NZ Wetland Explorers
Ngā kararehe o te repo — the creatures of the wetland
Since people arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, about 90% of our wetlands have been drained or destroyed — mostly to make farmland. The creatures on this page all depend on the 10% that is left. Wetlands are nature's kidneys: they filter dirty water, soak up floods like a sponge, and give rare animals a home.
Your mission, detective
- Choose two creatures from this page to become the class expert on.
- Read its fact file carefully — don't just skim!
- Fill in your Wetland Expert File using your own words (copying is not detective work).
- Finish with one question you still wonder about.
PūkekoAustralasian swamphen
What does it look like?
A chicken-sized bird with deep blue and black feathers, a bright red bill and forehead shield, long red legs, and huge feet. When it walks, it flicks its white tail like a flag.
Where does it live?
Swamps, drains, ponds and wet paddocks all over Aotearoa — you've probably seen one beside the road! It is native to NZ but also lives in Australia and the Pacific.
What does it eat?
Mostly plants — shoots, seeds and roots — which it holds in one foot like a hand. It also snacks on insects, frogs and worms.
Threats
Cars, cats, stoats and losing wetland habitat. Luckily pūkeko are tough survivors and their numbers are healthy.
Wow facts
- Pūkeko live in family gangs — several females may lay eggs in one shared nest, and the whole group helps raise the chicks.
- They can fly, but they're clumsy at it — they usually prefer to run or swim.
- A pūkeko can grip food in one foot and eat standing on the other, like holding an ice cream.
See real photos 📷
- NZ Birds Online — Pūkeko (lots of photos and even its calls)
- Department of Conservation — Pūkeko
TunaLongfin eel
What does it look like?
A long, snake-like fish with smooth olive-brown skin. The top fin is extra long — that's the "longfin". Big females can grow longer than your teacher is tall (up to about 2 metres!).
Where does it live?
Rivers, lakes and wetlands all over NZ — and nowhere else on Earth. That makes it endemic. It hides under banks and logs during the day and hunts at night.
What does it eat?
Insects, worms, kōura (freshwater crayfish), fish — even ducklings. Tuna are the top hunters of the wetland.
Threats
Dams block their journey to the sea, wetlands have been drained, and they are caught for food. Because they grow so slowly, lost eels take a very long time to replace.
Wow facts
- Longfin eels can live for more than 100 years — some are older than your great-grandparents.
- At the end of its life, every eel swims about 5,000 km to the tropical Pacific Ocean (near Tonga) to breed just once — then the tiny babies drift all the way back to NZ.
- Young eels (elvers) can climb up waterfalls and wriggle over wet rocks to reach lakes upstream.
See real photos 📷
- Science Learning Hub — Longfin eels (photos, videos and activities)
- Wikipedia — New Zealand longfin eel
Matuku-hūrepoAustralasian bittern
What does it look like?
A tall, secretive heron-like bird with streaky brown feathers that match raupō reeds perfectly. You will almost never see one — but on still evenings you might hear one.
Where does it live?
Deep inside raupō swamps and reed beds. It needs big, healthy wetlands — and that's exactly what NZ has lost. Fewer than about 1,000 matuku are left in the whole country, making it rarer than some kiwi.
What does it eat?
Fish, small eels, frogs and insects, caught by standing statue-still and striking like lightning.
Threats
Wetland drainage is threat number one. Stoats, ferrets and cats raid its ground nests too. It is ranked Nationally Critical — the highest danger level.
Wow facts
- When danger comes, a matuku freezes and points its beak at the sky, swaying gently like a reed in the wind. Its camouflage is so good that people walk right past it.
- In spring, the male makes a deep "boom" like someone blowing across a giant bottle — it can be heard a kilometre away.
- Scientists find matuku by listening for booms at dawn, because the birds are too well hidden to count by eye.
See real photos 📷
- NZ Birds Online — Australasian bittern (photos of the freeze pose!)
- DOC — Matuku-hūrepo (you can listen to the famous "boom" here)
ĪnangaWhitebait
What does it look like?
A slim, almost see-through little fish. Adults are only about as long as your hand (10 cm). The babies are the famous "whitebait" people catch in spring.
Where does it live?
It has two homes! Eggs hatch near the sea, the babies grow up in the ocean, then swim up rivers in spring to live in slow streams and wetlands as adults.
What does it eat?
Tiny insects and creatures floating in the water — and almost everything bigger (trout, birds, eels, people!) eats īnanga.
Threats
It lays its eggs in long grass at the river's edge — so mowing, stock trampling and draining wetlands destroy its nursery. Fishing pressure adds to the squeeze.
Wow facts
- Īnanga lay their eggs on grass stems during the highest "king" tides of autumn — the eggs then wait out of the water until the next king tide comes back to wash the babies to sea.
- Most īnanga live their whole life in just one year.
