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Bushy Park (New Zealand)
Bushy Park is a forest located on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, at 791 Rangitatau East Road, from Kai Iwi, Whanganui, Manawatū-Whanganui region. It features an Edwardian-era homestead, Bushy Park Homestead, which is a Category I heritage building registered with Heritage New Zealand, a predator-free native bird sanctuary, and a virgin rainforest. It measures approximately , and is characterized as a "lowland remnant of rata-podocarp taka- puketea icrainforest". According to Forest & Bird, Bushy Park is considered to be amongst the 25 best restoration ecology projects in Australia and New Zealand. History The 22-room Edwardian homestead, designed by Charles Tilleard Natusch, includes a long, -wide hall that runs the length of the residence, as well as wood panelling, carved mantels, and art deco lights. Built by Russell and Bignell in 1906 at a cost of £4,566 for G. Frank Moore, a cattle and racehorse breeder, the residence and park were given to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordyline Australis
''Cordyline australis'', commonly known as the cabbage tree, tī kōuka or cabbage-palm, is a widely branched monocot tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to tall with a stout trunk and sword-like leaves, which are clustered at the tips of the branches and can be up to long. With its tall, straight trunk and dense, rounded heads, it is a characteristic feature of the New Zealand landscape. Its fruit is a favourite food source for the kererū and other native birds. It is common over a wide latitudinal range from the far north of the North Island at 34° 25′S to the south of the South Island at 46° 30′S. Absent from much of Fiordland, it was probably introduced by Māori to the Chatham Islands at 44° 00′S and to Stewart Island / Rakiura at 46° 50′S. It grows in a broad range of habitats, including forest margins, river banks and open places, and is abundant near swamps. The largest known tree with a single trunk is growing at Pakawau, Golden Bay / Mohua. It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crèche (zoology)
The crèche (from French) in zoology refers to care of offspring in a group or colony. Many species such as common eider, lions, and penguins form crèche and exhibit group behaviours. Crèches can serve different functions and purposes depending on the species and the environment. For example, some crèches may aid in defence while other crèches may aid in feeding and protection from harsh weather conditions. This form of group living has evolved over time to become advantageous to the species. Studies have shown that by participating in group living, species will increase their inclusive fitness since their young will be in a better condition to reproduce and carry on the line of descendants in the species. Crèche behaviour in eiders, ''Somateria mollissima'' In the Common eider population, after giving birth to their eggs, the mother will incubate them until they hatch. The mothers will hear a signal from the juvenile's which will cause her to move away and open the nest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Island Saddleback
The North Island saddleback (''Philesturnus rufusater'') is a forest-dwelling passerine bird species endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. It was once considered conspecific with the South Island saddleback. The IUCN lists the species as Near Threatened, while it is listed as a "recovering" species in the New Zealand Threat Classification System. Saddlebacks are known in Māori as ''tīeke''. Taxonomy and systematics René Lesson first described the species in 1828 from a specimen collected in the Bay of Islands four years earlier, using the binomial name ''Icterus rufusater''. The specific name ''rufusater'' refers to the saddleback's plumage – a combination of the Latin words ''rufus'' 'reddish-brown', and ''ater'' 'black'. Their placement in the genus '' Icterus'' has since been revised, and the two saddleback species are now in their own genus, '' Philesturnus''. The name of this genus, created by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1832, comes from a portmanteau of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Island Robin
The North Island robin (''Petroica longipes'') is a species of Australasian robin endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. It is also known in Māori as the Toutouwai. It and the South Island robin (''P. australis'') of the South Island and Stewart Island were once considered conspecific (and called the "New Zealand robin"), but mitochondrial DNA sequences have shown that the two lineages split prior to the Pleistocene, and support the classification as two different species.Miller, Hilary C. & Lambert, David M. (2006): A molecular phylogeny of New Zealand's ''Petroica'' (Aves: Petroicidae) species based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 40(3): 844–855. Description The plumage is dark grey-black overall, with a pale area (smaller than that of the South Island robin) on the belly and breast, and pale streaking on the upperparts. They are sexually dimorphic, with males having darker plumage than the females and being slightly larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kererū
The kererū (''Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae'') or New Zealand pigeon is a species of pigeon native to New Zealand. Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the bird in 1789 as a large, conspicuous pigeon up to in length and in weight, with a white breast and iridescent green–blue plumage. Two subspecies have been recognised; the second—the Norfolk pigeon of Norfolk Island—became extinct in the early 20th century. Kererū pairs are monogamous, breeding over successive seasons and remaining together when not breeding. They construct nests with twigs in trees, with a single egg clutch. Found in a variety of habitats across the country, the kererū feeds mainly on fruits, as well as leaves, buds and flowers. Although widespread in both forest and urban habitats, its numbers have declined significantly since European colonisation and the arrival of invasive mammals such as rats, stoats and possums. However, the results of nationwide bird surveys indicate that there has been a signif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Bellbird
