want to hear. Cats, he said, were 'serial killers' and 'nature's only sadists'. People absolutely lost the plot. He was immediately labelled a radical, a cat-hating Bond villain. When the Predator Free 2050 target species were chosen in 2016, feral cats were off the list, due to the fears of public backlash. The public wasn't ready, and the SPCA opposed it at the time. But a decade on, Morgan's once spicy take is looking… less radical. His campaign was inspired by the destruction cats were causing on Rakiura (Stewart Island) wildlife. Feral cats were the reason kākāpō were urgently translocated off the island in the 80s. It has been a constant battle to keep their numbers in check to protect the remaining wildlife on the island. Today the pukunui (southern NZ dotterel) is close to the brink, with only 105 birds remaining. The cat conversation Morgan dragged hissing and clawing into the public arena never went away. Journalists have nudged it along, sitting the public down for 'the talk' periodically. To name just a few stories, there have been Are there too many cats in NZ? (Stuff, 2016); Our love affair with cats (NZ Geographic, 2021); We need to talk about cats and wildlife (The Spinoff, 2022); We need to talk about cats (Newsroom, 2022) and Paddy Gower Has Issues: Feral cats are killing native birds, bats and even dolphins – so why are Kiwis so mad when we cull them? (Stuff, 2023). We've read story after story: cats eating 28 lizards in one go, destroying 87 black-fronted tern nests and wiping out robin populations. Today, the mood has shifted, and the conversation has matured. It's not cat lovers vs cat haters. The public has had a decade to digest what was once too controversial. Even the SPCA has changed its tune, admitting emotions clouded its decision-making back then, and it now supports the humane killing of feral cats. In a 2023 leaders' debate, Luxon and Hipkins both said feral cats should be included in the Predator Free 2050 strategy. And public opinion? A 2024 survey commissioned by the Predator Free NZ Trust found that 64% of New Zealanders thought we should actively reduce feral cat populations on public conservation land. Nearly 60% supported national legislation for microchipping and desexing of pet cats. Cats are a legal grey zone While all cats are hunters, companion cats are beloved members of households. Feral cats, on the other hand, live entirely independently of humans, with no home, no vet, no food bowl. They hunt to survive and breed freely. They're everywhere, from farmland to bush, even crossing the Southern Alps. They're here because we haven't had proper rules to prevent their existence in the first place. After the Cats to Go dustup settled down, it actually became clear that the interests of wildlife and cat welfare weren't so far apart. In a real enemies-to-lovers story line, the SPCA, Vets Association, Morgan Foundation and Companion Animals NZ shacked up to work together, forming the National Cat Management Group. The Predator Free NZ Trust later joined. But their attempts to introduce basic rules like nationwide desexing, registration and microchipping of pet cats have been batted away for years. These basics would help reduce kitten dumping, help return lost pets and slow the growth of stray and feral colonies, which are booming (in New Zealand there are an estimated 2.4 million feral cats, compared to 1.2 million pet cats). Unlike dogs, there is no law governing cat ownership and control. There is a hodgepodge of council bylaws, but cats have free rein of the country, are allowed to wander onto other people's property, and their owners aren't responsible for any damage they cause. The cross-sector group got close to something happening in 2023 when the environment select committee recommended creating a law. The current government said, 'Nah, not a priority.' So here we are again But now there's another opening to do something about cats. The Department of Conservation is asking if feral cats should be added to the Predator Free 2050 target species list. Feral cats are being controlled, but it's piecemeal. There's no national standard, no shared funding, no clear guidelines, limited research and poor outcomes for both cats and wildlife. When nothing happens at a national level, people take matters into their own hands, like the farmers in Canterbury who made international headlines with their feral cat culling competition. Leaving feral cats off the list undermines the whole Predator Free 2050 goal. If we leave out feral cats, we ignore one of the deadliest predators, and their control remains disjointed. Adding them to the list means setting national standards, investing in research and ensuring their removal is more humane, coordinated and effective. Feral cats shouldn't remain in the too-hard basket. We've had the conversation; it's time to do something with it.
