Despite the fact they do not breed in Aotearoa, we encounter five species of honu, or sea turtle, in our waters. The green and leatherback turtles are the species most commonly found in Aotearoa.

What makes honu special?

• Honu are reptiles, so are cold-blooded. Our waters are usually too cold for them, but in recent years we have had more sightings due to warming temperatures.
• Honu can maintain body temperatures 5˚C above the sea, which may be why they are more likely to be found in Aotearoa’s cool waters.
• Leatherback turtles have been clocked as swimming up to 40 kilometres per hour when travelling long distance.
• Adult green turtles are the only herbivorous sea turtle in the world. However, before they grow up, one of their favourite things to eat is the jellyfish! This can make them particularly vulnerable to ingesting plastics, especially plastic bags.

Image: Department of Conservation and Auckland University.

Māui dolphins, or popoto, are endemic to Aotearoa and are the rarest dolphins in the world, with only around 63 individuals remaining. All of them can be found on the west coast of Te Ika-a-Māui / the North Island, most commonly between Manukau Harbour and Port Waikato.

What makes Māui dolphins special?

• Out of all dolphin species in the world, Māui dolphins are the smallest. They grow up to 1.7 metres long and weigh 50kg at most! 
• They are the only dolphins to have a black, rounded dorsal fin. Most other dolphin dorsal fins are sickle-shaped.
•  Māui dolphins communicate with clicks at a frequency too high for human ears. We have to slow these sounds down 20 times to hear them! Listen below.

 

• They also use sound to find their food. Known as ‘echolocation’, and used by other dolphins, they produce high-frequency clicks that bounce off fish and surrounding objects so they can ‘see’ in murky water.
• Hector’s dolphins look almost identical to Māui dolphins, but are actually genetically and physically distinct.

Toroa, or royal albatross, are the largest seabirds in the world, and endemic to Aotearoa. There are two subspecies: Northern and Southern toroa. Of Northern toroa, 99 percent breed on the predator-free Chatham Islands, while the other 1 percent (around 30 pairs) breed at Dunedin’s Taiaroa Head. Meanwhile, Southern toroa only breed on the Subantarctic Campbell and Auckland Islands, with the former hosting 99 percent of breeding pairs!

What makes toroa special?

• Toroa are Southern Ocean wanderers, spending approximately 85 percent of their lives at sea and only returning to land to breed! Young toroa may spend up to five years at sea before breeding for the first time.
• Toroa can circumnavigate the globe in just 46 days using a gliding technique called ‘dynamic soaring’. This technique means they don’t have to beat their wings, so they can save their energy.
• The widest recorded wingspan of the toroa is 3.7 metres.
• When left undisturbed, toroa can live to be more than 60 years old.

Rako, or Buller’s shearwater, can be seen across Aotearoa, especially in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty. However, due to their vulnerability to humans and other predators they now only breed at Tawhitirahi and Aorangi (Poor Knights) Islands near Whāngārei. There are now fewer than 100,000 breeding pairs left — down from an estimated 2.5 million during the 1980s.

What makes rako special?

• Rako, like many of New Zealand’s petrels, breed in burrows instead of trees or bushes! This trait makes them vulnerable to introduced predators.
• Rako are protective of their breeding grounds, crowding out most other petrel species and preventing them from breeding in these areas.
• Rako are nocturnally active during the breeding season. At night, nesting grounds come alive with the rako’s cooing and groaning calls. Listen here.

 

• Though they only breed in Aotearoa, rako can be found moulting and feeding around Japan and off the North American coast during our autumn and winter.

Oceanic manta rays are the largest of all manta rays. They frequent Aotearoa’s waters, but we know very little about the rays that come here. Manta Watch New Zealand was set up to find out more, specifically, whether the mantas seen here are seasonal visitors, or a distinct population.

What makes manta rays special?

• They’re also known as the ‘giant manta ray’ for a reason. They grow up to seven metres across and weigh up to 3,000kg! 
• A manta ray stranded on the Far North’s Rarawa Beach in early 2020, the first time on record — they normally sink to the ocean floor.
• Manta rays also have the largest brain of any cold-blooded fish.
• Manta rays are filter feeders, and cruise the open ocean, straining the water from plankton/krill. This filter-feeding strategy makes them vulnerable to ingesting small pieces of plastic.
• Manta ray mouths are like a sieve, but they never get clogged by large particles due to a ricochet mechanism.
• Manta rays do not have a poisonous spine in their tail like other stingray species. 

The pīwakawaka, or fantail, is a little songbird that is widespread throughout Aotearoa’s mainland. Also known as tīrairaka, pīwakawaka are a relatively successful species compared to other natives. The reason for this is their ability to produce lots of young and having a broad diet of small insects, making their diet resilient to environmental changes.

What makes pīwakawaka special?

• You can recognise a pīwakawaka by its impressive black and white tail, which it uses to change direction quickly while hunting for insects.
• Most pīwakawaka are grey in colour; however, about 5% of the South Island populations are black, with no white feathers in their tail. Occasionally, a pīwakawaka without a tail can be seen!
• Pīwakawaka love singing, but only when it’s warm. They will cheep when they’re catching insects (listen below) or when they are alarmed. During the breeding season (August–March), they sing extra loud.

