On our last day, we drove back to Christchurch. Since we arrived a few hours before our flight, we went to the Willobrook wildlife Reserve: a nice zoo like sanctuary for some native and non native animals. The highlight was the kiwi bird (at the end).
Longfim eels: breed once and live 100 years. Eats fish, ducklings, larvae, insects, fingers.
Black swan
Mute duck
Emu 50kmh, 3rd heaviest bird
China geese (swan geese)
Bennett's wallaby: can be pregnant even with wallaby in pouch
Scarlet macaw: eat clay to help digest
Ring tailed lemur: Madagascar
Capybara: world's largest rodent, up to 80kg.
Gibbon: native to Malaysia, so I can buy palm oil plantation. Baby!
Kakariki, kingfisher
Weka (medium brown): swim. only Chatham islands. Eat stouts and rats too.
Kea: cheeky mountain parrot
Kunekune pig: almost extinct
Flightless teal: thought extinct 1975
Tuatara: "living fossil", only NZ, months without eating, 3rd "eye" on forehead, 2 rows upper teeth, 1 lower. Can live 300 yrs.
Blue duck
Katearea NZ falcon eat road kill
Kiwi: one of the largest eggs for body size, monotonous, nocturnal, running aimlessly back and forth between bushes. My favorite bird now! It is amazing these birds are not extinct. There was a special dark enclosure for kiwis. We could see them, but it was too dark for pictures.
