Ecological island

An ecological island is a term used in New Zealand, and increasingly in Australia, to refer to an area of land (not necessarily an actual island) isolated by natural or artificial means from the surrounding land,^[1] where a natural micro-habitat exists amidst a larger differing ecosystem. In New Zealand the term is used to refer to one of several types of nationally protected areas.

In artificial ecological islands (also known as mainland islands):

all non-native species (at least predator species) have been eradicated,
native species are reintroduced and nurtured, and
the natural or artificial border is maintained to prevent reintroduction of non-native species.

The ultimate goal is to recreate an ecological microcosm of the country as a whole as it was before human arrival. There is usually provision for controlled public access, and scientific study and research.

The definition does not include land within a fence erected to:

protect farm animals from wild predators
protect a specific species from specific predators
exclude farm animals only
exclude native animals (although some native animals, weka for example, may need to be excluded during a species' recovery phase).

YouTube Encyclopedic

1/3
Views:
1 309
864
454

Transcription

[Inia Te Wiata sings Ngati Raukawa song 'He puru taitama'] He pūru taitama e He pūru taitama hoki He pūru taitama He pūru Ōtaki He pūru tukituki e Ka haere tāua e [Narrator] Maungatautari, near the Waikato town of Cambridge is a wildlife reserve, and is the ancestral home of the Ngāti Raukawa tribe. An extinct volcano, Maungatautiri is now the home to some of New Zealand's most precious birdlife. During the 1820s, due to inter-tribal conflict known as the Musket Wars, Ngati Raukawa migrated to the south of the North Island. But they still consider Maungatautari their sacred mountain and refer to it in their songs and proverbs. Ngāti Raukawa are descended from Raukawa, who was the son of Tūrongo and Māhinarangi. The story of the famous romance between Raukawa's parents tells how Raukawa got his name. Tūrongo was a chief from the Waikato. He and his brother Whatihua grew to be rivals. After becoming an adult, Tūrongo travelled to south Taranaki, and fell in love with the beautiful Ruapūtahanga, of the Aotea people. Following Tūrongo's courtship of Ruapūtahanga, her family agreed that she should marry him. He returned to Kāwhia to build a house for his future wife. On hearing of the marriage, Turongo's brother, Whatihua, became secretly jealous and decided to try and win Ruapūtahanga. While Tūrongo was building his house, his brother suggested that Ruapūtahanga may not be impressed by such a big house, and he could perhaps build a smaller one. He also told Tūrongo that his prospective wife preferred small kūmara, so he should fill his storehouse with them. After dispensing this advice, Whatihua travelled to Aotea to build a magnificent big house in the hope of winning Ruapūtahanga. When Ruapūtahanga arrived with her entourage she was unimpressed with Tūrongo's small house. She was disappointed at the size of the small kūmara that Tūrongo provided. Whatihua then arrived to suggest that Ruapūtahanga and her party journey to his house, as they would not be able to fit inside Tūrongo's. Tūrongo was deeply embarrassed and fled to a village in Hawke's Bay. He soon became renowned for his ability in constructing houses. A couple of high rank, Angiangi and Tūaka, suggested to their daughter, Māhinaarangi, that she should consider the fine man as a husband. The shy Māhinaarangi agreed and began to think how she might attract Tūrongo. She had noticed that each evening Turongo would follow a particular path through the forest to where he was staying. So Māhinaarangi hid in the dark and waited for him. Tūrongo encountered her along the way, and after a while they became lovers. However, Māhinaarangi kept her identity a secret. Because of the dark, Tūrongo was not able to identify his lover except by her perfume, made from the aromatic leaves of the raukawa plant. Turongo admired Māhinaarangi and suspected she was his lover. While she was playing a stick game in the daylight he came close to her. Her identity was assured when he smelt the raukawa perfume [Inhale and sigh]. They married and Māhinaarangi gave birth to a son. She and Tūrongo named Raukawa, after the perfume his mother wore during her courtship. Before Europeans arrived in New Zealand, the country had abundant birdlife. But deforestation and the introduction of predators such as rats, stoats, and possums, saw many native flightless birds disappear. By the end of the century the North Island takahē was extinct. However, its South Island cousin, one of the world's rarest birds, clung on. It is now the focus of breeding programmes at several conservation sanctuaries including Maungatautari. Today Maungatautari Ecological Island is one of three fenced sanctuaries on mainland New Zealand. The fence was finished in 2006 and Maungatautari once again houses important native birds including the kaka, kererū, kiwi, and takahē.

