Kiwi Nessie?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 30th, 2011
Breaking news from the Auckland Museum, New Zealand (on May 31st) but 6:30 pm Eastern time in the USA, May 30th:
“Museum expert Jo Brookbanks has taken off to check out a disturbance in the duck pond – a tourist spotted something ‘large & undulating.’”
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Considering the sorts of poisonous creatures they have down there, I hope she took either a firearm or a very, very long stick with her.
Curious to see what it turns out to be…I’m guessing they don’t have otters there?
“Poisonous creatures” ? In NZ?? You may be thinking of Australia, cobber…..
NZ has lots of feral pests that bite (including weasels / stoats / Australian brush-tail possums) but nothing really big. I don’t think we’ve transported any bunyips “over the ditch” (Tasman Sea) yet. I’m betting on a giant duck.
@flame821 your thinking of australia in terms of poisonous things, the only things we have in new zealand that are poisonous is the katipo spider & the whitetail spider (first one nobodys been bitten by in 50 years & second one more people get bitten by) and maybe the occasional redback spider that was brought over by accident.
because of our geographical isolation from everywhere no large mammals ever evolved here apart from sea lions and none live near where the museum is located(in the middle of the biggest city in the country) more than likely its one of the native eels wse have that can grow to excess of 2 metres…they can go over land so its likely thats what people have seen there
My mistake, I thought NZ and Australia shared more wildlife which, thankfully, they don’t. Although I would still freak out (at least momentarily) over an eel that was bigger than I am. Are they very predatory? (as in would they eat water fowl and larger as opposed to just small fish) Or do they simply migrate over land looking for breeding areas?
@flame182:
Regarding the predatory nature of large eels, River Monsters recently did an episode on the New Zealand Longfin Eel and they certainly were every bit as aggressive as reported; ripping apart a deer carcass and showing no fear of the host, Jeremy Wade.
As far as their ability to travel across dry land, they can survive for some time out of water and are able to wriggle in a deliberate manner – as opposed to most fish which simply flop about – but they simply are not built for overland travel of any great distance.
“My mistake, I thought NZ and Australia shared more wildlife which, thankfully, they don’t.”
We gave them many, many millions of our possums, for which they are eternally (and understandably) ungrateful, and we still get streams of Kiwis (the human variety) washing up on our shores, albeit legally…
I don’t know how anyone can get anything from that. All I got is large and undulating. How big? 5 ft? 25 ft? Also, does anyone know how big this duck pond is? I’ve never seen a duck pond that would fit something very big