Life in the Kaimai Mamaku
The Kaimai Mamaku is a taonga, a treasured place. It connects and provides for more than 300,000 people across two regions.
The largest eDNA collection programme within the Kaimai Mamaku conservation park has just been completed by Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust and nine iwi-hapū conservation project groups, thanks to funding from Wai Tuwhera.
WilderLab passive samplers were placed in 31 targeted catchments across the landscape for 24-48 hours. This data was then combined with another 13 publicly available data sets, and critically analysed by an ecologist to create the following report.
366 species identified, majority natives
Diversity is important for healthy and resilient ecosystems. Sampling from the Kaimai Mamaku catchments showed an abundance of species and interesting results.
In total, 366 species were identified across the project area with an average of 41 species found at each sampling site. The maximum number of species at a single site was 118 and 39% of all species found were only found at a single site.
Louise Saunders, Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku CEO and ecologist says this indicates yet again how important biodiversity is to the mauri of the Kaimai Mamaku landscape.
"Every species has a place and a function in our forest ecosystems and catchments," she says.
"They are all linked in myriad ways to hundreds of other species and we still have only the most basic understanding of how they all work together. We simply cannot pick the species to save, we have to protect and restore the entire ecosystem so it thrives".
Tuna | Eel
Once abundant, the long-finned tuna is now a threatened species in Aotearoa.
However, they were found in 84% of sample sites!
Unlike their cousin the short-finned tuna which are common in degraded waterways, the long-finned tuna are indicators of healthy catchments.
Tuna exist in many waiata (songs), artefacts and kōrero (stories). They were once a vital food source however their dwindling numbers have seriously affected this.
Piriwai | Mayfly
There are about 40 species of mayfly, many unique to Aotearoa, and three of these were in the top 10 most common species found in our samples.
Louise Saunders, MKMT CEO and ecologist, says New Zealand's stream insects are amazing indicators of the health of streams and catchments.
"Our native stream critters need healthy waterways to survive - finding a mayfly usually means the waterway has a healthy habitat or good water quality - or both," she says.
Want to test your own waterway? Check out NIWA's SHMAK kit.
Pekapeka | Bat
Pekapeka are our only native mammals.
Long-tailed pekapeka (found in our samples) are classified as "Nationally Critical" due to introduced predators and changes to their habitat.
There's a lot of mahi being done in our rohe to protect long-tailed pekapeka, so being able to confirm they are in at least one catchment area is great news.
"Knowing where this taonga are will help us focus our project and give the pekapeka a better chance of surviving and thriving," says Kataraina George, Ngāti Kearoa Ngāti Tuara Environment Manager.
Manu | Birds
Many taonga manu were found in our samples including tūi, kererū, pāpango (scaup), pūtangitangi (paradise shelduck) and tauhou (silvereye).
Birds have always had a vital place in Māori life, being used for kai and feathers for cloak adornments. Their behavour was studied to predict the weather and sometimes, the future.
Since the extinction of the moa, the kererū is one of the only bird species big enough to swallow large fruits and disperse the seed over long distances. Protecting these taonga is important for the natural regeneration of our native ngahere.
Threatened species
The Kaimai Mamaku conservation park spans from Waihou River to Tauranga Harbour, from Mokaihaha in the south to Karangahake Gorge in the north. The bush clad spine of the Kaimai range gives way to the misty plateaus and valleys of the northern Mamaku. An arm reaches eastwards toward the sea, embracing the hills of Ōtānewainuku and Otawa.
This whenua is home to numerous iwi and hapū, almost 500,000 people and a diverse range of flora, fauna and funga, many of which are now classed as "threatened species".
Louise Saunders, CEO of MKMT and ecologist, says it's exciting to find the following threatened species in the rohe - Hochstetters frog, long-tailed pekapeka, pateke, shortjaw kokopu, koaro, wētā and the bluegilled bully.
"The Kaimai Mamaku is such an underrated environment but it's home to all of these amazing species that are important to all New Zealanders. These results show the importance of the conservation mahi the KMRP is doing to protect this unique landscape".
Kareao | Supplejack Vine
Supplejack was the third most common species, and most common flora species, found in our sampling, indicating a degraded forest impacted by browsers and historic logging.
Supplejack wouldn't naturally be this common in a healthy forest because the understorey would be made up of a diverse range of flora.
"Although our results show that waterway health is good, the predominance of supplejack shows that all is not well in our ngahere," says Louise Saunders, MKMT CEO and ecologist.
The kōrero goes, that Māui once defeated a divine tuna, "Tunaroa" and kareao grew from its severed tail while the berries shone with the spirit’s blood. Māori still use hīnaki (basket-like traps) woven from kareao (supplejack) to catch Tunaroa’s descendants today.
Pineapple?!
We expected to find pine trees through our testing but pineapples were a surprise!
eDNA testing shows a moment in time, and in the 48-hours the passive sampling kits were in place, three humans must have been in the area - maybe stopping at the stream for a slice of Hawaiian pizza?
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Introduced predators and pests
Annually across Aotearoa, an estimated 25 million native birds are killed each year by rats, stoats, possums and other introduced predators.
The Kaimai Mamaku Restoration Project is restoring the mauri of the ngahere, with an initial focus on removing these predators and pests to protect all taonga species.
Unfortunately, possums were found in 55%, deer in 48% and rats in 30% of the sampled sites, showing there is much more work to be done.
We were pleased not to have found poaka (pigs) in our samples, indicating that numbers could be low throughout the project area.
Full findings
The graph on the left shows the most commonly detected species across all test sites (publicly available data and Kaimai Mamaku Restoration Project data).
The Wheel of Life (right) shows all genus and species detected during the Kaimai Mamaku Restoration Project testing only, providing an overview the diversity of species found.
The below is a summary of common and notable species, species abundance, and prevalence of pests in the rohe.
- As expected, the most commonly detected species were mostly indigenous
- Insects and plants detected had the highest diversity of species - as shown in the circle of life
- It is encouraging that a threatened species, the long-finned tuna was the most commonly detected species, found at 83% of sites
- The aquatic insects that were most commonly detected, mayflies, koura and the long-finned tuna) are all indicators of good stream health
- Possums were the only predator on the list of commonly detected species, found at just over half of all tested sites
- Although we didn't detect humans, we did detect pineapple and dogs, which show that people are present
- We were pleased that pigs weren't detected, but rats were detected at 38% and deer at 47% of sites
- It is encouraging and exciting to get threatened species detected at our sites. We detected the long-tailed pekapeka, Hochstetters Frog, pateke, shortjaw kokopu, koaro, and bluegilled bully
- Manu taonga detected included tūi, kererū, pāpango (scaup), pūtangitangi (paradise shelduck), and tauhou (silvereye)
- Our travelling friend, the spotted eel (Anguilla reinhardtii) is an occasional visitor from Australia but was found at four sites.
Notes
The above results were a combination of publicly available data and our individual samples, and critically analysed by ecologist and MKMT CEO Louise Saunders to create the report.
- Like all eDNA testing, this data shows a moment of time. The absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence - if a species is not mentioned in this report, it does not mean it isn't in the Kaimai Mamaku.
- The following report focuses on species detected to provide a summary of common and notable species, species abundance, and prevalence of pests.
- The locations shown are an indication of sampling areas and do not show exact samples sites.
Mahi continues
The Kaimai Mamaku Restoration Project , led by Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust, brings together iwi and hapū, agencies, Councils, stakeholders and communities around the Kaimai Mamaku.
eDNA helps us identify and provide information about the diversity of life in the rohe. This is just one one tool we are using alongside many other monitoring methods, to give us data to base decision-making on about effective conservation management.
