flora & fauna, what to expect

The story of the natural environment around Ophir and Central Otago is one of continual change, with a long line of introduced species, both accidental and purposely released either finding balance or dominating endemic species. The arrival of man in the two waves of Pacific and then European settlement have had the biggest impact. If you’re you’re staying in Central for a little and go exploring, here are some things you might spot.

it may look like a barren, feature-less land, but there’s life here – a surprisingly rich amount of it. you just need to look.

Most people’s first experience of Central Otago’s wildlife is seeing the plethora of hawks in the sky, or them devouring rabbit roadkill on the way through the landscape. But the real gold can be found at a more detailed level, and includes relatives of the dinosaur that escaped the big asteroid, to birdlife and introduced species that have now called Otago ‘home’.

Korero Gecko

 

Schist Gecko

 

Kawarau Gecko

 

Orange Spotted Gecko

Californian Quail

There have always been quail in Central Otago. Till the 1860s, the native quail, koreke, was found across much of the region. Hunted extensively by Maori and early European settlers and miners, the species abruptly declined after 1865 (coincidentally, close to the time gold was discovered here). In the 1870s, the slightly larger Californian Quail was introduced, and thrived.

Goddam Rabbits

Gosh, we know they’re cute and all, but do us a favour, and help us keep these little varmits under control. Do nor feed, or make pets of them, or get all goey-eyed when you see one. They are the spawn of the devil. Introduced in around 1862, possibly in Southland, they quickly found their perfect home in Central Otago, and have never been not a threat to farmers livelihoods, livestock and walkers’ ankles since.

Karearea / New Zealand Falcon

The New Zealand falcon (kārearea; Falco novaeseelandiae) is New Zealand’s only falcon. Other common names for the bird are bush hawk and sparrow hawk. It is frequently mistaken for the larger and more common swamp harrier. It is the country’s most threatened bird of prey, with only around 3000–5000 breeding pairs remaining.

With a wingspan between 63cm and 98cm and weight rarely exceeding 450g, the New Zealand falcon is slightly over half the size of the swamp harrier, which it usually attacks on sight. (Unlike the swamp harrier, the New Zealand falcon catches other birds in flight, and rarely eats carrion.) The male is about two-thirds the weight of the female.

Kahu / Australasian / Swamp Harrier

Staunchly hunched over a carcass, extracting the dead creature’s organs with brutal and determined precision, the swamp harrier – aka the harrier hawk or kāhu – doesn’t flinch when it spots a vehicle bearing down on it.

Boasting extremely sharp vision, they can spot the slightest movement from vast distances.

Each spring the hawks’ mating dance is “incredibly dramatic”.

The aerial courtship is often called “sky dancing” and involves plunging u-shaped dives around each other and distinctive loud calls. The male bird apparently offers a loud “kee-a”, and maybe even a whistle, to which the female, if keen, responds with a “kee-o”. Ground nesters,  they prefer to build nests in swamps and wetlands to lessen access by predators but will also nest in long grass and crop paddocks. Keenly intelligent, these birds shrewdly select and strategically place stones warmed by the sun to ensure the nest is kept warm while the mother hunts dinner.

Skinks

Two lizard families are found in New Zealand – skinks and geckos. Skinks are identified by their shiny appearance, small eyes, pointy heads and darting speed. They are mostly active by day and bask in the sun.

White-Faced Heron

Blown in from Australia some time in the past, this species of heron has managed to extend its breeding range and territory beyond the West Coast, and has established itself here better than the native White Heron. First documented fairly recently (1941), since the 1950s and 1960s the White-faced heron’s numbers have increased sharply. Alway’s seem a little lost.

Paradise Ducks

The paradise shelduck is New Zealand’s only shelduck, a worldwide group of large, often semi-terrestrial waterfowl that have goose-like features. Unusually for ducks, the female paradise shelduck is more eye-catching than the male; females have a pure white head and chestnut-coloured body, while males have a dark grey body and black head. Paradise shelducks are commonly observed flying in pairs or grazing on pasture. They are very vocal birds, with males giving a characteristic ‘zonk zonk’, while females make a more shrill ‘zeek zeek’ while flying or as a warning to intruders.