 

• If you are followed by a little bird while you’re out tramping, chances are it’s a pīwakawaka! They do this to capture insects that are disturbed by our movement. They also follow other birds for this reason — you can see them following tauhou / silvereyes, pōpokatea / whiteheads, kākāriki, and tīeke / saddlebacks!

As the only alpine parrots in the world, kea are pretty special birds!

The kea owes its name to its call, which, most commonly, is a long, loud, high-pitched descending cry which may be a broken “kee-ee-aa-aa”, or unbroken “keeeeeaaaa”. 

 

What makes kea special?

• Kea are very curious. They are naturally attracted to people that enter their alpine environments, which has led to some funny situations! One kea learnt to turn on the water tap at Aspiring Hut campground. Another locked a mountaineer inside the toilet at Mueller Hut!
• Like most native birds, kea are vulnerable to introduced pest species, but we humans also cause a problem. Where kea are fed regularly, they are more at risk from pest control and accidents with man-made objects such as cars. So, if you’re lucky enough to see a kea, avoid feeding it!
• Kea are also known to be one of the most intelligent birds. Recent research has shown that they understand probability, a trait only seen previously in humans and apes. Watch below.

Ruru, or morepork, are often heard in the forest at dusk and throughout the night. You can also sometimes hear them in urban areas. Ruru are named for their call both in te reo Māori and in English. Have a listen below.

 

What makes ruru special?

• In Māori tradition the morepork was seen as a watchful guardian. It belonged to the spirit world as it is a bird of the night.
  
• You can recognize a ruru by its speckled brown feathers and yellow eyes.
  
• Ruru were our only native owl species until recently, but have now been joined by barn owls.
  
• A ruru can turn its head 270 degrees! They are also very sensitive to light, and like most owls, are nocturnal.
  
• Ruru aren’t currently threatened, but experts believe that numbers are in gradual decline due to predation and loss of habitat. By avoiding chopping down old trees and planting new trees (preferably native), we can save crucial habitat for ruru.

The famous, flightless kiwi are a cherished national icon. Having evolved in a land with no predators, they are seen as a symbol for the uniqueness of Aotearoa’s wildlife.

Unfortunately, the very attributes that make kiwi unique are those that make them vulnerable. They are unable to easily escape from predators and are susceptible to crushing injuries. A small and playful push from a dog can be deadly.

This is why kiwi are flagship species for Aotearoa’s conservation work. The state of the species gives a good indication of the state of the natural environment.

There are five different species of kiwi:
North Island brown kiwi  ·  Roroa / great spotted kiwi  ·  Kiwi pukupuku / little spotted kiwi  ·  Tokoeka / southern brown kiwi  ·  Rowi / Okarito brown kiwi.

What makes kiwi special?

• Kiwi are ‘ratites’, a diverse group of flightless birds that includes emus, ostriches, cassowaries, and our now-extinct moa. Of the remaining species, kiwi are the only nocturnal members!
• It’s believed that ancestors of the kiwi arrived in Aotearoa 60 million years ago when it was part of the Gondwana supercontinent that included South America, Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica, and Australia. The hypothesis is that all ratites shared a common ancestor and evolved into different species after the continent split up.
• The male kiwi call is different from the female call! Listen to the difference below.

Male North Island Brown kiwi call

Female North Island Brown kiwi call

 

• Kiwi can sense through their beaks! Recent research found that while kiwi can’t see very well, they make up for it with sensory pits at the tips of their beaks. This allows them to sense prey moving underground.
• According to Māori mythology, the kiwi lost its wings due to a selfless act to save the forest’s trees. Watch the story here.

Kākāpō are one of the rarest taonga of Aotearoa. The kākāpō population reached a low point of around 50 birds in the 1990s. Amazing progress has been made by Kākāpō Recovery, increasing the population to 210 today. Because of their vulnerability to humans and other predators, kākāpō now live only on protected islands.  

What makes kākāpō special?

• Kākāpō are one of the longest living birds in the world, reaching up to 90 years old!
• Their diet is completely vegetarian, and like kiwi, kākāpō are flightless and nocturnal.
• They are also the heaviest parrot species in the world, with smaller females weighing on average 1.4 kg, and males 2.2 kg!
• Kākāpō are the only lek-breeding parrots species in the world. Males use their unique ‘booming’ and ‘chinging’ sounds to attract females.

A male ‘boom’ used to attract females. 

A male ‘ching’ used to attract females.

The hihi, or stitchbird, is one of New Zealand’s rarest birds. Before the arrival of Europeans and the mammalian predators and avian diseases that they brought with them, hihi were found throughout the North Island. The only remaining natural population of hihi is found on Te Hauturu-o-Toi, Little Barrier Island.

Thanks to conservation efforts, there are now small managed populations of hihi in bird sanctuaries such as Tiritiri Matangi and Kapiti Island.

What makes hihi special?

• Hihi feed on nectar, fruit, and invertebrates. To avoid competition with other honeyeaters, such as tui and korimako / bellbirds, they feed in the understorey and shrub layers of the forest.
• Hihi are one of only two honeyeaters in the world that nest in tree hollows.
• Hihi sometimes mate face to face, the only birds known to do so!
• Like many birds, hihi are sexually dimorphic, meaning that the male and female differ in appearance. The female is olive brown, while the male is bright yellow, black, and white.
• Both male and female have a noisy call. Listen below.