newzealand

Home to an amazing range of habitats and landscapes, Dunedin city and its environs boasts a great diversity of plants, animals, birds, insects and geological features. From the ocean, with its albatrosses and penguins, to the high alpine zone of inland ranges, this book introduces a magnificent natural environment. This brand-new fully revised edition of Wild Dunedin includes new and updated information and stunning new images, including a look at the new jewel in Dunedin’s natural history crown, Orokonui Ecosanctuary. A must-read for visitors and Otago residents alike.

This volume is the third in the trilogy that provides a review and inventory of New Zealand’s entire living and fossil biodiversity – an international effort involving more than 220 New Zealand and overseas specialists and the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Together, the three volumes list every one of the almost 55,000 known species of New Zealand’s animals, plants, fungi, and micro-organisms. These volumes are affiliated with Species 2000, an international scientific project with the long-term goal of enumerating all described species on Earth into one seamless list – the Catalogue of Life, a kind of online biological telephone directory. To date, only New Zealand has compiled a checklist of its entire living and fossil biota. Approximately 52% of this country’s species are endemic – found only in New Zealand’s freshwater, marine, and land environments. We have a responsibility to the global community to preserve this unique heritage or taonga. But further than that, all of our species – including many of the naturalised aliens included in the survey – are important to New Zealand’s economy, ecology and well-being.
Written for the advanced high-school and tertiary-level reader, these volumes are also intended to be a kind of ‘Cooks Tour’ of the kingdoms and phyla of life that will, it is hoped, provide an appreciation of the wondrous diversity of nature. Volume one [31469] and volume two [32943].

This volume is the second of three that provide a complete review and inventory of New Zealand’s entire living and fossil biodiversity. Volume 2 deals with the major branch of the animal kingdom known as Ecdysozoa (moulting animals), which includes arachnids, centipedes and millipedes, crustaceans and insects. It also includes the enigmatic phylum Chaetognatha (arrow worms) and concludes with a chapter on the fossil traces – ichnofossils – of ancient animal activities.

All three volumes are affiliated with Species 2000, an international scientific project with the long-term goal of enumerating all known species on Earth into one seamless list – the Catalogue of Life, a kind of online biological telephone directory. To date, only New Zealand has compiled a checklist of its entire biota. Approximately 52% of this country’s species are endemic – found only in New Zealand’s freshwater, marine, and land environments. We have a responsibility to the global community to preserve this unique heritage or taonga. But further than that, all of our species – including many of the naturalised aliens included in the survey – are important to New Zealand’s economy, ecology and well-being.

Written for the advanced high-school and tertiary-level reader, these volumes are intended to be a kind of ‘Cooks Tour’ of the kingdoms and phyla of life that will, it is hoped, provide an appreciation of the wondrous diversity of nature. This series is the result of an international effort involving more than 220 New Zealand and overseas specialists and the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Volume one [31469] and volume three [34438].

At last a single field guide that covers New Zealand’s plants, birds, insects and animals for visitors and New Zealanders interested in this country’s natural history. When author Julian Fitter first visited New Zealand he was amazed at the number of field guides to birds, plants, insects, marine life and to specific locations – alpine, forest, seashore. But for the traveller not wanting to cart around a library-shelf of books there was no single volume that described the major and most interesting species covering all NZ’s flora and fauna. As author of a natural history field guide to the Galapagos, he set about compiling such a book for New Zealand. The result is a small format, full colour guidebook packed with information on all the species that either are most important, or most obvious to those touring the country covering birds, insects, reptiles, marine mammals, land mammals, trees and shrubs, vines and epiphytes, herbs, ferns, grasses, mosses and lichens as well as a brief survey of New Zealand’s varied habitats and fascinating geological history, including major geothermal areas. Over 600 species are described described in detail, with accompanying information on habitat and a full colour photograph and organised in such as way as to make identification as easy as possible.

Adrift in the South Pacific Ocean, separated from the rest of the world by vast distances and blessed with some of the most varied and spectacular natural landscapes on Earth, New Zealand is rather special. Generations of geoscientists have developed an increasing understanding of what makes New Zealand geologically unique and why. Highlights of this research, including many discoveries of global significance, are presented in this book. It explains what makes New Zealand tick geologically, and illustrates the ways that geoscience research can make New Zealand a better place in which to live.

New Zealand’s wilderness heritage is destined to be one of the most significant conservation books published in New Zealand for many years. Written by Les Molloy, and photographed by Craig Potton with additional wildlife photography by Rod Morris, this book is a celebration of the extraordinary wilderness legacy that sits at the heart of New Zealand’s sense of place. The book also offers a far-sighted vision of how best to conserve our unique flora and fauna. It is structured around a bio-regional approach, with thirteen chapters detailing the protected areas, major flora and fauna values, endangered species and conservation threats and responses for each region of New Zealand. This includes all the significant offshore islands, the sub-Antarctic islands, and the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. Seen in totality like this, New Zealand’s wilderness seems all the more remarkable, with a diversity of habitat ranging from the teeming marine reserves around some of the offshore islands to the remote rainforests of Southwest New Zealand., The book is heavily illustrated with the photography of Craig Potton, gathered through extensive travel over twenty years, and is supplemented by wildlife photographs from one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent photographers in this genre, Rod Morris.