Linda Hall: Wildlife delight in sanctuaries

Linda Hall.

Have you ever been to Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre?

I went for the first time last week and it was fantastic.

It is quite a drive at just over two hours but the route is a nice one with loads of little towns, and no windy, hilly roads.

The visitor centre has been revamped and is bright, large and the staff were really welcoming.

They talked us through what was on and gave us directions to the different attractions.

We arrived at a good time. We had about 10 minutes to look around the interactive displays about the wildlife and forest before a staff member was giving a talk about the tuatara.

Mt Bruce has three tuatara, an adult male and female in the kiwi house and one we were looking at - a youngster named Rama.

The staff member arrived with a container, which she told us had the tuatara's lunch in it.

She freely admitted she wasn't game enough to feed it by hand and dropped the locust in from the top of the tank.

The tuatara, which had been motionless for the entire time we had been watching it, not even blinking an eye, pounced on its prey and gobbled it up in seconds.

Then again it was still.

She told us some interesting facts about the tuatara, which are famous because they are the only reptiles still around from the days dinosaurs walked the earth.

We then went off to the kiwi house.

There were signs outside asking for silence, so we silently crept in unsure if we would even be able to see them. We were lucky and spotted the white kiwi, which is just beautiful, at the back of the enclosure ferreting around for food with its long beak. A brown kiwi was right at the front and we had an excellent view. They, of course, can't see us looking in at them.

The white kiwi started moving forward and came right up in front of us. What a stunning bird.

We walked through the forest and saw kokako, stitchbird, takahe, and kakariki, kaka, heaps of fantails and I could hear tui but I didn't spot any. The forest soared above us magnificent in its silence (apart from the birdsong). It made me feel like I was a million miles from civilisation.

We had lunch at the wonderful cafe and then went and watched eels being fed. I have never seen such huge eels. They were all gathered and waiting as were the human watchers.

A staff member arrived with two containers of food and serving spoons. She showed us the food and said, "One lucky eel will get this," and pulled out a dead mouse by its tail ... ewwwwww.

She then asked for volunteers to go in and feed the eels. A man and woman put up their hands, they were given gumboots and leggings and in they went. The man had the mouse. His children were calling out to him from the viewing deck to give the mouse to an eel. The lucky recipient lifted its head out of the shallow water and snatched the dead rodent in a flash showing off its teeth in the process.

The staff member said she had lost count of the times she had had to go in and retrieve the feeding spoons.

"For some reason people are not willing to put their hands in the water with the eels," she said.

We, of course, have the wonderful Cape Sanctuary right on our doorsteps. It's thanks to these wildlife sanctuaries that the decline in several species of our native wildlife has been halted. Thousands of volunteers work at these sanctuaries throughout New Zealand and it is thanks to them the tide of extinction has been headed off.

Hats off to them.

Watch out for a new book due to be released on August 15 called Paradise Saved which features Cape Sanctuary.

Footnote: When I visited my mother yesterday morning she was knitting peggy squares. She was on her fourth of the weekend. She is a member of the St Mathew's Drop-in group that has been knitting blankets, scarves, beanies and slippers for children overseas. Recently they shipped off a load. The women buy their own wool and pay a little toward the cost of transport. If you have any wool tucked away that you are not using they would be very grateful. You can drop it into the office at St Mathew's Church on the corner of King St South and Lyndon Rd West, Hastings.

Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.