Readers’ wildlife photos

We’re back again to readers’ photos, but I’m running low. Please send in your photos. If I have to beg, I will!

Today we have part 3 of photos of New Zealand taken by origami master/polymath Robert Lang (part 1 is is here and part 2 is here). Robert’s narrative and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

New Zealand, Part 3: Not Birds

In this last installment, a collection of mammals, reptiles, plants, and views from the South Island of New Zealand.

On our trip down Milford Sound, our boat was joined several times by Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), who raced us in the bow wake of the boat.

Here’s some video of the chase. Our boat was moving along at a pretty good clip, but they easily outran us when they felt the urge to peel off.

Two New Zealand Fur Seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) pups:

More fur seals, contrasting with the brilliant yellows and oranges of seaweed (again, in Milford Sound):

And now, for something completely different: this Crown Fern (Lomaria discolor). They are endemic to New Zealand:

There are not many mammals on New Zealand. Most of them are introduced, and nearly all of those are noxious invasives. One of those is the European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), or coney.

Predation by introduced carnivores has greatly diminished the native fauna. One survivor are the various geckos. This one was identified by our group leader as the “South Island gecko,” but Wikipedia tells me there are “dozens” of gecko species. I invite ID from anyone who recognizes it:

The real survivor of the New Zealand reptiles is the Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), the sole remaining species of an ancient lineage that split off separately from the lizards. One of their famous features is the parietal eye, a light-sensitive spot on the top of the forehead. There are other animals that have parietal eyes, but it is most pronounced in the tuatara. Their remaining habitat is around the North Island; we saw this one at a sanctuary in the south.

We drove over 1400 km around the South Island during our visit, and so got to see an enormous variety of stunning landscapes, from fjords to forest, fields and mountains. I particularly like this mirror lake (which looks almost as impressive upside-down):

And this must be the most famous tree in all of New Zealand (their equivalent of the Lone Cypress of Monterey). Found on the edge of Lake Wanaka, it is a magnet for photographers, and I, too, was unable to resist its siren call [JAC: Wikipedia calls it “That Wānaka Tree“]:

As Rex Allen would have said, “and so we bid a fond farewell to the South Island of New Zealand.”