New Zealand Photo Blog

Hello,

My name is Julie McCarthy. I go to the University of Denver and I chose this photo as my photo blog to represent an issue. During this eco-adventure or tour, I learned more about the forestry and animal environment within New Zealand. For a brief New Zealand history, Captain Cook was known to be the first person outside of the Maori to discover New Zealand. Similar to Columbus, they sought to live on this island among the indigenous culture.

From this eco-tour/zip-lining adventure, I learned that most of the animals are not from New Zealand. Some of these animals include: Possums, Rats, Ferrets (but they call them something else here.) When Captain Cook arrived to New Zealand he describes in a journal the "screeching sounds of the birds" which can be heard for miles. However, since these new animal predators came off the ship, the bird population has decreased significantly. As most outsider's are aware: the Kiwi is the native New Zealand and flightless bird. Most birds didn't need to have wings in order to survive only until a few years ago when birds developed wings.

Within this zip-lining tour, this non-profit organization creates zip-lines for tourists to learn more about the environment. In addition they sponsor traps for the bird predators. We also learned about the different types of birds which exist in New Zealand. Although these birds are on a steady decline, this organization hopes to prevent the extinction of these birds and bring it back to what it once was.