Week 5 - Flora & Fauna

This section of the AEE aims to understand the complexity of the biodiversity around us.

In New Zealand, we have a hugely diverse environment, including many different types of habitat which all influence native biodiversity, e.g: 

• Dunes
• Lakes
• Forests
• Marine / Freshwater
• Riverine
• Subterranean
• Alpine 

Our country contains a high level of endemic species, one of the most varied and unique on earth due to its long isolation from other continental landmasses. Walking worms (Peripatus), who still resemble their ancestors who lived hundreds of millions of years ago, are still found here. 

These unique species include many plants, skinks, lizards and birds, all of which have been impacted by our activities. For example, the Huia bird is now extinct as the last 50 individuals were taken to form collections.   The Black robin was reduced down to the last 11 individuals before conservation efforts boosted numbers back to 200 - which is still very low.