After crapping up a storm and snubbing his Christmas dinner, Elvis has now left the building and is on his way into the hands of DOC and hopefully the Pukaha Mt Bruce wildlife center. His back injuries which were too hard to photograph are consistent with being attacked by the predatory NZ Falcon and him floating down the rapids when we found him also supports that because a falcon would probably use the open space above a river to hunt. The beauty of this creature and the gentleness of its nature astounded me. It felt like he was holding my finger when he was probably just looking for a branch to cling on to. This was a privileged experience. About the Kereru/ Native Wood Pigeon: With the extinction of the Moa and the Huia the Kereru are now the only bird capable of ingesting the large fruit and berries of New Zealand’s native trees and dispersing their seeds. Kereru are found most in the lowland forests of the North, South and Stewart Islands. Numbers have been gradually decreasing with loss of habitat. The Kereru predominately eat fruit from native trees. Although fruit is the major part of their diet they also enjoy leaves and buds and at certain times of year, when fruit is scarce leaves comprise most of their diet. They are frequently found in the Kowhai trees as this is one of their favourites. Often their crops are so full of berries they have difficulty taking off as they are too heavy, this leaves them exposed to predators.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 00:35:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015