- "Whitebait" is actually the babies of five different native fish species — īnanga is the most common one.
See real photos 📷
- Te Ara Encyclopedia — Whitebait and whitebaiting (photos and life cycle diagrams)
- Science Learning Hub — Saving taonga
WeweiaNew Zealand dabchick
What does it look like?
A small, dark diving bird with a silky head and bright yellow eyes. It sits low in the water like a tiny submarine.
Where does it live?
Lakes, ponds and wetlands — almost only in the North Island. It is endemic: found nowhere else in the world. Only a few thousand exist.
What does it eat?
Water insects, tiny fish and freshwater snails, caught by diving underwater.
Threats
Its floating nest is easily swamped by boat waves or flooding, and rats and stoats steal eggs. Losing weedy lake edges removes its food and shelter.
Wow facts
- Weweia chicks ride on their parents' backs — sometimes even staying aboard while the parent dives!
- It builds a raft nest that floats, anchored to reeds so it rises and falls with the water.
- Instead of flying from danger, a weweia simply sinks silently below the surface and pops up somewhere else.
See real photos 📷
- NZ Birds Online — New Zealand dabchick (look for the chick-on-back photos)
- DOC — Dabchick/weweia
KahikateaWhite pine
What does it look like?
A towering, narrow tree — NZ's tallest native tree, growing over 60 metres (taller than a 15-storey building). Its trunk spreads out at the bottom like tent pegs to grip soft swampy ground.
Where does it live?
Swampy lowland forests, standing happily with its "feet" in the water — a place almost no other big tree can survive.
Who depends on it?
In autumn it produces millions of orange-red fruits called koroī, a feast for kererū, tūī and bellbirds — who repay the favour by spreading its seeds.
Threats
Kahikatea swamp forests grew on rich flat land — perfect for farms. Almost all were cut down or drained, leaving only small patches, often lone trees standing in paddocks.
Wow facts
- Kahikatea belong to an ancient tree family that grew when dinosaurs roamed — over 150 million years ago.
- Because its white wood has no smell, it was perfect for making butter boxes — millions of trees were cut down to ship NZ butter overseas.
- A single big kahikatea can drop hundreds of thousands of fruit in one autumn.
See real photos 📷
- Wikipedia — Kahikatea (photos of the tree, fruit and swamp forests)
- Te Ara Encyclopedia — Kahikatea or white pine
The Wetland Expert File — what a great one looks like
Before you write your own, read this example. We picked the kōtare (sacred kingfisher) — a bird that is not in the fact files above, so you can't copy it for your creature! Notice how every fact is written in the expert's own words, in full sentences.
EXAMPLE — Wetland Expert File
Kōtare — sacred kingfisher
The kōtare is a small bird, about the size of my hand. It has a shiny green-blue back and cap, a creamy white chest, and a big black dagger-shaped beak that looks too heavy for its body.
It perches on branches, fences and power lines at the edge of wetlands and streams, watching the water like a sentry. When it spots prey it dives down and grabs it, then flies back to its perch to eat. It eats small fish, insects, lizards, kōura (freshwater crayfish) and even mice. It digs a nest tunnel in a clay bank or a tree by flying straight at it, beak-first!
Polluted waterways are a problem for kōtare, because dirty water means less prey to catch. Rats and stoats can also raid their nest tunnels.
- Kōtare make their nest hole by repeatedly flying beak-first into a bank, like a feathery drill.
- They bash bigger prey against a branch before swallowing it.
- Māori compared the kōtare to a watchful sentry — a lookout platform in a pā was even called a kōtare.
How does a kōtare fly beak-first into a hard bank without hurting its brain?
Your turn — blank template
Copy these headings into your book, then fill them in for the creature you chose from this page.
Wetland Expert File — by ______________
Write both names here...
Size, colours, special features — help someone picture it. (2–3 sentences)
Which part of the wetland is its home? What's on its menu? (2–3 sentences)
What is putting it in danger, and why? (1–2 sentences)
1. ... 2. ... 3. ... — surprise your reader!
Real experts always have more questions...
This page? One of the photo links? Write it down.
Word Detective — useful words
- wetland / repo
- Land that is wet for all or part of the year — swamps, bogs, marshes and lake edges.
- habitat
- The natural home of a plant or animal.
- native
- Lives naturally in NZ (but may live in other countries too).
- endemic
- Found in NZ and nowhere else on Earth.
- species
- One particular kind of living thing.
- predator
- An animal that hunts other animals for food.
- camouflage
- Colours or patterns that help a creature hide.
- juvenile
- A young animal that is not yet an adult.
- conservation
- Work done to protect nature and stop species dying out.
- drainage
- Taking the water out of wet land, usually to make farmland.
Want to explore further? Try Science Learning Hub — Wetland animals, Te Ara — Wetland birds, or the DOC Birds A–Z.