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Acclimatisation Societies of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

New Zealand has a very odd biota these days. There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. If New Zealand had a poor fauna, they would enrich it.

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Mana from Heaven

10,000 Birds

One of only two species in the plover genus Thinornis , the other being Australia’s Hooded Plover , this species is another New Zealand endemic. The species in fact used to occur across New Zealand, but declined quickly with the arrival of introduced mammals. It was just this tendency that allowed me to see them.

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Podcast Uploaded for Week Ending 12/12/09

Critter News

I apologize for the audio quality of this episode.my sound engineer was on the Xbox! Here are the week's stories.

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An Imperial Twitch

10,000 Birds

I couldn’t tell you how many birds I’ve seen in New Zealand. I guess it must have been a slow news day. And it also occurs that had I not gone to see it and Corey and Mike had found out I would have gotten 10,000 demerits and lost my position as beat writer for New Zealand. So I went to see it.

Penguins 166
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Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Some were taken of birds and mammals in zoos or aviaries, others were taken in the wild, often in remote places. Laughing Owl, 1909, New Zealand, photo taken by Cuthbert and Oliver Parr, pp. The photographs span the years 1870 to 2004. And, they are fascinating. The photographs were never published.

Animal 269
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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

One of the first examples I ever encountered was in the books of Gerald Durrell, the famous conservationist who was an early pioneer of the roles of zoos in conservation. He often defended that role in his books from animal rights activists who opposed “imprisoning” animals in zoos even if it saved them from extinction.

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Do introduced species count?

10,000 Birds

Even the most free-wheeling of birders don’t usually consider going to a zoo or a chicken farm a form of birding, but just because they choose to distinguish doesn’t mean they keep a list. This brings me, in a roundabout way (as is my want) to New Zealand birding and listing. Counts for what, exactly? Or perhaps not.

Species 182