Our Changing World series: The natural world of the Chatham Islands
Archived content: This media release was accurate on the date of publication.
Introduction
Listen to Radio New Zealand's Our Changing World series on the natural world of the Chatham Islands, presented by Alison Ballance.Date: 25 May 2010
Alison Ballance from Radio New Zealand's Our Changing World visited the Chatham Islands in the summer of 2010 to find out about the work being undertaken by DOC and the community to protect and enhance the unique conservation values there.
Listen to the series on the Radio New Zealand website:
In the final story of the Chatham Island series, David Crockett tells of the luck, patience and hard work involved in rediscovering the Chatham Island taiko.
Alison Ballance joins Department of Conservation ranger Pat Liddy in the Tuku Reserve to check on the breeding burrows of taiko, one of the world’s rarest seabirds.
Alison Ballance with a Chatham snipe
that landed on her backpack
The Sweetwater Covenant on Liz and Bruce Tuanui’s Chatham Island farm is a private conservation initiative that boasts one of the most remote predator-proof fences in New Zealand, and has the aim of providing a secure home for two species of threatened burrowing seabirds, taiko and Chatham Island petrels.
Cooks scurvy grass in the Chathams
Department of Conservation botanist Amanda Baird takes Alison Ballance along as an extra set of eyes to monitor rare, tiny Cooks scurvy grass plants growing in rocky cracks on the Chatham Island coast.
Laser scans of Moriori dendroglyphs
University of Otago surveyors are using a mobile laser scanning unit to collect detailed 3D images of Chatham Island Moriori dendroglyphs, or tree carvings.
Chatham Island dune restoration
Department of Conservation ranger Bridget Gibb shows Alison Ballance how plantings of threatened plants such as Chatham Island forget-me-nots and sow thistles are helping restore some Chatham Island sand dunes to a natural state.
Chatham Island tui translocation part two
In part two of the Chatham Island tui translocation, Alison Ballance joins the Tui Team and the Te One School as the birds are released into the Awatotara Valley.
Chatham Island tui translocation part one
Alison Ballance joins the Taiko Trust’s ‘Tui Team’ on Rangatira Island in the Chathams as they attempt to catch 40 Chatham tui to transfer to the main island, where they are extinct.
Department of Conservation ranger Pat Liddy keeps a watchful eye over Chatham Island oystercatchers, a conservation success despite their habit of nesting too close to the water.
Mangere Island in the Chathams has been the focus of New Zealand’s most remote replanting project, and as DOC ranger Bridget Gibb explains, success is due to a local hero: the Chatham akeake.
Rangatira Island in the Chathams really comes alive at night, and Alison Ballance is out and about with DOC’s Graeme Taylor and Abi Liddy meeting wetas and spiders, and finding out about using war whoops and spotlights to catch Chatham petrels.
Chatham petrels
The Chatham petrel is one of the world’s rarest seabirds, but simple innovative management has seen its numbers steadily increasing.
New work by DOC seabird scientist Graham Taylor and Matt Rayner from NIWA is revealing where the birds go when they’re not at their breeding ground on Rangatira or South East Island.
DOC ranger Abi Liddy introduces Alison Ballance to some of the rare residents living on this nature reserve, including shore plovers, snipe and black robins.