True face of New Zealand revealing itself once again

IN many ways New Zealand is a sort of "improved" England. Low crime rates, hot summers and an outdoors lifestyle are coupled with landscapes that are grander than the Lakes or the Scottish highlands but share similarities. But this was not how the first British arrivals found it in the 1830s.

On a recent trip I met a local sheep farmer on the Otago Peninsula in the South Island for a wildlife tour of his farm. We got chatting about how his grass fields were full of creeping thistles, ragwort and woolly thistles which are familiar problem plants here.

He was the fifth generation here. The first two had made a living from logging the lush forest that once covered his rolling grass pastures. Once the forest was felled, British grass seed was sown and sheep farming became the main source of income for the next two generations.

Today it is difficult for the average-sized sheep farmer to make a living from that alone. For the present generation and the next

(his son is 15 years old) diversification is the name of the game.

The area has a feel of the Scottish islands, especially the beautiful white beaches in sheltered bays. But down on the beach, sea lions were hauled up on the sand and yellow-eyed penguins looked out from the fringes of the sand dunes.

Yellow-eyed penguins are the rarest penguins in the world. They are endemic to New Zealand where there is thought to be a population of just 2,000. They have distinctive golden feathers which form a crown on their heads and a bright yellow eye stripe. They have slate grey-blue backs with a white breast and belly, flesh coloured feet, and thick reddish-purple bills. They have suffered serious declines in the last 50 years due to habitat loss and predation by introduced species.

As I photographed them, I heard a familiar sound. A charm of goldfinches was working its way along the bank, feeding on thistle heads and they were followed shortly by some green finches.

Not only did those early settlers transformed the landscape to make it look a bit more like "home" but they had also brought their own wildlife with them too.

As I browsed through my borrowed wildlife of New Zealand book that night, I noted that 33 species of birds and 32 species of mammals are now widely accepted as part of the New Zealand fauna. Settlers had tried to naturalise 111 other species of birds to the country.

The largest number of successful introductions came from the British Isles and Europe and most introductions occurred in the first 25 years of settlement. Game such as pheasant, mallard, Canadian goose, quail, mute and black swan, six types of deer, rabbits and hares were brought across for sport as well as for food.

Hedgehogs, starlings, rooks and Indian myna birds were brought in to carry out useful biological control of the recently developed farmland which was plagued by all manner of insects. Garden birds such as most of the British finches, sparrows, crimson rosella, little owl and skylarks seem to have been introduced purely for sentimental reasons.

Rabbits were introduced in 1864 but within five years they were serious problem especially on farmland. Weasels, ferrets and stoats were brought in to control rabbits but these also preyed on native ground-nesting birdlife such as the kiwi and blue penguins.

This modified environment has some winners and losers. The native forest dwelling wildlife such as the moa, the huia, laughing owl and flightless wrens became extinct due to human activity and the new predators.

Populations of others have crashed, unable to adapt, some thrived. The Australasian harrier hawk has become much more prolific and I saw dozens soaring in the sky. The red pole is a rare finch in England but abundant here. I saw more in five minutes than I will ever see in my whole life in the UK.

Preserving and reinstating land to its original state is now very much in fashion. The sheep farmer I met on the Otago Peninsula is working hard to encourage small colonies of yellow-eyed penguins, blue penguins and sea lions to flourish. Vast tracts of land are being replanted or protected throughout the country and even gardeners are opting to plant native trees and shrubs in their own back gardens.

It was intriguing to see how the original Kiwi landscape has been transformed into something alien in order to give comfort to an English eye. It was like witnessing the product – both successful and otherwise – of a giant wildlife experiment, before the concept of "conservation" had even been coined.

CW 10/4/10