Currently we are running ahead of our work plan which is very satisfying, the work is challenging but very rewarding and you never know what the day might bring. Ranger Evan was very chuffed to catch his first kiwi, Tiaki, as he tried to give Cathy and Pete the slip. We also encountered a juvenile common gecko a couple of weeks back and Evan installed a gecko house nearby. To his surprise and delight another little gecko has moved in – so cool.
The photo is of a peripatus (Peripatoides novae-zealandiae) which Evan found (read, jumping about wildly excited) while checking out a rotten log west of the Peach Cove hut. These caterpillar like creatures give birth to live young and have been on the planet longer than tuatara, around 550 million years, extraordinary. By comparison we have only been running around for about 2.5 million years.
Read the October 2012 Rangers Report in full (760kB pdf).