On Saturday I went to the Orokonui Ecosanctuary which is about half and hour north of Dunedin. Orokonui is a 300 hectare section of native bush and forest that has been ridden of rabbits, rats, mice, possum, and stoats. They did this so that they could re-introduce several highly endangered bird and reptile species back into this forest.
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| From the mountain down is native bush. |
Orokonui is most famous for it's bird species and they had several very cool birds that we got to see. The first bird we got a good look at was a species of parrot called the kaka. It's about a foot tall and eats nuts, fruit, and insects. You can tell where a kaka has been because they rip the bark off trees to try and get at the insects inside.
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| It was ripping the bark off when this photo was taken |
The next really cool bird we got to see was the takahe. There are only 260 takahe left on the planet. They have been close to extinction by the aforementioned stoat, for which the takahe are easy prey. The two pictured here are a breeding pair that the sanctuary feeds in order to keep them around so people can see them.
We also saw Kereru which looks like a large pigeon and has very noisy wing beats.
The ecosanctuary also has a few reptile species, one of them being the endangered Tuatara. These look like small iguanas and are one of the oldest extant decendents of the dinosaurs. Pretty cool stuff. They are completely gone in the south island except for the ecosanctuary which has a reintroduced population of approximately 100 individuals. Tuataras also live extremely long lives, upwards of 100 years.
We also got to see some Otago skinks.
On our way back down we also got some good pictures from the bus of Dunedin Harbour.
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| I live here. |
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