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Pigeon Island (New Zealand)
Pigeon Island / Wāwāhi Waka is an island in the northern reaches of New Zealand's Lake Wakatipu, near the township of Glenorchy. It is 170 hectares in size and is the largest island in the lake. In 1884, during Queen Victoria's reign, it was gifted by the Crown as a reserve to the people of Queenstown district for their use and enjoyment. There are several walking tracks around the island which makes it easy to navigate to most parts of the island. Because its proximity to the lake creates a mild climate it is the only place in the Wakatipu Basin in which naturally occurring Kahikatea can be found. Flora and fauna Several native New Zealand birds can be found on Pigeon Island / Wāwāhi Waka, including tūī, kererū, bellbird, pipipi and yellow-crowned parakeet. Buff weka were translocated from Stevensons Island in 2006 and are now commonly seen. As well as kahikatea (white pine) other native tree species include: miro, mataī, rātā, mistletoe and red beec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prumnopitys Ferruginea
''Pectinopitys ferruginea'', commonly known as miro or toromiro, is an evergreen coniferous tree which is endemic to New Zealand. Description It grows up to high, with a trunk up to 1.3 m diameter. The leaves are linear to sickle-shaped, 15–25 mm long and 2–3 mm broad, with downcurved margins. The plants are dioecious with pollen cones being solitary while those of female plants hang from a curved, scaly stalk. The seed cones are highly modified, reduced to a central stem 2–3 cm long bearing 1-3 scales, each scale maturing berry-like, oval, about 20 mm long and 10–15 mm broad, red to purple-red with a soft edible pulp covering the single seed. The seeds are dispersed by the kererū (New Zealand pigeon), which eats the very conspicuous 'berries' and passes the seeds in its droppings. It is found growing on both lowland terrain and on hill slopes throughout the two main islands as well as on Stewart Island / Rakiura (47° S). Miro can live for at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protected Areas Of Otago
Protection is any measure taken to guard something against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although the mechanisms for providing protection vary widely, the basic meaning of the term remains the same. This is illustrated by an explanation found in a manual on electrical wiring: Some kind of protection is a characteristic of all life, as living things have evolved at least some protective mechanisms to counter damaging environmental phenomena, such as ultraviolet light. Biological membranes such as bark on trees and skin on animals offer protection from various threats, with skin playing a key role in protecting organisms against pathogens and excessive water loss. Additional structures like scales and hair offer further protection from the elements and from predators, with some animals having features such as spines or camouflage servi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nature Reserves In New Zealand
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part of nature, human activity or humans as a whole are often described as at times at odds, or outright separate and even superior to nature. During the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries, nature became the passive reality, organized and moved by divine laws. With the Industrial Revolution, nature increasingly became seen as the part of reality deprived from intentional intervention: it was hence considered as sacred by some traditions ( Rousseau, American transcendentalism) or a mere decorum for divine providence or human history ( Hegel, Marx). However, a vitalist vision of nature, closer to the pre-Socratic one, got reborn at the same time, especially after Charles Darwin. Within the various uses of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island Restoration
The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic (ecology), endemic species, as well as important breeding grounds for seabirds and some marine mammals. Their ecosystems are also very vulnerable to human disturbance (ecology), disturbance and particularly to introduced species, due to their small size. Island groups, such as New Zealand and Hawaii, have undergone substantial extinctions and losses of Habitat (ecology), habitat. Since the 1950s several organisations and government agencies around the world have worked to restore islands to their original states; New Zealand has used them to hold natural populations of species that would otherwise be unable to survive in the wild. The principal components of island restoration are the removal of introduced species and the reintroduction of native species. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uninhabited Islands Of New Zealand
The list of uninhabited regions includes a number of places around the globe. The list changes year over year as human beings migrate into formerly uninhabited regions, or migrate out of formerly inhabited regions. Definitions The exact definition of what makes a place "uninhabited" is not simple. Nomadic hunter-gather and pastoral societies live in extremely low population densities and range across large territories where they camp, rather than staying in any one place year-round. During the height of settler colonialism many European governments declared huge areas of the New World and Australia to be ''Terra nullius'' (land belonging to no one), but this was done to create a legal pretext to annex them to European empires; these lands were not, and are not uninhabited. While some communities are still nomadic, there are many remote and isolated communities in the less populated parts of the world that are separated from each other by hundreds or thousands kilometres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Islands
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rare ..., and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by country or location Africa Antarctica Asia Europe North America Oceania South America Lists of islands by continent Lists of islands by body of water By ocean: By other bodies of water: List of ancient islands Other lists of islands External links Island Superlatives {{South America topic, List of islands of * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Island
An uninhabited island, desert island, or deserted island, is an island, islet or atoll which lacks permanent human population. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes for the idea of "paradise". Some uninhabited islands are protected as nature reserves, and some are privately owned. Devon Island in Canada's far north is the largest uninhabited island in the world. Small coral atolls or islands usually have no source of fresh water, but occasionally a freshwater lens can be reached with a well. Terminology Uninhabited islands are sometimes also called "deserted islands" or "desert islands". In the latter, the adjective ''desert'' connotes not desert climate conditions, but rather "desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied". The word ''desert'' has been "formerly applied more widely to any wild, uninhabited region, including forest-land", and it is this archaic meaning that appears in the phrase "d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otago Daily Times
The ''Otago Daily Times'' (''ODT'') is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000. Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's '' The Press'', six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863. Its motto is "Optima Durant" or "Quality Endures". History Founding The ''ODT'' was founded by William H. Cutten and Julius (later Sir Julius) Vogel during the boom following the discovery of gold at the Tuapeka, the first of the Otago goldrushes. Co-founder Vogel had learnt the newspaper trade while working as a goldfields correspondent, journalist and editor in Victoria prior to immigrating to New Zealand. Vogel had arrived in Otago in early October 1861 at the age of 26 and soon took up employment at the ''Otago Colonis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nothofagus Fusca
''Nothofagus fusca'', commonly known as red beech (Māori: tawhai raunui) is a species of southern beech, endemic to New Zealand, occurring on both the North and South Island. It is generally found on lower hills and inland valley floors where soil is fertile and well drained. In New Zealand the species is called ''Fuscospora fusca''. It is a medium-sized evergreen tree growing to 35 m tall. The leaves are alternately arranged, broad ovoid, 2 to 4 cm long and 1.5 to 3 cm broad, the margin distinctively double-toothed with each lobe bearing two teeth. The fruit is a small cupule containing three seeds. Pollen from the tree was found near the Antarctic Peninsula, showing that it formerly grew in Antarctica since the Eocene period. Red beech is not currently considered threatened. Uses Red beech is the only known plant source, apart from rooibos (''Aspalathus linearis''), of the C-linked dihydrochalcone glycoside nothofagin. It is also grown as an ornamental tree in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate parasite, obligate parasitic plant, hemiparasitic plants in the Order (biology), order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. There are hundreds of species which mostly live in tropical regions. The name mistletoe originally referred to the species ''Viscum album'' (European mistletoe, of the family Santalaceae in the order Santalales); it is the only species native to the British Isles and much of Europe. A related species with red fruits, rather than white, ''Viscum cruciatum'', occurs in Southwest Spain and Southern Portugal, as well as in Morocco in North Africa and in southern Africa. There is also a wide variety of species in Australia. The genus ''Viscum'' is not native to North America, but ''Viscum album'' was introduced to Northern California in 1900. The eastern mistletoe native to North America, ''Ph ... [...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] |
