Your task this week:
This week you need to chose one of the animals below and complete the following activities:
1) Draw a sketch of the animal in your everyday book
2) Label the sketch with the name of the animal and the parts of the animal that allow it to live in its habitat
3) Briefly describe the symbiotic relationship that you think exists between the animal and its habitat (e.g. what does the animal get from the environment and what does it do for the environment?)
1) Draw a sketch of the animal in your everyday book
2) Label the sketch with the name of the animal and the parts of the animal that allow it to live in its habitat
3) Briefly describe the symbiotic relationship that you think exists between the animal and its habitat (e.g. what does the animal get from the environment and what does it do for the environment?)
Waikareao Estuary:
Pātiki - Sand Flounder
The New Zealand Sand Flounder (Rhombosolea plebeia) is a righteye flounder of the genus Rhombosolea, found around New Zealand in shallow waters down to depths of 100 m. Like other flatfish, the larval sand flounder begins its life with an eye on each side of its head and a round body shape, swimming upright through the midwater. As it grows out of this larval stage entering the juvenile stage one eye moves to the right side leaving the other blind and it takes on a flat diamond shape swimming flat/parallel to the ground. On the right side, the fish is a greenish brown dark colour or grey with faint mottling and on the left side (the side it lies on without eyes) it is white. The average length of an adult sand flounder is 25–35 cm with the maximum being 45 cm. In the day time, they lie on the seabed camouflaged almost perfectly in sand or mud; they have special pigment cells on their skin that can change colour to match their background, their protruding blue-green eyes being their only giveaway. They swim in a flowing style with an undulating movement of the side fins and when threatened by predators their tail is used for propulsion. Technically the adult swims on its side with the continuous dorsal fin fringing one edge of its diamond shaped body and its extended anal fin on the other. |
White-facted Heron
The white-faced heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) also known as the white-fronted heron, and incorrectly as the grey heron, or blue crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Indonesia, New Zealand, and all but the driest areas of Australia.
It is a medium-sized heron, pale, slightly bluish-grey, with yellow legs and white facial markings. It can be found almost anywhere near shallow water, fresh or salt, and although it is prompt to depart the scene on long, slow-beating wings if disturbed, it will boldly raid suburban fish ponds.
Discription
The adult white-faced heron is medium-sized for the family and mostly pale blue-grey. The forehead, crown, chin and upper throat are white. The crown pattern is variable, with the white occasionally spreading down the neck; the variability makes identification of individuals possible. The iris may be grey, green, dull yellow or cinnamon. The regions between the eye and bill on the side of the head (lores) are black. The beak is black and often pale grey at the base. During the breeding season pinkish-brown or bronze nuptial plumes appear on the foreneck and breast, with blue-grey plumes appearing on the back.
The adult typically weighs 550 g (1.21 lb) and ranges from 60 to 70 cm (24–28 in) in height.
Immature birds are paler grey with only the throat white, and often have a reddish colour on the underparts. Chicks are typically covered with grey down.
Habitat
The white-faced heron is locally nomadic and found in both fresh and salty wetlands, farm dams, pastures, grasslands, crops, shores, saltmarsh, tidal mudflats, boat-harbours, beaches, golf courses, orchards or in garden fish-ponds. It is protected in Australia under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.
Behaviour
The white-faced heron typically perches on fence-posts, trees, telephone poles and house roofs. Its flight is slow and bouncing.
Feeding
White-faced herons eat most small aquatic creatures and their varied diet is fish, frogs, small reptiles and insects. It uses a variety of techniques to find food including standing still and waiting for prey movement (often employing a peculiarly rhythmic neck movement whether in water or on land), walking slowly in shallow water, wing flicking, foot raking or even chasing prey with open wings. White-faced herons generally feed solitarily or independently in small groups. White-faced herons are generally territorial during breeding season but may feed in groups during non-breeding season, particularly after rain or flooding.
The white-faced heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) also known as the white-fronted heron, and incorrectly as the grey heron, or blue crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Indonesia, New Zealand, and all but the driest areas of Australia.
It is a medium-sized heron, pale, slightly bluish-grey, with yellow legs and white facial markings. It can be found almost anywhere near shallow water, fresh or salt, and although it is prompt to depart the scene on long, slow-beating wings if disturbed, it will boldly raid suburban fish ponds.
