2016/2017 summer in the field: a photo essay

This summer of my PhD research has mostly been spent traveling to various sites around the Wellington region surveying transects for lizards. Here’s some pictures that summarize the adventures had.

Not from the field, but taken during a Christmas/New Year’s holiday in Hawkes’ Bay. The low habitat complexity of the grazed pasture is typical of much of rural New Zealand, and demonstrates why we need to reconstruct habitat for lizards. Photo by Alex Horvat.

View along one of the transects – we began to experiment with the use of builders’ line to guide the searchers along each line.

The foliage of the divaricating shrubs in this transect was strong enough to walk on top of! I think the species was Coprosma propinqua, which is called mingimingi in Maori, which means to be curly or twisted. Photo: Alex Horvat.

Can you spot the grass skink (Oligosoma polychroma) in this photo? Many of New Zealand’s lizards rely on camouflage to hide from predators. While this strategy is great if birds are your main predator, unfortunately it doesn’t work as well with mammals because they can smell as well as see where the lizard is hiding.

Finally, a spotted skink (Oligosoma lineoocellatum)! There don’t seem to be too many of these on the New Zealand mainland nowadays. It’s likely that their large body size makes them especially susceptible to predation by introduced mammals.

Field assistant Albi measuring the distance of a skink capture from the transect midline. We’re doing this to investigate which microhabitats are used by lizards in the various sites.

A small herd of Kaimanawa horses at one of the more rural sites.

The flank of a Raukawa gecko (Woodworthia maculata) snuggled up in a rock crevice. It is possible that tight crevices like these can protect the geckos from predators. They also provide a pretty warm place to rest during the day!

Field assistant Ellen in some stunning habitat… we’re very lucky to get to work in such beautiful places! By the way, you may have noticed that ALL the field personnel are wearing fluorescent yellow. I assure you, it’s not because we all have similar taste in clothing – it’s for health & safety. Although the costume would probably fit in equally well at a rave… I may in future purchase some glo-sticks and whistles to match *ponders this*.

Southern bell frog (Litoria raniformis) encountered during a (rather boggy) day in the field. These frogs have an interesting story; they were introduced from New South Wales to New Zealand in the 1800’s and are common here, but they are actually a threatened species in their native Australia.

This site had a LOT of pests – TBH I’ve never seen a kid goat this close to the coastline before!