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Lake Kaniere
Lake Kaniere is a glacial lake located on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Nearly deep, the lake is surrounded on three sides by mountains and mature rimu forest. It is regarded by many as the most beautiful of the West Coast lakes, and is a popular tourist and leisure destination. Geography Lake Kaniere lies southeast of Hokitika, between two mountain ranges. At about , it is second only to Lake Brunner in size among the West Coast's lakes. It is oriented north-south, 8 km long and 2 km wide, and has a maximum depth of 195 m. Mount Graham and Mount Upright / Te Taumata o Uekanuku are on the west coast of the lake, Tūhua on the east. The lake is included in the Lake Kaniere Scenic Reserve. The road from Hokitika meets the northern shore of the lake at "The Landing" and splits; Dorothy Falls Road runs up the entire eastern side of the lake past Hans Bay and Dorothy Falls to the Styx River, while the other fork goes a short way west to Sunny Bight. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westland District
Westland District is a territorial authority district on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is administered by the Westland District Council. The district's population is History Westland was originally a part of Canterbury Province, administered from Christchurch, on the east coast. The booming population as a result of the gold rush, together with the difficulty of travel and communication across the Southern Alps, led first to the creation of a special Westland County, then the formal separation of Westland from Canterbury to form the short-lived Westland Province (1873–1876). Westland Province also included what is now the southern portion of Grey District, with the provincial boundary at the Grey and Arnold rivers. Greymouth proper was in Westland Province, Cobden, on the north bank of the Grey River, was in Nelson Province. After the abolition of the provinces in 1876, a new Westland County was created with roughly the same borders as the province ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Cormorant
The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), also known as just cormorant in Britain, as black shag or kawau in New Zealand, formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World, Australasia, and the Atlantic coast of North America. Taxonomy The great cormorant was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Pelecanus carbo''. Linnaeus specified the type location as "Europe", but this was restricted to the "rock-nesting form of the north Atlantic Ocean" by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert in 1920. The great cormorant is now one of 12 species placed in the genus '' Phalacrocorax'' that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The genus name is Latinised Anc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metrosideros Umbellata
''Metrosideros umbellata'', the southern rātā, is a tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to or more tall with a trunk up to or more in diameter. It produces masses of red flowers in summer. Unlike its relative, northern rātā, this species rarely grows as an epiphyte. Description The flowers of southern rātā are scarlet, with stamens about long. White or yellow flowers are also known. Flowering usually occurs between December and February, but this depends on local conditions. Leaves are from to long, and are sharply pointed. The wood is hard, dense, and very strong. The bark is rough and flaky and provides an ideal stratum for the roots of epiphytic plants such as ''Astelia'' species and '' Freycinetia banksii'' (kiekie). Southern rātā is a major source of honey on the West Coast of the South Island. The kākā, tūī, and bellbirds visit southern rātā to take advantage of the abundant nectar. Distribution It prefers cooler regions with high rainfall a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dacrydium Cupressinum
''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a species of tree in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a dioecious evergreen conifer, reaching heights of up to , and can have a stout trunk up to in diameter. It is endemic to New Zealand; its range covers the North, South, and Stewart Islands, and it typically inhabits lowland to montane forests. ''D. cupressinum'' has an estimated lifespan of 600–800 years, although it may live as long as 1,200 years. ''D. cupressinum'' grows in an erect (sometimes forked), and usually a monopodial manner. ''D. cupressinum'' is a tall species emerging above the main canopy, usually at about in height. ''D. cupressinum'' was first described in 1786 by Daniel Solander and was later given a full description in 1803 by Aylmer Lambert. ''D. cupressinum''s fruits are consumed by various birds such as: bellbirds, kererū, and the tūī. Its fruits also provide an important source of food and vitamins for the endemic flightless parrot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kākāpō
The kākāpō (; : ; ''Strigops habroptilus''), sometimes known as the owl parrot or owl-faced parrot, is a species of large, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot of the superfamily Strigopoidea. It is endemic to New Zealand. Kākāpō can be up to long. They have a combination of unique traits among parrots: finely blotched yellow-green plumage, a distinct facial disc, owl-style forward-facing eyes with surrounding discs of specially-textured feathers, a large grey beak, short legs, large blue feet, relatively short wings and a short tail. It is the world's only Flightless bird, flightless parrot, the world's heaviest parrot, and also is nocturnal, herbivorous, visibly sexual dimorphism, sexually dimorphic in body size, has a low basal metabolic rate, and does not have male Parental care in birds, parental care. It is the only parrot to have a Polygyny in animals, polygynous Lek mating, lek breeding system. It is also possibly one of the world's longest-living birds, with a re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Māori People
