Charismatic megafauna

The ace thing about being based in the zoology department is that you have colleagues who do all kinds of interesting work. The great thing, is that en-route to your own field sites you can join those fellow students briefly and learn a little about their study organisms. So on the trip up to Nelson last week there was opportunity for some falcon tracking and fur seal observation.


Sara Cross is monitoring the reintroduction of New Zealand falcons in the Marlborough wineries, this is Ginny (above) one of the birds sporting a radio tracker.


Jenipher Cate is investigating the impact of tourism on the New Zealand fur seal colonies in Akaroa, Kaikoura and the Abel Tasman. Despite the signs informing people to keep 20m away from the seals, visitors still persisted to crowd around this bull. This one particular visitor got her come-uppance when she got so close to the seal, that it riled up and chased her down the rock face. The issue in action.