NZ Herald
17 hours ago
- General
- NZ Herald
Developers still accountable for wildlife harm, DoC vows after changes to act
NZTA reported two deaths of Hochstetter's frogs during its recent upgrade work to the Brynderwyns section of SH1. It said about 150 frogs were successfully relocated. Changes to the Wildlife Act won't reduce the onus on developers of big infrastructure projects to rigorously assess and manage ecological impacts on threatened and taonga species, the Department of Conservation says. Last month, the coalition Government pushed through amendments to the act, reinstating the Director-General of Conservation's (DGC)
RNZ News
a day ago
- General
- RNZ News
Department of Conservation's unsung hero
DOC ranger is an unsung hero whose job is to clean public toilets at Canterbury's DOC sites and provide toilet paper. And replacing the loo paper is a mammoth job nationwide, with DOC revealing around 15-and-a-half kilometres of paper was ordered over the last year - that's long enough to stretch the length of the country nearly ten times. Ranger Daryl Sweeney answers other people's calls of nature, but he thinks it's about time people answered their own. Photo: Department of Conservation
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Moose on the LOOSE?
Two alleged sightings of the elusive moose in Fiordland have begged the age-old question — is it still out there? Mary Williams speaks to the yay-sayers, nay-sayers and maybe-sayers. It is a question of what we hold deer. Two Fiordland moose sightings, both this year, by groups of Canadian and United States trampers on the Kepler track, were treated as a yeah-nah by the Department of Conservation (Doc). Te Anau Doc manager John Lucas said he had to check that one sighting, which landed on his desk on April Fool's Day, wasn't a prank. They were most likely "deer or possibly a red/wapiti cross that has been mistaken for moose." But this is not a hunt for the proverbial Big Foot. Ten Canadian moose were released at Dusky Sound in 1910, after a tortuous journey from their colder homeland. They bred but by all accounts never got much of a hoof-hold and, "it is believed they are now extinct", Mr Lucas said. Belief and extinct are dangerous words to bandy around in Fiordland. Te Anau residents celebrate Dr Geoffrey Orbell, the man who tracked the "extinct" flightless takahe in 1948 and found a few of the surviving birds in the mountains immediately opposite the township. Four years later, the last definitive Fiordland moose photos were taken, so anyone claiming they are still out there in the 21st century must steel themselves for a storm of scorn from social media and some deer hunters. At the eye of the storm is the affable, long-married, Te Anau couple Ken and Marg Tustin, who have spent years — yes, years, often in month-long stints — living under canvas in a remote corner of Fiordland National Park, looking for moose. They have used scientific approaches, have a hopeful, fun-loving attitude as well as some compelling evidence, and are convinced that a remnant moose population is still, probably, a yeah-nah-yeah. Mr Tustin — a trained biologist, helicopter pilot and now in his 80th year — is riled at Doc's recent negative reactions. "It is absolutely astounding," he says. He is responding by inviting people to report their sightings or other evidence to him and has set up an initiative called Moose Log NZ to help people do just that. "It amazes me that they [Doc] were so disrespectful, dismissing the sightings so out-of-hand, telling them 'what they saw'. "We are talking about Fiordland megafauna here, not stick insects." Camera shy If a moose walks through the forest, but there is no-one there to snap its photo, is it still a moose? According to Doc's Mr Lucas, no. He demands "photographic proof". Mr Tustin, who has been looking for moose since the 1970s, points out that Fiordland is 1.25million hectares. Moose are huge, look different from deer but the chance of snapping a photo is slim. Only a few may be left, and if they are out there, they are solitary and likely on the move, looking for a limited supply of edible leaves. They don't hang out in clearings because, unlike deer, they are neither grass-grazers nor are they sun-seekers. They are meant to have a different diet in a colder clime. However, the two recent sightings by two groups — certain about their ability to ID moose, including a vet, and not colluding — have a ring of truth. Antoine Beauchamp, from Quebec, explains why his group of three didn't snap a pic. Their phones were in their backpacks because they were on their final day trudging the track and focused on making it to the carpark not nature photography. There is an argument that NZ deer hunters only see deer — not moose — because they are wired for that. Did Mr Beauchamp only see moose because he is Canadian and wired to see moose? "I don't think so. I have seen hundreds of deer in my life and only a couple of moose, and I know what a moose looks like." "Everyone wants to see something with their eyes but even then might call it false. We have seen the comments on Facebook saying 'Why didn't they take a picture?' but our phones were not in our hands. We noticed the animal, started talking about it, it crossed the track so we got a good look, then it disappeared into the forest." He admits there is always a chance they could be wrong but "it is important, first, to be kind and understanding, especially in a situation like this. I understand the takahe's story so it is only fair to be open to the possibility of moose." Mr Beauchamp then rattled off the moose characteristics they saw — wide flat antlers, wide nose, very long legs, brown body. If it looks like a moose, it's a moose, he thinks. Matches During 1951-52 three moose were shot by hunters, one of them at a small lake called Moose Lake. It is a wild, forested, moody spot fed by Herrick Creek and emptying into the southern edge of Wet Jacket Arm, not very far from the 1910 moose release site. Moose Lake is named thanks to Mr Tustin. He persuaded the NZ Geographic Board to name it because two moose had been shot there, the other in 1934. In 1952, a moose was also photographed standing in the lake. The area around Herrick Creek and Moose Lake has been the primary focus for much of the studies by the Tustins and Mr Tustin describes his time there with Mrs Tustin as "demanding, primeval but we thrived on it — lucky us!" They concluded that "browse sites" — where bush and tree stems have been broken and munched higher than a deer or wapiti could likely reach — demonstrated seasonal moose movements. They installed self-triggering cameras, that snapped 1500 red deer and, in 1995, "one probable female moose", captured on a blotchy picture, taken from a video frame. Max Quinn, 75, is a natural history film-maker and was making a film about the Tustins at the time. "We saw social groups of deer but the time we filmed that solitary, dark animal was the only time we saw it — a one-off, indicative of moose. "They can climb a mountain, go down a valley, swim a fiord and never be captured again." In 2000, two hunters found large hoof prints and some unusually-long, snagged animal hair at Shark Cove in Dusky Sound. It was sent to Invermay Agricultural Centre for mitochondrial DNA testing and came back 98% moose. Jamie Ward works at Otago Fish and Game now, but was a lab technician at Invermay. It was "dumb luck", he says, that the sample was less than a few days old and therefore still testable. Mr Ward is aware humans share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees, but the hair follicles came back with lower matches for deer or wapiti that "weren't even close". "If not a moose, it was a moose hybrid and its mother was a moose, and if it was a moose hybrid that would be even more remarkable than finding a moose in New Zealand." Cross-contamination was unlikely, he says. "There had never been a moose in the lab and it was hard to believe that anyone had moose meat in the freezer". He joined forces with Mr Tustin to co-author a paper, still available on ResearchGate. In 2002, the Tustins also found a hair clump, on the northern coast of Wet Jacket Arm opposite Oke Island, and sent it to a forensic lab at Trent University in Ontario. It came back moose positive. Other samples they sent were found, predictably, to be deer. Mr Ward has views about negative reactions to the recent sighting claims. "With all the vitriol handed out, I felt, you guys, you don't know what you are talking about. Ken is one of New Zealand's foremost ungular researchers who has sat up on a mountainside for months on the dark side, from dawn to dusk, and you are none of those things so you don't really have the right to a strong opinion." In 2011, the clothing retailer Hallenstein Brothers offered a bounty of $100,000 for a photo, saying it was time to "help Ken Tustin out" but ended the offer six weeks later. Since the DNA results, there has been nothing so helpful to prove moose, but in 2020, Ben Young, a young helicopter pilot at Southern Lakes Helicopters, said he saw one from the sky. He has worked as a hunting guide in northern Canada and said he was sure. The moose waggled its big ears at him. The Tustins think there may have been other sightings not reported to Doc, because people fear ridicule. Poo possibility? In a few weeks, there is another chance of moose news. The Tustins will be studying pictures from cameras they have placed in the Seaforth Valley, which leads from Dusky Sound towards