Threatened Species at Wellington Zoo
Teacher's Notes
Introduction
Threatened native animals at Wellington Zoo
Threatened exotic animals at Wellington Zoo
Definitions
Why are species under threat?
Why are we concerned?
Helping threatened species
Useful resources
Teacher's notes
Education staff at Wellington Zoo are available to help with planning a study unit to suit your students' needs and can provide you with further resources on this topic.
This page contains information and activity sheets (listed to the right hand side of this page), that are suitable for:
Living World
3:3 Research and describe how some species have become extinct or are endangered
3:4 Research where and how a range of New Zealand animals live
6:4 Investigate a New Zealand example of how people apply biological principles to animal management.
Biology
6:3 Identify and explain effects of introduced plants and animals on New Zealand's native flora and fauna, and methods for controlling their impact.
Social Studies
Place and Environment: Levels 2, 5, 6
Time, Continuity and Change: Level 7
Resources and Economic Activities: Levels 3, 6.
Introduction
A number of threatened animals, native and exotic, are held at Wellington Zoo. Background information on the reasons why animals are threatened and the role zoos have in helping species survive follows.
Threatened Native Animals at Wellington Zoo
- Antipodes Island parakeet
- Stephens Island tuatara
- Brown teal
- New Zealand scaup
- Brown kiwi
- Campbell Island teal
- Scree skink
- North Island kaka
Threatened Exotic Animals at Wellington Zoo
- Gouldian finch
- Barbary sheep
- Golden lion tamarin
- Parma wallaby
- White cockatoo
- Cheetah
- Himalayan tahr
- Black-handed spider monkey
- Bleeding heart pigeon
- Chimpanzee
- Black and white ruffed lemur
- Sun bear
- Red-fronted macaw
- Cotton-top tamarin
- Oriental short-clawed otter
- Sumatran tiger
- Hamadryas baboon
- White-cheeked gibbon
- Red panda
Definitions
A number of terms are used when describing threatened animals:
species - a group of similar individuals that can breed together
threatened - organisms that are in danger of disappearing from all or a significant portion of their range.
The words extinct, endangered and vulnerable have distinct meanings in conservation science. In 1994 the World Conservation Union (IUCN) drew up categories and definitions to describe the conservation status of threatened species:
extinct - no confirmed sighting of the species in the wild for at least 50 years
critically endangered - the species faces a 50% chance of extinction in the wild within the next 10 years or 3 of its generations
endangered - the species has a 20% chance of extinction in 20 years or 5 of its generations
vulnerable - the species has a 10% chance of extinction in 100 years
rare - the species has a small national population.
Why Are Species Under Threat?
Extinction is a natural process and organisms have been going extinct since the beginning of life. There is evidence of mass extinction of entire groups of plants and animals at different times in Earth's geological history. Of concern today is the recent tremendous loss of plant and animal species due, in the main, to the actions of humans.
Major Threat
The major threat facing animals throughout the world is loss of their habitat. As human populations expand, natural landscapes are cleared of forest or native grasslands and are converted to farmlands and urban developments. Rivers are channelled and dammed, lakes are subject to pollution and draining, and coastal and oceanic waters are overfished and polluted: all these factors reduce the natural environment available to plants and animals.
This process of conversion of natural landscapes to artificially created landscapes has accelerated in the last century, but landscape modifications and species extinctions have been documented from many areas as humans spread out across the Earth. Particularly poignant have been the bird extinctions documented from islands such as Hawaii and New Zealand following the arrival of humans and their accompanying mammal fauna.
Introduced Animals
Some of the animals that were deliberately or accidentally introduced to new lands have had a terrible impact on the native plants and animals. In New Zealand, animals evolved in the absence of land mammals. With the introduction of rats, cats, stoats and dogs, the populations of many native birds and reptiles crashed, and 43 species of bird became extinct.
It is not only predatory mammals that threaten the survival of New Zealand's remaining birds. Introduced herbivores like deer, goat, tahr, rabbits and possums eat out the forests and grasslands where native birds live.
Other Factors that Threaten Species:
- hunting for sport, food or body parts
- collecting (for private and public museums, and for pets)
- introduction of new diseases
- pollution of the habitat
- natural disasters
- interbreeding with related species (hybridisation)
Why Are We Concerned?
All living organisms are interconnected through food webs and mineral-nutrient cycles. The loss of one species from an ecosystem can have a destabilising effect on other living things in the system. A relevant example is the lack of regeneration of many of New Zealand's canopy trees in forests where the kereru (native wood pigeon) was once common. Trees like tawa, titoki, miro, matai and kahikatea have fleshy fruits that are eaten and their seeds disseminated some distance from the adult trees by the kereru. Smaller forest birds cannot swallow the large-seeded fruit, and regeneration of these trees fails if kereru are absent from the forest.
Threatened species may be a potential source of beneficial molecules or useful genetic information to humans.
People are prepared to pay money to see animals in their natural habitats (ecotourism). Revenue and employment opportunities will be affected if the animals become so rare that they cannot be seen.
New Zealand contains a large number of endemic species that are found nowhere else in the world. The evolutionary origin of these organisms is linked to the geological history of New Zealand. As scientists learn more about the genetic identity of our organisms, it helps to fill in some of the gaps about New Zealand's origins.
Helping Threatened Species
The best way to save species is within their natural habitat. Countries can create reserves or national parks where habitat is preserved and species are protected.
Sometimes areas need to be cleared of introduced predators before a threatened animal is safe. In New Zealand a number of offshore islands have been cleared of introduced predators, and a few mainland areas are being managed as predator-proof sanctuaries following clearance of predators and ring-fencing to prevent re-invasion.
Restoration of habitat is another method that can be used to extend and improve the environment for threatened species.
How do Zoos Help Threatened Species?
For some threatened species, conservation in their natural habitat is not an option and they must be taken to a safe place like a zoo. Here they can be managed in captive breeding programmes designed to preserve the genetic diversity of the species.
- The ultimate aim is to return the species to its natural environment at some future date.
- No zoo has the room to hold the entire genetic diversity of a species, and interchange of breeding individuals is undertaken in zoo-wide programmes.
- Zoos run education programmes for the public so that they can view and learn about threatened animals.
- Zoo staff conduct research on the biology and requirements of threatened species.
Useful Resources
Websites to visit for New Zealand threatened animals
www.doc.govt.nz/conservation
www.piopio.school.nz/NZcons.htm
www.forest-bird.org.nz
www.tuitime.org.nz
www.kcc.org.nz/species/threatened.htm
www.kiwirecovery.org.nz
www.nzbird.com
Videos
Wild South Videos, TVNZ Natural History Unit
Birds of New Zealand Kiwi - a natural history
Possum - a New Zealand nightmare
Saving New Zealand's endangered birds
The black stilt - a bird surrounded by change
Reference books
Page, J. 1990. Zoo: the modern ark. Key Porter Books Ltd.
Department of Conservation 2002. The Penguin Guide to New Zealand Wildlife. Penguin Books Ltd
Gaze, P. 1994. Rare and Endangered New Zealand Birds. Canterbury University Press.
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