Background

The concept of mainland islands was pioneered in New Zealand and arose mainly from the particular circumstances of that country's history. For millions of years New Zealand was part of the supercontinent Gondwanaland, which included Australia, Africa, and South America, and shared the same flora and fauna. About 70 million years ago New Zealand became separated, earlier than Australia, South America and Antarctica. About five million years later non-avian dinosaurs became globally extinct leaving the way open to mammals to dominate - except in New Zealand where there were no land mammals (only 3 species of bats and seals). In the absence of mammals, birds became dominant. Evolutionary processes resulted in a unique assemblage of plants and animals, and New Zealand became a land dominated by birds. Without competition from browsing mammals, birds evolved to occupy niches that mammals occupied elsewhere. Threatened by few predators, many birds had no need to fly and many species became flightless. Birds, reptiles, plants, insects, and bats, all evolved in the absence of terrestrial mammals, and have little defence against alien species.

With human colonisation came many accidental or deliberate introductions of mammals and birds. These wrought havoc with native species and many became extinct, many others were reduced in range and number, with some teetering on extinction. Traditionally pacific rats (Rattus exulans), Norway rats (Rattus norveigucus), ship rats (Rattus rattus) cats, ferrets, stoats, and weasels were all considered to be the main culprits in the decline of native species of New Zealand birds, reptiles and insects. More recent information adds hedgehogs and mice to the list. These species have been introduced for a variety of reasons and some inadvertently. The effect remains the same: they have all contributed to the decline of native animals. Possums and deer did the same for the forest.

However, New Zealand also includes many offshore islands, some of which contained species rare or extinct on the mainland because introduced pests could not reach them.

Offshore islands

Increasingly over the last hundred years, New Zealand's Department of Conservation together with many volunteers have developed and perfected world-first methods of clearing some of these islands of all introduced pests, and island restoration, creating safe havens for the reintroduction of at-risk species, thereby saving them from extinction. These islands are also used to expand the range of rare species so that an ecological disaster on one island would not result in the total extinction of a species. As many species rebound in numbers in the absence of predators the islands act as species reservoirs enabling the periodic removal of some to create breeding colonies on other cleared islands, or on the mainland itself.^[2]

Fenced enclosures

Following the example of what had been achieved on offshore islands, groups of New Zealanders decided to create artificial ecological islands on the mainland so that the public could have easier access and learn what New Zealand looked and sounded like before human colonisation.^[3] There are excellent projects where alien species numbers are kept down by various methods other than a pest-exclusion fence or the coastline, but these are not generally described as ecological islands.

Projects that do meet the criteria, or are aiming to, include:

New Zealand
- 1999 Zealandia
- 2004 Tawharanui Open Sanctuary^[4]
- 2005 Bushy Park^[5]
- 2006 Maungatautari Restoration Project^[6]
- 2007 Orokonui Ecosanctuary
- 2009 Glenfern Sanctuary Charitable Trust^[7]
- 2011 Shakespear Regional Park
- 2016 Brook Waimārama Sanctuary
- Moehau Environment Group^[8]
Australia
- 2015 Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary^[9]

References

^ Cartwright, Jennifer (2019). "Ecological islands: conserving biodiversity hotspots in a changing climate". Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 17 (6): 331–340. Bibcode:2019FrEE...17..331C. doi:10.1002/fee.2058. ISSN 1540-9309.
^ "Ecological restoration of offshore islands". www.doc.govt.nz. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
^ Innes, John; Lee, William G.; Burns, Bruce; Campbell-Hunt, Colin; Watts, Corinne; Phipps, Hilary; Stephens, Theo (2012-01-01). "Role of predator-proof fences in restoring New Zealand's biodiversity: a response to Scofield et al. (2011)". New Zealand Journal of Ecology. 36 (2): 232–238.
^ "Tawharanui Open Sanctuary Society". Tawharanui Open Sanctuary Society. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
^ "Bushy Park Tarapuruhi – Bushy Park Tarapuruhi Forest Sanctuary & Historic Homestead". Retrieved 2021-01-29.
^ "Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari". MOCA. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
^ "Glenfern Sanctuary | About Us". Glenfern2019. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
^ "Vandals hit conservation fence on Coromandel". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
^ University, La Trobe. "Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary". www.latrobe.edu.au. Retrieved 2021-01-29.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia