Kerry-Jane Wilson: Flight Of The Huia

Reviewed by STAN PINNEGAR

* Flight Of The Huia: Ecology and Conservation of New Zealand's Frogs, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals



This is a timely book, if years in the making, given recent publicity about the desperate plight of our much-loved kakapo and the ongoing battle to save it and other creatures from extinction.

The huia is gone, along with so many other species, and we must do everything we can to ensure the likes of the kakapo and kiwi do not follow their "flight" into oblivion. This book is a major work in that direction.

Author Kerry-Jane Wilson is a senior lecturer in ecology and conservation at Lincoln University and brings first-hand experience to her writing, having worked in the field on many island refuges in New Zealand. But Flight of the Huia is not merely a personal treatise on lost fauna and flora, it is a well-researched study of immense scientific importance, yet written in an easily understood, absorbing style to attract all of us everyday readers.

The author says forestry, agriculture, mining and tourism - yes, even our "clean, green image" - put pressure on New Zealand's ecology. Then there are weasels, stoats, ferrets, possums and cats, to name but a few predators. Little wonder our natives are so threatened.

Among those threatened is one of the world's most primitive frogs, Archey's frog. It is still with us and is a survivor from the Jurassic period, yet now faces a world where such amphibians and the like are declining rapidly for mostly unknown reasons.

The importance of ecology can be illustrated by these words from the book: "Lizards pollinate and disperse the seeds of some native plants, which appear to have evolved fruits specifically to attract them."

And later: "Pohutukawa flowers are especially attractive to geckos, and up to 50 Pacific geckos have been recorded in a single flowering pohutukawa tree."

So the wonder of Nature is its ability to maintain habitats for both flora and fauna, and ensure that everything has its place. The upsetting factors are cataclysmic events and human ignorance.

On the huia, the author says: " ... Both sexes were glossy black in colour with white-tipped bills, orange wattles and ivory-coloured bills. Male and female huia had very different bills. The male's was stout and chisel-like, while the female's was slender, down-curved and a third longer than the male ... " Apparently so they could eat different food and not compete with their mate.

Nature goes to great lengths to protect its species, but it can all be undone by humans.

This book is not a happy story, the author notes, but there is hope. Conservation success of the takahe and black robin, for example, and a belated helping hand given to the tuatara and other reptiles, and lizards and bats, will help to ensure that New Zealand's remarkable, unique species do not join the huia and the moa. Let's hope so.

Flight of the Huia, which has extensive references, should be required reading for students now and in the future, and for those even vaguely aware of the world around them.

* Canterbury University Press, $49.95