Little Owl

The little owl is a small grey-brown-and-white streaked owl that is widespread throughout the drier open country of the eastern and northern South Island. Unlike the morepork, they are often seen perched out in the open during the day. Little owls were introduced to New Zealand from Germany between 1906 and 1910, with the intention that they would help control the numbers of small introduced birds, which were becoming a pest in grain and fruit crops. Image by Bruce McKinlay

plants of central otago

Apart from a few over-looked tussocks and scrappy matagouri or olearia bushes, there is precious little native flora to be found growing naturally anywhere near Ophir.
 
As is the case with most parts of New Zealand that were prized for their food gathering or growing attributes – with Maori hunting moa here until they became extinct and then European settlers’ flocks razing huge tracts of tussock land  – both fire and over-grazing have all but destroyed the original native bush cover.
 
Not to mention the introduced pests – possum, deer, and rabbit!
 
Originally – back in the mists of time – this area was part of a sub-tropical wetland on the edge of a huge lake with its own, newly discovered fresh water crocodile. Hard to believe, given the dry, semi-desert conditions we experience here now. But in more recent history, these valleys were covered with scrubby low forest, prickly with ‘anti-moa’ small leaved, divaricating shrubs, with stands of totara on the flats and kowhai on the rocky slopes. Up on the open hill plains of the Maniototo was tussock country.
 
Today, Ophir is admired for its introduced, exotic flora. The roses that grow in most gardens along Swindon Street put on an enviable display in early summer, along with a myriad of other flowering plants – hollyhocks, lupins, poppies and peonies. The profuse and romantic cottage-style garden sits well with its historic stone buildings and walls.
 
There are also plenty of wild flowering plants – most would call them weeds – up on the hills around Ophir and along the road verges. The hills turn smoky lilac in November when the wild thyme flowers, and echium vulgaris (vipers bugloss) takes over flowering duty in December, its purple flowers continuing to feed the bees. There are wild dog roses and flowering broom – both the scourge of farmers and lifestylers -and the grey furry leaves and yellow spires of Verbascum thapsus (woolly mullien) which colonises bare, rabbit scratched patches of ground before any other plant can. Wild hawthorn and elderberry trees provide shade in the damper gullies.
 
Many of these plants, the thyme and elderberry especially, are highly valued herbal plants and many others are useful if you can look past the ‘weed’ status attached to them. The Chinese gold miners are credited with bringing the medicinal thyme plant to New Zealand, where it loved Central Otago’s dry, Mediterranean climate and jumped the fence. Look out for some local thyme honey.

Wild Thyme

Was it the Chinese who introduced Thyme here, or a French cook back in the gold mining days? We have some thyme on our hands to find out.

Verbascum

 

Vipers Bugloss

 

The Bumblebee

Of course there wouldn’t be quite the extent of plant life in Otago without the hardest working guys in the natural world – the humble bumblebee. 

Gone but not entirely forgotten

Moa

The York Museum in the UK contains one of the most complete Moa skeletons ever discovered, and it was found on Tiger Hill, Otago, near Ophir. The remains were found by miners in 1872 and it was subsequently bought and sent to York. Other finds in the area, including Earncleugh, were given to the Otago Museum in Dunedin.

St Bathans Crocodile

Crocodiles were probably the most significant predator at St Bathans. The presence of a crocodile in Zealandia was first identified from a bone found by palaeobotanist Dr Mike Pole at St Bathans in 1987. … There may have even been more than one type of crocodile in Lake Manuherikia.

St Bathans Mammal

The Saint Bathans mammal is a currently unnamed extinct primitive mammal from the Early Miocene (Altonian) of New Zealand. A member of the Saint Bathans fauna, it is notable for being a late surviving “archaic” mammal species, neither a placental nor a marsupial. It also provides evidence that flightless fully terrestrial mammals did in fact once live in Zealandia. This is in contrast to modern New Zealand, where bats and seals are the only non-introduced mammals in the otherwise bird-dominated terrestrial landscape.

Naive Quail Koreke

Disappeared soon after the first miners arrived in Otago (funny that), the native Koreke can only be seen in museums now. Replaced in the food chain by the hardier Californian Quail.