Land of birds

What would I have thought, when I stepped off the boat? A barren and inhospitable land, too much bush, too many loud birds? Or just, oh dear, someone lives here already?

I suppose like everybody else I’d have been homesick before very long, and if I had the means would have set about sending back to the motherland for familiar things to make me feel at home. Granny’s sideboard, my second-best bustle, some bunnies and sparrows. Maybe a weasel or two.

And maybe it was me who accidentally brought in seeds wedged into the soles of my boots: thistles, dandelions, burdock.

With the benefit of hindsight though, it’s hard to imagine that I would have thought

New Zealand's wildlife: stuffed.
Photo credit: Te Papa

it was a good idea to bring in stoats to eat the rabbits, after I realised the rabbits were out of control. After all, there were so many flightless birds out there, just minding their own business. Enormous, placid parrots, tiny defenceless wrens and ground-nesting native ducks. Surely I would have considered the consequences?

Easy to judge though, at this late stage.

I can imagine thinking gorse was a good idea, having come from a country where farmland hedgerows were so traditional. But decades later when gorse was recognised as a pest, would I have thought introducing gorse-hungry weevils, spider mites, moths and thrips worth the risk? As with all biological controls, in an unusual ecology like ours there’s always a chance these introduced control agents will discover they prefer the taste of something native (and knowing Aotearoa’s luck, something on the verge of extinction).

The possums I definitely would have voted against, while making the sandwiches at

Photo credit: unknown

my local branch of the Acclimatisation Society. Assuming I had any kind of voice of course. But if I’d had anything to do with it, the landscape around you might be quite different today. Wombats, for one thing. They would have been a better choice than the possums. Probably some zebras, because, zebras. And some quokka, who would have been a much better bet than those pesty hedgehogs. If you’re going for ‘exotic’, well, might as well go crazy. How about some giraffes?