Animals (New Zealand)

Native animals

Aotearoa New Zealand has many unique native animals. Native animals are animals that are indigenous to or originate from a specific country. This section has websites that have heaps of interesting information about native animals.

Department of Conservation

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is the government website about preserving the natural and historical places of New Zealand. You can see it’s a government site by looking at the About us or Contact links at the top of the page.

• Select Nature from the top menu.

• Select Native animals.

• You can then browse specific types of animals. For example reptiles and frogs or marine mammals.

Tips: A website’s address (URL) can give you a hint about how reliable it is. Look for addresses in the results that include .gov or .edu in the URL. These are quality sites from overseas government or educational organisations.

Smithsonian Animal Index

Smithsonian Animal Index has facts about more than 1,500 animals across 300 different species. There is heaps of information about each animal, and great photos too.

• Enter the search words 'New Zealand' into the search box at the top of the page. This will bring up some results.

• North Island brown kiwi is a great article about the North Island Brown Kiwi.

• Kiwi Fun Facts has a number of facts about the bird.

• Look under the Related News list on the right side of the page to find some interesting links to articles on animals from New Zealand.

Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. You can leave out small words like ‘the’, ‘a’ and ‘of’ and just choose the main ones, e.g New Zealand. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

Animal Diversity Web

This website is a great place to look for information about individual animal species. These include text, pictures of living animals, photographs and movies of specimens, and/or recordings of sounds.

• Enter 'New Zealand' into the search box at the top right side of the page.

• This will bring up a list of New Zealand animal species such as the Cephalorhynchus hectori (Hector's dolphin), Mystacina tuberculata (New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat), and Sphenodon punctatus (Tuatara).

• Entries include facts about animal habitat, lifespan, behaviour and food habits, as well as pictures and photographs.

Tips: College or University Students write the text for these articles. If you are using this site, it always pays to check the information against that on other sites or in books from the library.

Forest and Bird

Forest and Bird is an independent New Zealand conservation organisation. This is a great place to find information about New Zealand native animals and birds.

• Enter 'endangered animals' into the search box at the top of the page.

• Check out the result in the list, called Native plants and animals.

• This article has useful information about some of the threatened species in New Zealand.

Tips: Websites that have .org or .net in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About us link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the organisation’s mission and values are.

Introduced animals and pests

There are lots of introduced animals in New Zealand Aotearoa. These animals have been brought to New Zealand by humans. They are often too invasive for the environment and become pests. This section has some interesting information about introduced animals in New Zealand.

Department of Conservation

Introduced animals are an ongoing problem in New Zealand. The Department of Conservation has some interesting information about pests.

• Go to the tab called Nature, then select Pests & threats to read Animals pests and threats A - Z about possums, rats, and feral goats that have been introduced to Aotearoa.

• Or, enter 'introduced animals' into the search box at the top of the page.

• There is an article about Pests and threats on New Zealand's subantarctic islands.

Tips: We like sites like this because they’re reliable. You can tell because of their web address – they have either .govt or .ac, meaning they are from government or educational organisations. They’re also New Zealand sites, so relevant for us.

Domestic animals (including pets and farm animals)

Domestic animals are pets and farm animals such as cats, dogs, cows, goats and sheep that are raised at home or on a farm. This section has some great information about pets and farm animals in New Zealand.

Te Ara: Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about Aotearoa New Zealand. If we look down to the bottom of the page, we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.

• Enter 'pets' into the search box at the top of the page.

• This will bring up a range of results including this article on Pets.

• Or, enter 'farm animals' to read about Exotic farm animals introduced to New Zealand.

• Also, the section called Settled Landscapes will help you find out about beef farming, deer farming, and more.

Books

There are many books written about New Zealand animals. Check out your local public or school library to see what they have.

Some recommended titles are:

• Awesome animals of Aotearoa! by Jahri Jah Jah.

• In the bush: explore & discover New Zealand's native forests by Gillian Candler.

• Under the Ocean: Explore & Discover New Zealand Sea Life by Ned Barraud.

• Whose feet are these? by Gillian Candler.

• Inside New Zealand Wildlife by Dave Gunson.

SCIS no: 1887015