Māori () are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of Māori migration canoes, canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation, these settlers developed Māori culture, a distinct culture, whose language, mythology, crafts, and performing arts evolved independently from those of other eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to the Chatham Islands, where their descendants became New Zealand's other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group, the Moriori. Early contact between Māori and Europeans, starting in the 18th century, ranged from beneficial trade to lethal violence; Māori actively adopted many technologies from the newcomers. With the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840, the two cultures coexisted for a generation. Rising ten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown Creeper
The brown creeper (''Certhia americana''), also known as the American treecreeper, is a small songbird, the only North American member of the treecreeper family Certhiidae. Description Adults are brown on the upper parts with light spotting, resembling a piece of tree bark, with white underparts. They have a long thin bill with a slight downward curve and a long stiff tail used for support as the bird creeps upwards. The male creeper has a slightly larger bill than the female. Brown creepers are smaller than white-breasted nuthatches but larger than golden-crowned kinglets. Measurements: * Length: * Weight: * Wingspan: Its voice includes single very high pitched, short, often insistent, piercing calls; ''see'', or ''swee''. The song often has a cadence like; ''pee pee willow wee'' or ''see tidle swee'', with notes similar to the calls. Creepers in California have songs of four to nine syllables, except in the San Bernardino Mountains, where there are as many as nine to thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rifleman (bird)
The rifleman (''Acanthisitta chloris'') () is a small insectivorous passerine bird that is endemic to New Zealand. It belongs to the family Acanthisittidae, also known as the New Zealand wrens, of which it is one of only two surviving species. The rifleman resembles a wren in form, but is not related to the family of true wrens, Troglodytidae, nor the fairy-wrens of Australia. Taxonomy The rifleman was described by Anders Sparrman in 1787 based on a bird collected in Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand's South Island. He originally placed it in the nuthatch genus '' Sitta''. Frédéric de Lafresnaye placed it in its own monotypic genus ''Acanthisitta'' in 1842. The name ''Acanthisitta'' is a portmanteau of the thornbill genus '' Acanthiza'' and the genus ''Sitta''. The rifleman is named after a colonial New Zealand regiment because its plumage drew similarities with the military uniform of a rifleman. Description The rifleman is New Zealand's s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morepork
The morepork (''Ninox novaeseelandiae''), better known as the morepork owl, and also known by numerous other onomatopoeic names (such as boobook, mopoke or ruru), is a smallish, brown owl species found in New Zealand, and to the northwest, on Norfolk Island, an Australian territory. It was also, formerly, found on Lord Howe Island. Three subspecies of the morepork are recognised, one of which is extinct and another that exists only as a hybrid population. First described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, the morepork was thought to be the same species as the Australian boobook (''N. boobook''), native to Australia, Timor-Leste and New Guinea, something that endured for nearly two hundred years, until 1999. Similarly, it was also considered the same as the Tasmanian boobook (''N. leucopsis'') until 2022. The morepork has dark-brown plumage with prominent pale spots and golden-yellow eyes. Like most owls, the species is generally nocturnal, though may be crepuscular at times ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yellow-crowned Parakeet
The yellow-crowned parakeet (''Cyanoramphus auriceps'') also known as the yellow-fronted parakeet is a species of parakeet endemic to the islands of New Zealand. The species is found across the main three islands of New Zealand, North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura, as well as on the subantarctic Auckland Islands. It has declined due to predation from introduced species such as stoats, although unlike the red-crowned parakeet, it has not been extirpated from the mainland of New Zealand. Its Māori name is ''kākāriki''. History The yellow-crowned parakeet was once widely distributed across all of New Zealand, both the main islands and the outlying ones. However, due to both the aforementioned introduced mammals and human destruction of habitat, these parakeets have become much scarcer in the last few decades. While uncommon, they are still the most common parakeet in New Zealand. Taxonomy This species was first described by Heinrich Kuhl in 1820 and origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Duck
The blue duck (''Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos'') or whio is a member of the duck, goose and swan family (biology), family Anatidae endemic to New Zealand. It is the only member of the genus ''Hymenolaimus''. Its exact taxonomic status is still unresolved, but it appears to be most closely related to the tribe Anatini, the dabbling ducks. The whio is depicted on the reverse side of the New Zealand ten-dollar note, New Zealand $10 banknote. Taxonomy James Cook, Captain James Cook saw the blue duck in Dusky Sound, South Island, New Zealand, on his Second voyage of James Cook, second voyage to the south Pacific. In 1777 both Cook and the naturalist Georg Forster mentioned the blue duck in their separate accounts of the voyage. A specimen was described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham (ornithologist), John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham used the English name, the "soft-billed duck". When in 1789 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific Black Duck
The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Māori name, . Taxonomy The Pacific black duck was Species description, formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus ''Anas'' and coined the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Anas superciliosa''. Gmelin based his description on the "Supercilious duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham (ornithologist), John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