The New Zealand bellbird (''Anthornis melanura''), also known by its Māori names korimako, makomako, and kōmako, is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish colouration and is the only living member of the genus ''Anthornis''. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song that was much noted by early European settlers. The explorer Captain Cook wrote of its song "it seemed to be like small bells most exquisitely tuned". Its bell-like song is sometimes confused with that of the tūī. The species is common across much of New Zealand and its offshore islands as well as the Auckland Islands. Description Males are olive-green with a dark purplish sheen on their head and black outer wing and tail, while females are a duller olive-brown with a blue sheen on the head and yellowish-white curving from the base of the bill to below the eye. Both have a notably red eye. They are about 17–20 cm from the tip of their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Brushtail Possum
The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Australia and naturalised in New Zealand, and the second-largest of the possums. Like most possums, the common brushtail possum is nocturnal. It is mainly a folivore, but has been known to eat small mammals such as rats. In most Australian habitats, eucalyptus leaves are a significant part of the diet, but rarely the sole item eaten. Its tail is prehensile and naked on its lower underside. The four colour variations are silver-grey, brown, black, and gold. It is the Australian marsupial most often seen by city dwellers, as it is one of few that thrive in cities and a wide range of natural and human-modified environments. Around human habitations, common brushtails are inventive and determined foragers with a liking for fruit trees, vegetabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metrosideros Robusta
''Metrosideros robusta'', the northern rātā, is a forest tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to or taller, and usually begins its life as a hemiepiphyte high in the branches of a mature forest tree; over centuries the young tree sends descending and girdling roots down and around the trunk of its host, eventually forming a massive, frequently hollow pseudotrunk composed of fused roots. In disturbed ground, or where there are gaps in the forest cover, northern rātā will grow on the ground with a normal but short trunk. Distribution Northern rātā is found in the North Island from Te Paki in the north to Wellington in the south. Formerly widespread, it is now uncommon over large parts of its former range, and is apparently absent from all but the south-east of Hawkes Bay. In the South Island, northern rātā is common from Nelson to Greymouth and Hokitika. It reaches its southern limit near Lake Mahinapua at 42°4′ South latitude. The natural habitat is forest along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hornworts. Mosses typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients. Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are typically tall, though some species are much larger. ''Dawsonia'', the tallest moss in the world, can grow to in height. There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except the lycopods, and differ from mosses and other bryophytes by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls, that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns. They produce coiled fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate ( Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rimu
''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian term ''limu'' which the tree's foliage were reminded of, ultimately from Proto-Austronesian *''limut'' meaning "moss". The former name "red pine" has fallen out of common use. Distribution Rimu grows throughout New Zealand, in the North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura. This species is common in lowland and montane forest. Although the largest concentration of trees is now found on the West Coast of the South Island, the biggest trees tend to be in mixed podocarp forest near Taupō (e.g., Pureora, Waihaha, and Whirinaki Forests). A typical North Island habitat is in the Hamilton Ecological District, where ''Fuscospora truncata'' and rimu form the overstory. Associate ferns on the forest floor are ''Blechnum discolor'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metrosideros
''Metrosideros'' is a genus of approximately 60 trees, shrubs, and vines mostly found in the Pacific region in the family Myrtaceae. Most of the tree forms are small, but some are exceptionally large, the New Zealand species in particular. The name derives from the Ancient Greek ''metra'' or " heartwood" and ''sideron'' or "iron". Perhaps the best-known species are the pōhutukawa (''M. excelsa''), northern (''M. robusta'') and southern rātā (''M. umbellata'') of New Zealand, and '' ōhia lehua'' (''M. polymorpha''), from the Hawaiian Islands. Distribution ''Metrosideros'' is one of the most widely spread flowering plant genera in the Pacific. New Caledonia has 21 species of ''Metrosideros'', New Zealand has 12, New Guinea has seven and Hawaii has 5. The genus is present on most other high Pacific Islands, including Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Cook islands, French Polynesia, Bonin Islands and Lord Howe Island, but absent from Micronesia . The genus is also r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.JPG "Click for more on -> Cordyline Australis")