Discription
The adult white-faced heron is medium-sized for the family and mostly pale blue-grey. The forehead, crown, chin and upper throat are white. The crown pattern is variable, with the white occasionally spreading down the neck; the variability makes identification of individuals possible. The iris may be grey, green, dull yellow or cinnamon. The regions between the eye and bill on the side of the head (lores) are black. The beak is black and often pale grey at the base. During the breeding season pinkish-brown or bronze nuptial plumes appear on the foreneck and breast, with blue-grey plumes appearing on the back.
The adult typically weighs 550 g (1.21 lb) and ranges from 60 to 70 cm (24–28 in) in height.
Immature birds are paler grey with only the throat white, and often have a reddish colour on the underparts. Chicks are typically covered with grey down.
Habitat
The white-faced heron is locally nomadic and found in both fresh and salty wetlands, farm dams, pastures, grasslands, crops, shores, saltmarsh, tidal mudflats, boat-harbours, beaches, golf courses, orchards or in garden fish-ponds. It is protected in Australia under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.
Behaviour
The white-faced heron typically perches on fence-posts, trees, telephone poles and house roofs. Its flight is slow and bouncing.
Feeding
White-faced herons eat most small aquatic creatures and their varied diet is fish, frogs, small reptiles and insects. It uses a variety of techniques to find food including standing still and waiting for prey movement (often employing a peculiarly rhythmic neck movement whether in water or on land), walking slowly in shallow water, wing flicking, foot raking or even chasing prey with open wings. White-faced herons generally feed solitarily or independently in small groups. White-faced herons are generally territorial during breeding season but may feed in groups during non-breeding season, particularly after rain or flooding.
Pipi
Paphies australis or pipi (from the Māori language) is a bivalve mollusc of the family Mesodesmatidae, endemic to New Zealand. The pipi is a shellfish with a solid white, elongated symmetrical shell with the apex at the middle. It is covered by a thin yellow periostracum. Its closest relative, the tuatua , has an asymmetrical shell, with an off-centre hinge. The pipi is abundant on flat sandy beaches, in sandy and silty mud in estuaries, and harbours where there is considerable water flow. By releasing a thread of mucus, which makes them more buoyant, they are able to float in the water column and move to new locations. Where they find good living conditions, their numbers can exceed more than 1000 individuals per square metre. Pipi as Food Pipi are edible and easily collected for food; traditional cooking methods include boiling and making into fritters. They are often used as the "clams" in clam chowder. The harvest limit in New Zealand is 50 per person per day, and although a minimum size is not stipulated in the regulations, only larger pipi should be taken. For Māori, pipi are a traditional food resource, and in earlier times were gathered in specific flax baskets made for this purpose. Smaller specimens would fall between the woven strips and back into the beds to grow as the basket was gently swirled through the water. |
For more information check out this PDF
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Cockles
Cockles – the heart of summerCockles are shellfish that live just below the surface of the sand. They are sub tidal, found up to 10m deep, and are common all around New Zealand
Cockles have plump, round, hard, heart-shaped shells with bumps which run across and downwards.
Cockles are a shallow-burrowing shellfish, found on protected beaches, and estuaries around the North and South Islands, Stewart Island, and the Chatham Islands. They are found in a variety of sediment types, but prefer sediments that are mainly sand, with little mud content.
They burrow using their foot, and feed on plankton filtered from the surrounding water. Cockles are capable of 'jumping' by bending and straightening their foot.
Because cockles filter large amounts of water they can gain toxins from phytoplankton or bacteria in the surrounding water. It is important that they be collected only from unpolluted sites, especially as they can be eaten raw. Unsafe areas are usually sign posted – check with regional council.
In their role as filter feeders, cockles also provide an important link in the food web between phytoplankton, and smaller carnivores, such as birds, crabs and rock lobsters. Cockles also provide another important food web service – when they are filtering the water, they help prevent blooms of phytoplankton that reduce oxygen availability for fish and many other species.
Kopurererua Stream:
The swamps (once navigable) and the Kopurererua River were valuable for their fish, particularly eels, kahawai, mullet, parore and īnanga (whitebait). Harekeke (flax) and raupo were all important resources for our people in their various kainga (homes) scattered up and down the valley.
The Kopurererua Stream flows for 29km from the Mamuku Plateau to the Tauranga Harbour. Native species of fish living found in the stream are common smelt, longfin and shortfin eels, brown and rainbow trout, yelloweye mullet, black founder and giant bullies.
The Kopurererua Stream flows for 29km from the Mamuku Plateau to the Tauranga Harbour. Native species of fish living found in the stream are common smelt, longfin and shortfin eels, brown and rainbow trout, yelloweye mullet, black founder and giant bullies.
Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between 25 and 50 millimetres (1 and 2 in) long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine-meshed fishing nets. Whitebaiting is the activity of catching whitebait.
Individual whitebait are tender and edible, and are considered a delicacy in New Zealand. The entire fish is eaten - including head, fins, bones, and bowels. Some species make better eating than others, and the particular species that are marketed as "whitebait" vary in different parts of the world. As whitebait consists of immature fry of many important food species (such as herring, sprat, sardines, mackerel, bass and many others) it is not an ecologically viable foodstuff and several countries impose strict controls on harvesting. The degradation of waterways through forest clearance, and the impacts of agriculture and urbanisation, have caused the whitebait catch to decline. The loss of suitable spawning habitat has been particularly severe, especially for inanga, which rely on dense riparian vegetation lining the tidal portions of waterways. Amongst other factors, a lack of shade over waterways has been shown to kill developing whitebait eggs. |
EelsThe New Zealand longfin eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii) is a species of freshwater eel that is endemic to New Zealand. It is the largest freshwater eel in New Zealand and the only endemic species. Longfin eels are long-lived, migrating to the Pacific Ocean near Tonga to breed at the end of their lives. They are good climbers as juveniles and so are found in streams and lakes a long way inland. An important traditional food source for Māori, longfin eels numbers are declining and they are classified as endangered, but over one hundred tonnes are still commercially fished each year.
Longfin eels have an omnivorous diet and are opportunistic feeders. Their diet as small eels largely consists of insect larvae. When eels become larger, they also feed heavily on fish, including galaxiids and trout. There are reports of these eels eating waterfowl as well. Longfin eels are an important traditional food source for Māori, who have long had extensive knowledge of the timing of their upstream and downstream migrations. |
Māori name: kahawai
Scientific names: Arripis trutta, Arripis xylabion The kahawai species most people are familiar with (Arripis trutta) is found all around New Zealand. They're mainly found:
Kahawai:
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Yellow-eye mullet are small, near-shore fish that usually reach 30–40 cm. Yellow-eyed Mullet fish is grey-green at the top, silver at the bottom, yellow at the bottom, bright yellow eyes. Although yellow-eye fish tastes good, they are most often used as bait fish. Yellow-eye mullet is considered to be the best bait for capturing larger species. Freshly caught mullet fillets, oozing blood and juice, are irresistible to almost any fish in the sea. They also have sharp heads and mouths, and the scales on the body are particularly small and thin and are very easy to fall off. Unlike most fish, it has two ridges, the first with 4 thorns and the second with 1 spine and 9 rays. These fish are olive or blue-brown with silver on both sides and bright yellow or gold eyes. The fins have brown edges. They can live in water depth ranging from 0–50 m, but usually, stay in 0–10 m depth. They are most comfortable in temperature ranging from 14 to 24 degree Celsius, with the upper tolerate temperature of 28 degree Celsius and the lower limit unknown. They usually live in shallow bays, ports and estuaries. They are often seen shoaling near the surface, but rarely enter freshwater. They are omnivores that feed on sea floor debris, algae and small invertebrates, crustaceans, diatoms, molluscs, insect larvae, fish, polychaetes, coelenterates and fish eggs. They are often filtered from the sand through the mouth. Ingesting a certain percentage of sand helps to grind food in the muscles of the stomach.
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The parore (Girella tricuspidata) also known as luderick, black bream or blackfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a sea chub from the family Kyphosidae which is found in the southwestern Pacific Ocean off Australia and New Zealand. Parore are found in shallow coastal and estuarine waters where the frequently congregate in large schools in the vicinity of rocky outcrops and jetties. The small juveniles use seagrass beds to hide from predators. This species is an omnivore which use their small sharp, incisor-like teeth for grazing on seaweed, especially the filamentous green algae Enteromorpha intestinalis and sea cabbage. They also a band of crushing teeth which are used to grind algae. Analysis of their stomach contents have shown that parore opportunistically feed on other food items like small crustaceans, pipi, mussels and worms. As parore mature, they congregate in large shoals and the adults form 'runs' from estuarine waters and coastal lakes into the sea. The fish spawn in the surf zone and mouths of estuaries, spawning takes place in the winter.
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Glossary:
Diatoms - are a big group of eukaryotic algae. They are one of the most common types of phytoplankton.
Detritus - is non-living particules of organic origin. Typically, it includes the bodies or fragments of dead organisms as well as faecal material.
Egests - to pass off ; excrete.
Detritus - is non-living particules of organic origin. Typically, it includes the bodies or fragments of dead organisms as well as faecal material.
Egests - to pass off ; excrete.