habitat use

The foraging behaviour, diet and habitat use of North Island kokako (Callaeas cinerea wilsoni) were studied in Puketi State Forest from October 1981 to August 1982. Kokako fed mainly from branches and twigs of canopy and upper-understorey plants. Although 68 different foods were eaten, only eight contributed more than 5% to the observed diet in any season. The diet consisted of fruit (44%), unknown foods (18%), leaves (15%), epiphytes (11%), invertebrates (8%), buds (2%), flowers (l%) and nectar (1%). The use of these food- types varied seasonally.

The distribution of banded rail habitat use in a saltmarsh was measured by recording the rate at which their footprints accumulated. The relationships between habitat use, time of day, state of the tide, and 15 environmental parameters, were investigated using multivariate analysis. Banded rails were most active in the morning and evening and immediately after a tide. They did not venture far from cover and their activity was greatest at low levels on the shore, and amongst certain vegetation types.

To make sense of how nature is responding to an increasingly rapidly changing world, a lot of species distribution and abundance data are needed. To infer population trends, these data ideally need to be collected in a standardised, repeatable manner that includes ‘absence’ data on species sought for but not found. If many people, even just professional ecologists and postgraduate students, are to record biodiversity frequently in their daily lives, a convenient method that meets these requirements is needed.

Faecal pellet counts are commonly used as indices of lagomorph abundance but uncertainty over variation in decay rates among sites has led to most researchers recommending the use of pellet accumulation rates in previously cleared plots rather than the simpler and quicker method of counting uncleared plots. We use data from cleared and uncleared 0.1-m² brown hare pellet plots at six sites in the central North Island of New Zealand to test the reliability of the two methods.

Kiwi possess many unusual features that make them interesting subjects for behavioural study. However, their nocturnal, cryptic nature has meant that studies to date rely on data collected indirectly. Infrared technology has enabled us to observe kiwi directly and here we present the first study of wild brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) behaviour by direct observation. We used handheld infrared video cameras to obtain c. 6 hours of video footage of kiwi over 19 months.

The presence of feral cats (Felis catus) in the braided river valleys of New Zealand poses a threat to native species such as the critically endangered black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae). Trapping remains the most common method to control introduced predators, but trap placement criteria have not been fully informed by advances in the understanding of the spatial ecology of the pest species. We assessed the suitability of Global Positioning System (GPS) tags to study the spatial behaviour of feral cats in New Zealand braided rivers.

Predation by introduced stoats is now considered a major threat to the population viability of several New Zealand endemic bird species. Historically stoat research and management has focused on beech forests and little is known about the ecology of stoats in the alpine grasslands occurring above the natural altitudinal limit of beech forest. Several stoat control operations in beech forest valley floors in southern New Zealand assume that adjacent montane areas act as a barrier to stoat immigration.