You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Ambassador Pengu
<- Homepage: Bioblitz: What's in your backyard?
Kia ora,
My name is Pengu and I attend West Park School STEM club every week! I love to help the club learn more about science, technology, engineering and maths! I also love to go on adventures and I can't wait to head away on the BioBlitz field trip. I wonder what curious creatures I'll meet?
Catch up soon,
Pengu.
Monday 1 April
Kia ora,
Shelley told us that the field trip was cancelled because there had been flooding in the high country. Luckily, she was just playing an April Fool’s Day trick on us. We were so relieved to finally hit the road and begin our drive north to Mt Somers. We had plenty of time to enjoy the journey and stopped off at the Moeraki Boulders and historic part of Oamaru. I was a bit sad that we couldn’t stay to welcome the kororā little blue penguins home this evening. It was great to see they have such a beautiful place to live.
Tomorrow we will head up into the high country to meet some more weird and wonderful creatures.
See you then,
Pengu.
Tuesday 2 April
Kia ora,
It was so cool being able to explore Ō Tū Wharekai today. We found lots of different birds, invertebrates and plants. We even got to set traps for critters, but don’t worry these traps won’t harm any other creatures. We set pitfall traps to capture bugs and tracking tunnels to capture the footprints of larger animals. We also found some tiny plants that I would never have noticed. These plants had berries and are an important food source for animals in this area. We also found some huge mushrooms which are part of the fungi kingdom.
Tomorrow we’ll see what creatures we’ve trapped.
Catch you then,
Pengu.
Wednesday 3 April
Kia ora,
We found lots of weird and wonderful plants and animals today. Some of the plants we found were tiny and formed tight cushions to conserve water. Other plants were spikey so that animals wouldn’t eat them. We also found some interesting invertebrates, including an alpine grasshopper which could jump an incredible distance.
Tomorrow we will look at how to protect all our biodiversity.
See you in the morning,
Pengu.
Thursday 4 April
Kia ora,
We headed back up into Ō Tū Wharekai for the last time today. The weather was stunning once again, and we made the most of the day by finding out how to look after and restore biodiversity. The BioBlitz has shown us some of the cool things that live in this area and now we can think about how we can protect these species. We looked at how to plant natives and trap predators. We also found a plant that only grows here in Ō Tū Wharekai. This tiny herb is well suited to living in the mountains. Sadly, rabbits like to eat it so it needs to be protected with fences.
It has been such an amazing week. Now I’m looking forward to getting home to share my adventures.
See you soon,
Pengu.
Pengu is looking forward to the BioBlitz field trip to Ō Tū Wharekai. Image: LEARNZ.
Pengu feels at home in Oamaru near a little blue penguin colony. Image: LEARNZ.
Pengu uses a scope to find birds at Lake Roundabout in Ō Tū Wharekai. Image: LEARNZ.
Māia and Pengu find some fungi in Ō Tū Wharekai. Fungi are not plants or animals. Image: LEARNZ.
Pengu checks out the trail camera that has been set up to capture images of animals. Image: LEARNZ.
Pengu looks for a plant that only grows in Ō Tū Wharekai. Image: LEARNZ.
Pengu gets caught in Brad's sweep net. Image: LEARNZ.