Managing the largest population of any critically endangered species is a big ask at the best of times, but it is made even harder when you know almost nothing about the ecology of the species, or what the major threats are.
Then to add to the confusion you have another totally unrelated threatened species at the same site, but with this one no-one in the country seems to know the best way to monitor long term trends in the population, and most ways you've tried are not sucessful.
This is the everyday work struggle of your average biodiversity ranger in Aotearoa.
Big questions.....with no answers.
Epilobium pictum is a nationally critically endangered plant species, and I have to somehow become the world expert in trying to manage it because we have the largest known population of the plant here in Kaikoura and no-one in the world knows anything about its current ecology. Very little is known about why it is so threatened, when it was once much more widespread across Te Wai Pounamu. My team has some theories but they need to be tested.
So last week we built some stainless steel cages to put over some of the population to see if possums or deer are the species responsible for browsing off some of the flowering parts of the plants, in the hopes that caged plants will produce more seed. But it could be an insect browser, in which case our cages won't protect the plants. Otherwise the whole population appears to be healthy and is pumping out viable seed each year, as evidenced by new seedlings at the sites.
The second species at the site is the nationally vulnerable Kaikoura Giant Weta. Monitoring population trends in the species is proving very difficult, as most monitoring techniques are either too destructive to habitat (rock turning looking for individuals), or put the species in danger of being predated (baited cameras or baited tracking tunnels), and the other plot or transect based night counting methods don't work as the species is too sparse in the landscape to get any meaningful data.
Our next scheme is to build weta 'houses' that we can bury underground in suitable habitat, in the hopes that they will be colonized by the weta and we can monitor them in their new houses. As far as I can see this hasn't ever been done for ground burowing weta so it will be interesting to see how this goes....
If anyone has any useful tips or information please get in touch.
Photos:
1) Epilobium pictum
2) Caged plants
3) Epilobium seedlings
4) Kaikoura giant weta
5) Moonrise in the Seaward Kaikoura Range
6) Sunset at camp
