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Endangered Species: Rare Uglies Less Likely to Survive

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 15:00 CDT

By HUTCHINSON, Dan

Some of New Zealand's most endangered species are facing an identity crisis with other super-sexy conservation stars hogging the limelight and multimillion-dollar corporate sponsorships.

Kiwis are undoubtedly the biggest name in New Zealand conservation's hall of fame but spare a thought for another flightless victim of human settlement that is almost extinct.

The mat daisy jumper hardly inspires patriotic fervour and most people have never even heard of this tiny, jumping moth, let alone seen one. Confined to 2km of Marlborough coastline this dull, brown insect is one of dozens of species on the verge of extinction.

Although some kiwi or kakapo species are critically endangered, they do not lack for funding. But what about the black mudfish of the Hikurangi Swamp or even the bar-tailed godwit. Neither of these looks particularly good in a company logo.

Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said New Zealand's lack of indigenous mammals was one thing in favour of the country's creepy crawlies.

However, it was the big birds that tended to attract the most sponsorship attention, compared with geckos, lizards and giant land snails.

"Often you can make a big deal out of something that is unusual. The local branches are often in there rooting for the weird and wonderful," Hackwell said.

Big name species that have corporate sponsors like kiwi (Bank of New Zealand), kakapo (Comalco), takahe (Mitre 10 and Flight Centre) and weta (Weta Workshop) can also have spin-offs for other species.

"The work you do in trying to achieve population growth for kiwi invariably has benefits for a lot of other species," Hackwell said.

Of more concern, he said, was the lack of knowledge about endangered marine animals. He saw a photograph in a newspaper recently of a man proudly displaying his catch of the day, a large tuna. Unfortunately it was a very rare species of tuna, critically endangered around the world.

"If that guy had caught himself a kakapo and strung it upside down by the legs, the paper would have had an enraged headline. It is a hard job in the marine environment."

Department of Conservation Threatened Species Trust sponsorship co-ordinator Tim Amos said it was a challenge finding sponsors for some of the lesser-known species.

"Besides those more well-known icons, those large and furry species, you do have more trouble finding sponsors, particularly with plants. With animals there are all sorts of less appealing species that we would welcome support for," Amos said.

He said there was an encouraging surge in the number of community and corporate projects that focused on restoring particular areas of native habitat.

"A large amount of corporate money was also spent on compensating particular habitats for the effects of large projects either as part of resource consent conditions or to avoid Environment Court action.

"Some will say `let's not spend half a million dollars in the Environment Court, tell us what the damage is and we will do something to mitigate that'.

"They are trying to do something to put it right. These people get involved and get quite enthusiastic and then put in more effort," Amos said.

Another example of corporate sponsorship was the Land Rover agreement, where every vehicle bought resulted in a sponsored hectare for Project Tongariro.

Amos said it was not just a matter of conservation projects competing with each other for funding. The corporate sponsorship dollar was more often spent on worthy causes, such as child cancer.

Source: Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand

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