A living ark
New Zealand - a living ark
New Zealand has had the longest period of isolation of any oceanic island. For millions of years New Zealand was part of the supercontinent Gondwana which included Australia, Africa and South America, sharing the same flora and fauna.
About 140 million years ago, Gondwana began to break up through the process of continental drift. About 70 million years ago, New Zealand separated, earlier than Australia, South America and Antarctica.
Little spotted kiwi. Photo: Peter Daniel
As New Zealand became more isolated, evolutionary processes resulted in a unique asemblage of plants and animals. While the rest of the world entered the age of mammals, New Zealand took a unique evolutionary path and became a world dominated by birds. Without competition from browsing mammals, birds evolved to occupy niches that mammals occupied elsewhere. Threatened by few predators (no mammalian predators) many birds became flightless.
In New Zealand, as in other similarly geographically isolated areas, human habitation and the spread of mammalian pests and invasive weeds has led to a dramatic bio-diversity crisis.
Karori Sanctuary is contributing towards reversing this bio-diversity crisis. Find out about our restoration plans.
