Teeming with creatures great and small in Wharariki 'Badlands'

Friday, 10 January 2020

Freshwater ecologist Tom Kroos holding the Giant kokopu caught, measured and released back into the Wharariki wetland. Kroos said it was one of the largest he'd ever seen.

Broken in, cut off, burnt over, killed off. The language of this country's colonialists implied destruction as they maximised their exploitation of the land.

And if it couldn't grow grass, it became 'Badlands'.

Such has been the case of the 400 hectares spread along the Old Man Range between Farewell Spit and Wharariki, an area so apparently impoverished doing anything 'economic' with it has been considered fair impossible.

When it 'accidentally' and catastrophically got burnt off in 1983, no one cared a damn.

A local green gecko investigates ecologist Samantha King???s notebook.

* Seabird restoration scheme a winner

* Southern Stays: Wharariki Beach and Cape Farewell the kind of NZ scenery you dream of

* Farewell Spit eco-sanctuary will bring back endangered plant and animal species**

'Good riddance' I recall one farmer telling me at the time.

Now we know exactly how rich this locality is, thanks to 20 scientific experts recruited in over one long weekend late last November/early December. Their collective mission, termed a BioBlitz, was the initiative and a key step in the restoration plan for this unique area by the Farewell Wharariki HealthPost Nature Trust.

Following 48 hours of concentrated field work at selected sites, some of it at night, the scientists and wildlife experts shared their results at a wrap up lunchtime sharing session held at Pakawau Hall last month.

Convening it were trustees Peter Butler, Chris Wheatley, Craig Potton and Forest and Bird's Debs Martin.

Entomologist Brian Patrick collecting night flying moths for identification.

It's unusual to get so many experts – whether specialist on seabirds, spiders, skinks, insects, microsnails or species of freshwater fish – together in one place. They reported back from meticulous detailed observations – some of it undertaken at night - around selected sites stretching between Farewell Spit and and the dunes of Wharariki.

Experienced caver and beetle expert Ian Miller from Nelson said one of the highlights for him was the exploration of a new cave system in the range accessed down a sinkhole where abundant cave weta could be found.

'It was new territory for me and fascinating at that,' he said.

Lizard expert Samantha King said it heartening to find so many brown gecko (Raukawa) hiding out amongst the rocky terrain.

The moorlands surrounding the Old Man Range between Wharariki and Farewell Spit have more often been referred to as the Badlands.

'In one crevice I shone my touch into, I could see 20 pairs of tiny eyes glowing back, the populations looked healthy.'

In the Wharariki wetland that runs down through the flats before Wharariki beach, Tom Kroos' team of freshwater ecologists managed to trap and record a Giant kokopu (Galaxias argenteus) which was 400mm long and weighed 1.5kg, one of the biggest they'd ever seen. Not before an eel had had a serious go at one of them though.

At the debriefing it was noted that the presence of adult banded kokopu and inanga further up implied there was no problem with fish passage up through the channels of the swamp which does not see any sea incursion. It was not the habitat though of brown mudfish (Neochanna apoda), which they had hoped to find.

It was amazing to me how specialist some of these experts got.

Brian Patrick from Dunedin made an inventory of moths. Peter De Lange catalogued lichens, Mary Morgan-Richards looked for cicadas and grasshoppers, while Steve Trewick went after weta. Richard Toft who specialises in gnats, mayflys, craneflys and therevids, said he had never seen such populations of damsel flies, also noting that paper wasps had a firm foothold in the area.

Ecologists Richard Toft and Chau Phung Ong collecting winged insects on Cape Farewell.

The effect of predators and introduced species was well acknowledged, right down even to the presence of rat 'husking stations' deep down in caves, which showed that that the rodents had recently become well versed in seeking out weta eggs and eating their miniscule yet tasty contents.

The reduction of of rats and stoats has been a priority. Initial checking of 80 double traps put in by the trust in the middle of last year netted exactly 25 stoats in just the first check. Even just last month, 13 were caught.

Mike Ogle of DOC Golden Bay, himself a fair expert on bats, insects and fish, said that being able to participate in the weekend had been a wonderful opportunity.

'You just don't often get to go out and learn from such a diverse bag of experts over a couple of days. It makes you realise how alive this area really is.'

Many of the participants commented that it was great having botanist Mike North along for the weekend. Well acquainted with the area, he could immediately identify any flora for them as they went around.

Defining for these 'Moorlands' (as these Badlands are more correctly described) are the absolutely impoverished soils, a complete lack of them in some places, which have fostered the unique vegetation, stunted by the incessant wind and near subalpine in appearance.

Hollows and gullies out of the wind are lush in comparison. Species up here include the small daisy (Celmisia gracilenta), a sun orchid, and a horned variety of orchid (Orthocerus strictum).

Visitors to Wharariki have begun to notice the trust input here, with signage and the extensive plantings being undertaken along the wetland and start of the track to the beach.

A good deal of the trust's money has already been spent putting in a predator proof fence across the Cape Farewell headland where burrowing seabirds will be re-introduced later this year.

But it will be what happens outside the fence that will be equally as important in this area. The findings of the Bioblitz, when all collated and assessed by DOC, will determine where resources will be best spent and concentrated in the future.

The Badlands may be a cool name, but in reality we now know they are anything but.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage will formally open the Wharariki Eco Sanctuary at 2pm on January 18. To participate, people will need to walk 200m up the hill to the west of the lookout at Cape Farewell.

After cutting the ribbon, the stainless steel gate will be open to the public who will be able to view the traps and demonstration burrowing seabird boxes, one for fluttering shearwaters and one for diving petrels, which will be introduced once the sanctuary is deemed pest free.