the northeast, in the direction of the Kepler track. Last year, Mr Tustin collected faeces from the valley in a place that he says was moose-browsed. He sent it to be DNA tested by Massey University but, sadly, it had degraded too much. Dr Nick Sneddon, who did the checks, explains that only the mucus on faeces can be tested and it degrades fast. Moose-seekers should "carry a clean bag, grab and bag the poo without touching it, and get it tested as soon as possible." Meanwhile, the hunting community are variably likely to start collecting poo or holding cellphones at the ready. David Veitch, experienced hunter and president of the Southern Lakes Deer Stalkers Association, is an ardent nay-sayer and uses an age-old argument. He has walked "thousands of kilometres" through Fiordland bush and never seen one with his own eyes. "It is people not identifying what they are looking at, simple as that." Owner of Te Anau hunting shop Fiordland Frontier Stephen Dobson is less damning. He would love to be proven wrong about moose extinction but preferably not with a carcass as evidence. "Nobody wants to be that person who proves it by shooting the last one." Roy Sloan, spokesman for the Wapiti Foundation, which is calling for wapiti to be protected as a Herd of Special Interest, is also up for good news and ready to rename his organisation the Wapiti and Moose Foundation — just as soon as he sees a photo. "Ken is very honest and not out for a story. If the DNA evidence wasn't moose, what else could it be?" Meanwhile, Mr Tustin is still smiling broadly at the recent sightings and a lifetime of fun in the forest with a woman he loves. He also cherishes the friendships made along the way. "It means the world that smart, observant people have been so lucky to have their tracks crossed by this rare, rare animal and recognise the importance and want to share it. We are thrilled for them and ourselves." "They have brought the project back to life, just when we've been struggling to do the fieldwork, and when moose numbers are at their likely lowest ebb." "It's something to celebrate in this mean old world of ours. A flash of bright light. I love it that when man believes he knows everything, then here comes moose, unheralded, the size of a horse, outwitting — or out-moosing? — us all for years. What does that tell us about ourselves and the quality of Fiordland wilderness? Moose 1, humans 0." — To register a sighting with Ken, email mooselognz@
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
This Giant Snail Lays Eggs Out of Its Neck… Yes, Seriously
If you thought human birth was seriously twisted, get a load of the Mount Augustus snail from New Zealand. This giant carnivorous gastropod pushes 5-millimeter-wide eggs out of a pore just below its head. The pain-in-the-neck form of reproduction was recently caught on camera by Lisa Flanagan, a ranger at NZ's Department of Conservation (DOC), who has been caring for a captive population of these snails (Powelliphanta augusta) since 2006. "It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg," says Flanagan. "We caught the action when we were weighing the snail. We turned it over to be weighed and saw the egg just starting to emerge from the snail." Powelliphanta are among the largest snails in the world, and they comb through NZ's forest and grasslands slurping up earthworms like spaghetti. P. augusta is one of the more famous species (nearly 10 centimeters in length), and it was only discovered by the DOC in 2005, when most of the snail's habitat was subject to mining. The wild population is now confined to just a few introduced sites, where the snail hasn't lived historically, but a captive colony exists of roughly 2,000 individuals as a genetic insurance policy. These are some of the longest-living snails in the world – some of the captive snails under Flanagan's care are between 25 and 30 years old. "I just love watching their progress each month, weighing them, how their shells develop, and all the interesting things they do," says Flanagan. While they usually lay around five eggs per year, starting from about the age of eight, this is the first time scientists in New Zealand have seen the egg-laying in action. The species is a hermaphrodite, meaning each individual has male and female genitalia. To mate, each snail pushes out a penis from its neck pore and pokes it into the pore of the other snail. Both individuals exchange sperm and then store it for later fertilization. It is from this same neck pore that a fertilized egg later emerges. Talk about evolutionary efficiency. Cephalopods Passed a Cognitive Test Designed For Human Children Study Reveals How Your Cat Remembers Who You Are 'Lost City' Deep Beneath The Ocean Is Unlike Anything We've Seen Before on Earth
