Biodiversity Strategy

In July/August, we asked you what you thought could be included in the Biodiversity Strategy, and also asked about special areas and species to you in the district. We were really excited to get so much great feedback and input from the community.

This feedback has been summarized, and you can read it in the 'Feedback received July/August 2023 Biodiversity Strategy' document on the right hand side of this page.

Kahikatea (white pine) or, if you are a fancy pants spell casting wizard, ‘Dacrycarpus dacrydioides’. It is New Zealand's tallest tree, gaining heights of 60 m over a life span of 600 years.

In Māori culture, it is an important source of timber for the building of waka and making of tools, of food in the form of its berries, and of dye.

Much of New Zealand looks like a large patchwork quilt of rural farmland. Occasionally dotted throughout the low-land agricultural landscape are areas of native podocarp-hardwood forest. These show us what much of the region would have once looked like.

Unfortunately, their rich soils have largely led to the demise of these forests when the land is used for farming.

Podocarp forests can still be found in some parts of the central North Island, Taranaki,Coromandel, Northland and in Southland. The largest podocarp forests are on the west coast of the South Island.

Wētā have been around long enough to see dinosaurs come and go and to evolve into more than 100 different species, all of them endemic to New Zealand.

Wētā are incredible looking creatures. They range in size, but with their big bodies, spiny legs, and curved tusks, they are one of New Zealand's most recognisable creepy-crawlies.

Wētā have become icons for invertebrate conservation in New Zealand because many species are threatened or endangered. There are more than 100 species of wētā in New Zealand, 16 of which are at risk.

There are five broad groups of wētā:

• Tree wētā
• Ground wētā
• Cave wētā
• Giant wētā
• Tusked wētā

Wētā are mainly herbivorous in the wild, but are also known to eat insects. They are also partial to peanut butter, and don’t have a preference for smooth or crunchy.

They are nocturnal and live in a variety of habitats including grassland, shrub land, forests, and caves. They excavate holes under stones, rotting logs, or in trees, or occupy pre-formed burrows. There are several designs for wētā houses that can make sure your local wētā in your garden can live like invertebrate the royalty they are.

A great resource for a wētā house is the Kiwi Conservation Club website - https://kcc.org.nz/portfolio/make-a-weta-house/

The Bryde’s (pronounced ‘brooders’) can grow up to 15 metres in length and weigh up to 40 tonnes. They can be distinguished from other baleen whales by the three long ridges on the top of their heads, which is unique only to the Bryde’s whale.

They have the nick name of ‘the tropical whale’ as they are not usually seen in cooler waters. In New Zealand they are only regularly seen in the waters around the North Island, with the majority of sightings in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The marine park is an important area for cow and calf Bryde’s whales.

Bryde’s whales are able to feed on three different types of food – fish, krill and plankton. In the Hauraki Gulf, when they are feeding on fish, they are usually seen feeding alongside common dolphins and different species of shearwater petrel feeding on the same food.

They are shallow divers and spend a majority of their time in the top 10 metres of water. There is a population of only around 140 individuals and have a nationally critical status in New Zealand.

Photo credit – Nathan Meadows

Tuna (the Māori word for eels) are important to Māori, but pressure on some species is resulting in their decline.

There are two main types of eel – the shortfin and the longfin. There are fewer eels today because of the loss of wetlands and historical commercial fishing practice. Currently the commercial eel fishery is managed by the Ministry for Primary Industries under the Quota Management System.

Eels migrate up streams as elvers to find suitable adult habitat. After many years (15-30 years for shortfins, 25 years for longfins, and sometimes up to 80 years) they migrate to the Pacific Ocean to breed and die. The new elvers migrate back to New Zealand and return to the rivers and streams of their ancestors.

Eels are secretive, mainly nocturnal and prefer habitats with plenty of cover.

The longfin eel is one of the largest eels in the world and it is found only in the rivers and lakes of New Zealand. Longfin eels are considered ‘At Risk, Declining.’

Longfin eels are quite susceptible to pollution, their health is also an indication of the health of the ecosystem in which they live. Tuna are examined for disease on the skin, fins, and mouth. In times of very poor water quality the lips of the tuna become completely covered with fungal growth, which may prevent it from feeding. This sometimes results in the death of tuna.

Find out more about these amazing animals here: www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/freshwater-fish/eels/

This extraordinary blue mushroom’s official name is the New Zealand Blue Pinkgill. Its scientific name is Entoloma hochstetteri, and its Māori name, Werewere Kōkako is translated as the blue wattle of the Kōkako. The Ngāi Tūhoe describe that the Kōkako got its blue wattles from it rubbing its cheek against the mushroom.

Werewere Kōkako was one of six native fungi featured in a set of NZ fungal stamps issued in 2002. It is also found on our $50 note next to the kōkako. New Zealand has the distinction of being the only currency in the world to feature a mushroom. The most recent banknote re-design by the Reserve Bank maintained our native biodiversity theme. The Werewere Kōkako has moved from the lower right corner of the note to centre stage - reflecting the increasing recognition of how significant our biodiversity is to our identity and economy.

Werewere Kōkako is common in forests throughout New Zealand, where it grows on soil among litter in broadleaf/podocarp forest. It fruits in January to July.

The frogs in the Hauraki District are small, nocturnal and hard to see as they camouflage themselves well. Two of our three native species, Archey's and Hamilton's frog, live on land in shady, moist forested areas, and the Horchstetter's frog is semi-aquatic, living on stream edges.

New Zealand's native frogs have several distinctive features that make them very different from frogs elsewhere in the world:

• they have no external eardrum
• they have round (not slit) eyes
• they don't croak regularly like most frogs.

Bats are Aotearoa’s only native land mammal. There are two species: the long-tailed bat and the less common short-tailed bat, both of which are found in the Hauraki District!

Long-tailed bats are smaller than the short-tailed bat, chestnut brown in colour, have small ears and weigh 8–11 grams. They are believed to produce only one offspring each year.

Their echo-location calls include a relatively low frequency component which can be heard by some people, though most calls are at a frequency of 40 kHz which is higher than people can hear.

They can fly at 60 kmph and a bat colony can have a range of more than 100 km².

They feed on small moths, midges, mosquitoes and beetles.