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Night Neighbours
Many of New Zealand’s native animals stir when the sun goes down, and share the night with kiwi.
Among them are nearly 40 species of secretive freshwater fish, four species of frog, skinks and geckos, seabirds, a host of insects and land birds.
A few of them are…
Some of the night-time sounds in New Zealand forests can be mistaken for kiwi – including the sounds made by morepork, weka and the introduced possum. You can hear the calls of some of New Zealand’s kiwi species and their neighbours here.
Short-tailed bat
New Zealand has just two native land mammals – both of them bats/pekapeka and both endemic. A third species is now extinct.
The short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata) is the smaller of the two and endangered.
As well as aerial hunting using high-pitched sonar squeaks, these bats sometimes forage on the ground, using their folded wings like front legs to scurry through the leaf litter.
Eels
Three types of eel/tuna live in New Zealand streams and rivers.
One, the longfin eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii), is endemic and now in gradual decline due to commercial fishing and the loss of wetlands.
Like many of New Zealand’s freshwater fish, eels spend part of their lives at sea. Longfin eels can live to 100 years before migrating back to sea to spawn.
Native frogs
Of the original seven species of native frog/pepeketua, four remain. All are rare, nocturnal and tiny – less than 5-centimetres long. They also have fingers, not webbed feet, and are silent.
New Zealand’s frogs are important scientifically because, like kiwi and tuatara, they have remained virtually unchanged for millions of years.
Unlike other frogs, eggs are laid in damp shady places, not under water. Tadpoles develop fully within the gelatinous egg, emerging once they are mini-frogs and able to live independently.
Skinks and geckos
Some New Zealand skinks and geckos are nocturnal, making them vulnerable to introduced predators that hunt at night – hedgehogs, weasels, stoats, ferrets, cats and possums.
One endemic nocturnal skink is the sleek and glossy copper skink (Cyclodina aenea).
Also nocturnal is the common gecko (Hoplodactylus maculatus), though it often comes out during the day to bask in the sun. Common geckos are long-lived, about 13 years in the wild.
Morepork
New Zealand’s only surviving native owl is the morepork/ruru (Ninox novaeseelandiae).
Unlike the extinct laughing owl, it has adapted well to people and is common throughout the country.
Morepork are effective nocturnal predators. Unlike most birds, both eyes look straight ahead, and their head can swivel 270 degrees each way, giving an excellent field of vision.
Weta
Weta are one of New Zealand’s very special ancient animals – the fierce looking relatives of grasshoppers, katydids and crickets.
Although found elsewhere in the world, no other country can boast as many different kinds (about 100 species), nor the heavyweights.
The rare giant weta (Deinacrida heteracantha), is the size of a mouse and holds the record as New Zealand's largest endemic insect.
Kauri snail
The carnivorous kauri snail (Paryphanta busbyi) comes out at night to feed on earthworms, slugs and small snails.
It envelops its prey, suffocating and crushing it as it withdraws back into its shell.
It then devours its meal with the help of its tongue-like radula, which looks like a ribbon covered with thousands of tiny rasping teeth.
Puriri moth
Of the more than 1500 different moths in New Zealand, the biggest and most spectacular is the puriri moth/pepetuna of the North Island (Aenetus virescens).
The female’s pale velvety-green wingspan can be up to 15-centimetres.
The caterpillar stage can last five years and, when the adult moth finally emerges, it lives for only a couple of nights, long enough to breed. An unlucky puriri moth makes a fine meal for a morepork/ruru.
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Kakapo
The nationally critical kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), a large, flightless, nocturnal parrot, is one of New Zealand’s rarest birds and a very slow breeder.
Once numerous, the ground nester succumbed to mammal predators.
Intensive management has seen kakapo numbers rise from fewer than 50 to 90 birds in 2008.
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Forestry & Kiwi
Depending on how they are managed, exotic forests can be useful kiwi habitat.
Did You Know?
We used to think only male kiwi incubated eggs. We now know great spotted, rowi and the Haast tokoeka share incubation, and sometimes southern tokoeka pairs enlist the help of other kiwi to share incubation.