South African in herp-less New Zealand

[leeannvh]

Hi everyone

Well, been ages since I chatted on this site.

I heard, before I moved over to kiwi-land, that they had no reptiles here but thought "yeah right, there is no country in the world that doesnt have snakes & lizards & gecko's & since NZ is so close to Oz it will have plenty".....

Boy oh boy was I in for a BIG surprise :shock: :shock:

Man I am pining for anything scaley

Saw a turtle at the local petshop and a blue-tongued skink and almost dropped my ovaries with excitement (been 2 months so you can understand he he) but thats about it I think

Sigh...what to do....what to do....

 

[slim6y]

OMG - you must be blind - with over 200 native skinks, geckos, frogs etc.... The worlds oldest dragon - the tuatara...

No snakes or crocs for sure - but if you dont look in the right place you'll never see them....

The NZ geckoes are some of the most sort after geckoes in the world... Look them up on google images before you dis the country you're in.

See if you can find them... What part of NZ are you in?

I used to live in Christchurch near the Groynes - all you could hear at night was the call of a million frogs...

You'd be crazy blind and deaf if you couldn't find a herp of sorts in NZ....

Terrapins are now wild....

Ahhhh... if you give up on herps - and still want scales - some awesome fishing god - I miss blue cod and real snapper! Shame it's not imported here.

So - my SA NZ A friend - go open your eyes and be a bit amazed at what you can find.

(again, in Chch - there's a quarry near Halswell, there's about 20 billion skinks of varying size and colours running around there)

Oh - and there's a book of NZ wildlife - of course heavily based on birds, but has the reps in it as well!

 

[slim6y]

Just to add...
WHOA - Look at these beauties...

And check out:

http://www.nhc.net.nz/index/lizards-new-zealand/lizards.htm (VERY INTERESTING)

Sorry I was wrong with the 200 species - it's 80 but that's stil the largest diverse range in a temperate region

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawekaweau (also interesting - the world's largest, now extinct, gecko!)

 

[leeannvh]

Aaaah cool thanx!!!

I live in Whangarei.

Been out hiking quite a bit, been searching for froggies and only seen your everyday toads, nothing spectacular. Seen loads of spiders, nothing spectacular either.

It rains so bloody much up here, going into flippin' depression! Well, gonna see if I can find myself some other avid herpers and head out this weekend then....if you know of anyone up here, tell them to give me a shout

Shweet....thanx man!

 

[slim6y]

Now toads - hmmmmm... everyday one??? I don't believe NZ has any toads.... SO everyday toads - does not sound like every day toads to me - if they are - you need to report them, NZ is toad free!

I don't know Whangarei to well - never much fancied the north other than the Bay!

There'll be heaps there - you just gotta look hard.

Check out that website above - it's very informative indeed.

 

[redbellybite]

Aaaah cool thanx!!!

I live in Whangarei.

Been out hiking quite a bit, been searching for froggies and only seen your everyday toads, nothing spectacular. Seen loads of spiders, nothing spectacular either.

It rains so bloody much up here, going into flippin' depression! Well, gonna see if I can find myself some other avid herpers and head out this weekend then....if you know of anyone up here, tell them to give me a shout

Shweet....thanx man!

seems like you moved to the wrong ISLAND:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[DanTheMan]

Im partially with you, and Slim6y, I moved to aus for there variety of reptiles (well, pretty much just snakes)
But the 1 thing I miss, is the NZ geckos, never seen such beutiful geckos, awesome colours...
My favourite 2 being the ones Slim6y showed, Northland Green Gecko, and the Alpine Gecko (or Harliquin (sp?) Gecko.
Problem with the frogs is all the common ones are from Australia haha, Golden Bell, Green Frog (which is called something else here, not the Green Tree Frog, I wish though!) and Whistling Tree Frog (Lioria Ewingii, dont know the Australian common name)
I have never seen a native NZ frog in my 17 years there, but then again, I was always in the wrong area. Theyre not common though.

But definatley get in touch with D.O.C, (department of conservation) and get a permit to keep some of the world most amazing geckos. (Best part is you dont have to buy them, you can get them from the wild, with a permit)

Every day toads? Might want to double check what your seeing, get somepics if you can and ill I.D them for you, no toads in NZ at all.

 

[DanTheMan]

Also theres the Duvaucel's Gecko, but yu wont get them there, but they get pretty big, around 300mm. But the skinks there are awesome

Otago Skink (with very dull colours, nomally a nice gold & black)

Forest Gecko (very common)

Hatchie Northland Green Gecko's

 

[Smellie]

Ah how I miss home and the geckos. Some family who live there, used to own a house and the backyard was connected straight to forest and some of the geckos we saw there, wowzers. That was years ago and I can still remember them (though not their names or anything).

Have a look around, I'm sure you'll come across something =D

 

[moosenoose]

Man oh man! There are some special herps in Kiwi-land that I was totally oblivious to! Amazing stuff! Thanks for the pics!

