i will get some reflections posted about the colossal squid stuff one of these days, but in the meantime, i want to share something else. this fine fellow is a tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) and he's been sitting in a big tree above our back patio singing his heart out for the past two days, in spite of heavy rain and generally wretched weather. last week was fun and exciting, but the tui's bubbly whistles, squawks and constant chatter have also made me glad to be home.
hi from the House Of Plague. the pebbles came back from england last week and summarily developed a fantastic case of bronchitis and/or pneumonia (the doctor wasn't sure), whose most endearing symptom is the racking cough that persists day and night. and today, 8 days after he arrived home, my lungs are slowly filling with cement. because we like to share! yay!
anyway, that's not what this is all about - instead i have a special edition of Random Fauna On The Inkspot for you today, oh yes. no bugs, no herps, no fur even... today it's feathers! weeeeeird feathers.
on a recent weekend road trip to wanganui, roger and i went to visit the local branch of bird rescue, where we had the very rare privilege of meeting a real, live kiwi. and not just meeting her. gonzo is a three-year-old female who suffered severe beak damage two years ago, including the loss of the sensory pads at the end of the lower beak that
help kiwi sense their insect prey. (there - i DID sneak bugs in.) since then she has not fed herself and will never be fit fo release back into the wild. but she can still be part of the kiwi breeding program, operation nest egg. her need to be fed by hand several times a day means, however, that she has to be very comfortable around people - essentially a pet. it may seem a little wrong to let a wild animal get so used to and dependent on people, but if you could see her beady little eyes drift closed, her beak-whiskers quivering with pleasure as she leans into a good scratch on the back of the head, you might decide her life's not so bad.
a kiwi is a pretty unlikely looking animal, a bird evolved to fill an ecological niche normally taken by mammals, in an island country where the only native land mammals are bats. kiwi feathers are very similar to fur, being long, slender and coarse - more traditional feathers would only get shredded as they trundle through the dense undergrowth. and the whole coat of feathers is surprisingly springy to the touch. their bones are solid (gonzo weighed about 2.2 kg), their legs heavy and powerful, and their wings reduced to tiny naked stumps, with a single claw at the tip of each. the whole demeanor is, in fact, much more reminiscent of a large rodent (say, a guinea pig), than a bird - less frantic hopping and head-swiveling, more sedate observation and whisker-twitching. and testing of things by biting.
given their odd appearance and behavior, kiwi do perhaps seem like an odd choice for a national icon, and, as a nz comedian recently pointed out, naming a national airline 'kiwi air' (after a flightless animal that likes to dive nose-first into the ground) may not have been the most inspired marketing tactic. but i have to say, it was a thrill to meet a kiwi - to see the scaly feet and rough feathers up close, to touch the fluffy underdown and watch her drift into a scratch-induced sleeplike trance. kiwi are extraordinarily endangered in nz, and although there is relatively good awareness of and support for remedying their plight, one does occasionally hear the callous question, 'why save this evolutionary dead-end, when it obviously can't survive on its own anymore?' well, i hope gonzo (in between raising healthy chicks, hatched from eggs that weigh 25% of her own body weight when they are laid - ouch!!) meets a few of those cynics and changes their minds.
it has been over a week since the last post, and i apologize, but it's going to be a couple more days before anything substantial appears here. but there are a few things in the works, so hang in there. hopefully, i will be able to tell tales of creepy antique stores, canoe voyages on the mississippi river and sleeping beavers. intrigued? excellent. in the meantime, i offer photos of some large local arthropods, and the lonely, eerie cry of the loon. except not so much lonely, since there are two of them trying to out-cry each other.
(30 may) the squirrels in the company's gardens are apparently famous. my guidebook says 'the squirrels that scamper here were imported to cape town from north america by cecil john rhodes, whose statue stands in the centre of the gardens.'
i come from a place where squirrels are no big deal, but having lived without them in new zealand for five years, and having traveled fairly often with someone who thinks they are one of the most exciting animals ever, i have gained a new appreciation for them.
and the ones in the gardens deserve it. they are fat and sassy, and have only a thin veneer of natural squirrel wariness, overlying a deep and abiding gluttony. crackle a bag of peanuts within ten metres of one, and soon he'll be sitting in your lap, tracking bird poop across your pants and nearly purring as his shoebutton eyes glaze over in a protein-induced ecstasy.
i think we all had a good afternoon. :)
(26 may) on the way out of town for the weekend, we stopped off at butterfly world, an indoor garden where 400-600 butterfly chrysalises (imported from tropical breeders) are hatched every week and allowed to roam free. it was early morning and only 14 degrees C so most of the butterflies were still resting in the trees, but it made finding them more of a challenge (and reward). there were about 10 different kinds, including glass-wing butterflies, which i had never seen live before. they are amazing. there was also an arachnid room with some good scorpions and spiders, including 'baboon spiders,' the african equivalent of tarantulas (which is apparently a misnomer when used as a general term). and a smiling frog.
(24 may) bugs' son and i went to world of birds today. it is africa's largest bird park (i believe), with ~3000 animals of 400+ species. (i suspect the species count includes some of the other animals on site - not that i'm complaining!)
the park consists of a central circular walk with smaller loop walks leading off from it, which take you mostly through large aviaries with several species each, and only rarely past small single-individual cages. overall it is very nicely done, with lots of greenery and places for the birds to perch, nest, and get away from goggling visitors. most of the aviaries have fresh water running through, and most of the animals seemed reasonably comfortable, apart from several semi-aggressive raptors, whose aviaries we hurried through after a few warning swoops.
we saw many species of relatively common birds like parrots, finches, crows, geese, ibis and starlings (some very striking), plus owls, hawks, eagles, falcons, hornbills, toucans, ratites, spoonbills, egrets, peafowl, and pheasants.
mammals were also surprisingly well-represented, including cape ground squirrels, meerkats, a bat-eared fox (or 'fat-eared box'), a porcupine, some alpacas, and many, MANY monkeys. now, i am not normally a monkey fan. i generally skip the primates altogether when i go to the zoo. but i may have to make an exception for squirrel monkeys. they are tiny, nearly weightless, fearless and curious, with black fuzzy heads, white faces and golden arms and legs. the minute you step into their enclosure, three or four hop onto your shoulders and begin digging through any unsecured pockets and bags you may have, and just generally cause mischief. they are adorable. except the one who kept sneezing on me. i kept hearing jemaine clement's voice (from flight of the conchords) in my head, saying 'ooh, fun monkey disease.'