Kereru and Kokopu-highlighting Aotea's Taonga

This is an Aotea conservation week event.

Professor Mick Clout from the University of Auckland will kick off the afternoon with a presentation on one of our favourite birds the New Zealand wood pigeon/ Kereru.

The kereru, (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) is arguably our most beautiful native bird. These large fruit pigeons are ‘keystone’ species, dispersing the seeds of many important plant species, including tawa, taraire, miro, puriri and nikau. For some of the larger-fruited trees, kereru are essentially the sole seed dispersers.

However, kereru have a slow reproductive rate and their eggs and chicks are highly vulnerable to introduced predators such as rats. In this talk, Mick Clout will describe results of his research on kereru diet, movement patterns, breeding success, and responses to mammal control. This will be related to long term conservation on Great Barrier Island.

Intermission: Afternoon tea will be provided free of charge.

Freshwater scientist, Taryn Wilks of Sustainable Aotea will follow afternoon tea with a presentation on Freshwater Fish.

What lives in our waterways? Did you know that ‘Whitebait’ are the juveniles of five species of fish from the Galaxiidae group, so called because of the patterns on their skin which resemble a galaxy of stars! We are also the only country in the world that have Longfin eels / tuna. Longfin eels / tuna breed only once, at the end of their life (> 25 years old). When they are ready to breed, they leave New Zealand and swim all the way to the sub-tropical Pacific Ocean to spawn. Fascinating stuff ah – come, learn, enjoy and be prepared to fall in love with our native fish.

While you learn about Kereru and freshwater fish at the club, you can send your kids (5 years and above) down to us at the conference center. We will entertain them with a series of conservation activities including making kereru protectors, colors by nature treasure hunt, bird seed feeders and some super fun conservation competitions.

We have some awesome kids prizes to give away so don’t miss out!

This event is part of Conservation Week 2019 - www.conservationweek.org.nz