temperature

Accurate surveys and monitoring are required to guide the conservation and management of threatened species. Some fauna species that are cryptic or difficult to observe because they are nocturnal, mimic other species, conceal themselves, or can be incredibly hard to survey. Emergence and activity of these species may be related to complex environmental cues including weather and atmospheric conditions. The conservation status of New Zealand’s long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus) is Threatened-Nationally Critical.

The capture of animals in live traps poses inherent risks of heat stress and mortality to trapped individuals. Despite a long history of pitfall trap use in New Zealand for monitoring small lizards, the design of traps and their covers often varies; however, the effects that this has on the internal temperature of the traps is unknown. Poor trap design may increase the risk of stress and mortality if internal temperatures exceed thermal limits.

Nest characteristics and nest-site choice determine fitness outcomes for reptile embryos and resulting hatchlings. Little is known about the nesting of Oligosoma suteri, New Zealand’s only egg-laying lizard. We investigated the physical and thermal environment of nests and available microhabitats, including nest-like sites, with the aim of applying this information to future search efforts and translocation plans. Nests of O.

There is a lack of information about how elevation affects the distribution of ship rats in New Zealand. In this study, ship rats (Rattus rattus) were captured in traps set along a 2 km elevational transect (455–1585 m a.s.l.) in beech (Nothofagaceae) forest and adjacent alpine tussock at Mt Misery, in Nelson Lakes National Park, from 1974 to 1993. A total of 118 rats were captured.

[First paragraph(s)...]
“A freezing chamber offers an easy place for such [frost] experiments... and ... valuable data as to the cold-resisting powers of our plants might be arrived at” (Cockayne, 1897).

In New Zealand, there are treelines of two main forms: abrupt southern beech treelines and gradual conifer–broadleaved treelines. At similar latitudes, abrupt treelines form at higher elevation than gradual treelines, but it is unclear whether this difference is also reflected in the climatic conditions experienced at the contrasting treeline ecotones. In this study, we measured soil and air temperatures across four gradual and two abrupt treelines ecotones in New Zealand for 2 years, and compared the climatic conditions between the treeline forms.