Still, no snakes...that's the worst bit

 

[BlindSnake]

Still, no snakes...that's the worst bit [/quote]
Thats not true at all. Your forgeting the water. Pelamis platurus or Yellow-bellied Sea Snakes have been found in the waters of NZ.

 

[slim6y]

Just to add (clearly I am part of the NZ tourism and nature conservation board):

http://www.nzfrogs.org/NZ+Frogs/Native+frogs.html

I just learnt a whole bunch about NZ Native frogs - wow... they're way more interesting than I first gathered!!!

But unfortunately some are very rare

"New Zealand's native frogs (pepeketua) belong to the genus Leiopelma, an ancient group of frogs that have changed very little in the last 70 million years. These frogs are found only in New Zealand, and three species are now extinct (L. auroraensis, L markhami and L.waitomoensis), with only four species extant: L. archeyi, L. hamiltoni, L. hochstetetteri and L. pakeka. "

"In addition to the primitive traits, Leiopelma differ from most other frogs because they lack external eardrums and produce only limited vocalizations. There are no mating calls and the only noises that any of the four species are known to make are chirps or yelps when harassed. It is currently thought that these frogs communicate more like salamanders than other frogs, using chemosignals to recognize size and individuality of other individuals."

So the frogs I was hearing were most likely imports!

Maybe go to this:

http://www.nzfrogs.org/Resources/Frog+Week/Plight+of+the+Frogs+Party.html - you'll help support the froggies and meet like minded people!

Get in quick - September 26th looks like the night!!!

 

[redbellybite]

YES BUT FACE IT NZ'erz YOU DONT HAVE ANY SNAKEYS!!.......although your other reptiles are so beautiful,YOU STILL DONT HAVE ANY SNAKEYS!

 

[slim6y]

YES BUT FACE IT NZ'erz YOU DONT HAVE ANY SNAKEYS!!.......although your other reptiles are so beautiful,YOU STILL DONT HAVE ANY SNAKEYS!

Some would say that's an evolutionary advantage - which was why NZ used to have so many flightless birds - there were NO predators. So the worlds largest parrots once flourished undisturbed - unfortunately though, with westerners reaching the pristine shores of NZ they brought with them a plague of rats, stoats, ferrets, rabbits, deer, goats, pigs... The list goes on and on and on....

If we could introduce snakes now - the problem is we'd loose the remaining flightless birds which are nearly extinct anyway.

There's only a few islands and Antarctica that has no snakes - and yes, NZ is one of them. I believe Hawaii is another.

Did you know that NZ only has TWO native mammals - and one of them is a marine mammal - the NZ Fur Seal. The other is a far north fruit bat....

There are some other native marine animals like the cute Hectors Dolphin (the size of a child - and they're adorable).

But - as far as diversity goes - NZ has one of the most diverse ranges of wildlife from anywhere in the world - I'd say in most cases the diversity is so huge that NZ would seem like a much larger country on the whole!!!

If it does interest you perhaps look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity_of_New_Zealand

 

[redbellybite]

thanks for the "docco:" on NZ slimey and I was only having a go at you "kiwis"..........I realise NZ is a stunning country but the difference is AUSSIES visit NZ and end up comming home ,kiwi's visit OZ and stay........why is this ?........BECAUSE NO MATTER HOW LOVELY YOUR ISLAND/S HOME IS .....AUSSIE ROCKS otherwise you guys wouldnt stay...........AND YOU STILL DONT HAVE ANY SNAKEYS!

 

[slim6y]

I don't want to turn this thread into a 'who's better' or anything like that.

What it comes down to more than what you suggested, is as a new race of people, NZers are very transient. They enjoy moving around and adventuring the world.

Many don't return to NZ - but still love it more than any other place on earth. I am one of those people - we're passionate about out country.

Yes - I LOVE Australia - it's the perfect place (Cairns) for me to be at one with nature - it has enough water here, it has tropical rain forests, native animals are plentiful etc etc - to me this is mor elike a tropical version of NZ.

Kiwis are lured by the prospects of the money etc that Australia has to offer. And we can avoid repaying our student loans.

But there wouldn't be many kiwis in this country that still don't feel just a little bit passionate about their home - just as Aussies in NZ do.

It's like chalk and cheese - no one could tell that at one stage we were all joint together!!!

So you can't compare apples with oranges - Aussie is a beautiful country that offers so many different things to NZ (eg for teaching I earn some $7000 more per year for doing roughly the same job).

 

[Sturdy]

slim6y we have crocs here.....

 

[slim6y]

slim6y we have crocs here.....

Yes... I know... I saw a croc once...

But what is that meant to do with anything?

And crocs only occur in the tropical regions of Australia and other than freshies, only occur on the coastline.

 

[redbellybite]

how easy is it to get a bite out of you wee kiwi's ...............lol............you have to still learn about that .......is it that hard for a newbie to the land of OZ to get our sense of humour?

 

[shadoe]

you gotta admit, our humour is kinda twisted

how easy is it to get a bite out of you wee kiwi's ...............lol............you have to still learn about that .......is it that hard for a newbie to the land of OZ to get our sense of humour?