Biodiversity of New Zealand

The biodiversity of New Zealand, a large island country located in the south-western Pacific Ocean, is varied
and distinctive. The species of New Zealand accumulated over many millions of years as lineages evolved in
the local circumstances. New Zealand's pre-human biodiversity exhibited high levels of species endemism, but
has experienced episodes of biological turnover. Global extinction approximately 65 Ma (million years ago)
resulted in the loss of fauna such as non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs and marine reptiles e.g. mosasaurs,
elasmosaurs and plesiosaurs.[1] The ancient fauna is not well known, but at least one species of terrestrial
mammal existed in New Zealand around 19 Ma. For at least several million years before the arrival of humans,
the islands had no terrestrial mammals except for bats and seals, the main component of the terrestrial fauna
being insects and birds. It was not until the 14th century CE that new species were introduced by humans.

The frog family Leiopelmatidae is endemic

to New Zealand.

New Zealand has developed a national biodiversity action plan to address conservation of considerable
numbers of threatened flora and fauna within New Zealand.

Evolution

New Zealand's geckos, such as the

Duvaucel's gecko, may have had their
origins in New Caledonia although
Australia is implicated in recent
phylogenetic work.[2]

The break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana left the resulting continents and microcontinents with shared
biological affinities. Zealandia (the continental crust from which New Zealand and New Caledonia later
developed) began to move away from Antarctic Gondwana 85 Ma ago, the break being complete by 66 Ma
ago.[3][4] It has been moving northwards since then, changing both in relief and climate. About 23 million years
ago New Zealand was mostly underwater. One estimate suggests just 18% of the present surface area
remained above the water. However geological evidence does not rule out the possibility that it was entirely
submerged, or at least restricted to small islands.[5][6] Today about 93% of the Zealandian continent remains
below the sea. Several elements of Gondwana biota are present in New Zealand today: predominantly plants,
such as the podocarps and the southern beeches, but also a distinctive insect fauna, New Zealand's unusual
frogs and the tuatara, as well as some of New Zealand's birds. It seems likely that some primitive mammals
also were part of the original cargo. Whether or not any of these taxa are descendants of survivors of that
ancient cargo remains unproven. Recent molecular evidence has shown that even the iconic Gondwanan
plants the southern beeches (Nothofagus) arrived in New Zealand after separation of Zealandia from
Gondwana. There is a high rate of interspecific and intraspecific hybridisation in New Zealand plants and
animals.[7]

The two sources of New Zealand's biodiversity following separation from Gondwana have been speciation and
air- or sea-borne immigration. Most of these immigrants have arrived from Australia, and have provided the
majority of New Zealand's birds[8] and bats as well as some plant species (carried on the wind or inside the
guts of birds). Some of these immigrants arrived long enough ago that their affinities to their Australian
ancestors are uncertain; for example, the affinities of the unusual short-tailed bats (Mystacinidae) were
unknown until fossils from the Miocene were found in Australia. Cyanoramphus parakeets are thought to have
originated in New Caledonia and have been successful at reaching many islands in the region. The link
between the two island groups also includes affinities between skink and gecko families.[9]
Elements

Floral biodiversity

The kauri of North Island were

the largest trees in New Zealand,
but were extensively logged and
are much less common today.

Many species of southern bull kelp are

found in New Zealand.

The history, climate and geology of New Zealand have created a great deal of diversity in New Zealand's
vegetation types. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps and southern beech.
Podocarps (Podocarpaceae), an ancient evergreen gymnosperm family of trees, have changed little in the last
190 million years. Forests dominated by podocarps form a closed canopy with an understorey of hardwoods
and shrubs. The forests of southern beeches, from the genus Nothofagus, comprise a less diverse habitat, with
the beeches of four species dominating the canopy and allowing a single understorey. In the north of New
Zealand the podocarp forests were dominated by the ancient giant kauri. These trees are amongst the largest
in the world, holding the record for the greatest timber volume of any tree. The value of this was not lost on
early European settlers, and most of these trees were felled.

The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and tussock, usually associated with
the subalpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests. These shrublands are dominated
by daisies, which can become woody and 3 m high. New Zealand had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index
mean score of 7.12/10, ranking it 55th globally out of 172 countries.[10]

In addition to terrestrial plants, New Zealand is home to many species of algae. Many species of southern bull
kelp are found along the coasts of the main islands, Chatham Islands and the Subantarctic Islands.[11][12]

Faunal diversity

Until 2006, it was thought that no mammals, other than bats and marine mammals, had reached New Zealand
before humans did. The discovery of a femur and mandibles of an extinct non-volant (non-flying) mammal in
Otago, dated at 16–19 million years old, has changed the view of New Zealand's evolutionary history, as it
strongly suggests that mammals had been part of New Zealand's fauna since the break-up of Gondwana. The
fossil has been called SB mammal. It is not known when, or why, land mammals became extinct in New
Zealand but there were none present on New Zealand for several million years before the arrival of humans.

The short-tailed bats (from the monotypic family Mystacinidae), first arrived in the Oligocene or before. These
are unique among bats due to their terrestrial foraging habits; this has long been credited to the absence of
competing terrestrial mammals, though the presence of the already terrestrial Icarops in the Miocene of
Australia shows that their terrestriality evolved in the mainland, while St Bathans fauna mystacine fossils co-
existed with another terrestrial mammal, the Saint Bathans mammal. Some plants have evolved with the bats
and are fertilised on the ground by the bats. The long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus), a more recent
arrival, is relatively common. The Miocene St Bathans fauna also preserves remains of a vesper bat and
several incertae sedis species.[13]
 The extinct huia was a member
of the endemic bird family
Callaeidae (New Zealand
wattlebirds).

Birds comprise the most important part of New Zealand's vertebrate fauna. It is uncertain if many birds in New
Zealand are descended from Gondwanan stock, as DNA evidence suggests that even the ratites (the kiwis and
the moas) arrived after the split from Antarctica. Recent studies suggest that New Zealand wrens are
Gondwanan descendants. DNA studies seem to indicate that the wrens are the most ancient of all passerines,
splitting from the ancestral passerine stock at the time New Zealand become an isolated land mass. In the
absence of mammals, birds diversified into the niches usually filled by mammals in other ecosystems.

The moas, of which there were eleven species, were large browsers, and were in turn the prey species of the
giant Haast's eagle. Both the moas and the eagle became extinct shortly after the arrival of humans in New
Zealand sometime around 1300 CE. It appears that human hunters exterminated the moa populations, which
deprived the Haast's eagle of its primary food source, leading to the extinction of that species as well. New
Zealand's emblematic kiwis fill the role of small foragers of the leaf-litter, and the enigmatic adzebill was a
universal omnivore. The wattlebirds, Callaeidae, are a family endemic to New Zealand, but many other New
Zealand birds show clear affinities to Australia, including the New Zealand pigeon and the New Zealand falcon,
as well as various parrots, rails, waders, owls, and seabirds (albeit often with a New Zealand twist). Of the 245
species of birds from the greater New Zealand (the main islands along with the offshore islands, also including
Norfolk Island), 174 were endemic, roughly 71%. Of these, about 32% of the genera were endemic.
 The tuatara is a unique component of New
Zealand's biodiversity and the only
surviving species in the order
Sphenodontia.

No agamas or iguanas are recorded from New Zealand; lizards are represented by geckos and skinks, which
arrived multiple times. The fossil record shows a highly diverse herpetofauna during the Miocene, with a
mekosuchine crocodile and meiolaniid and pleurodire turtles being known from the St Bathans fauna. The
tuatara, reaching 60 cm (23.6 inches), is New Zealand's largest living reptile, a last remnant from the once
diverse clade that was Sphenodontia. Frogs, which because of their intolerance for saltwater are assumed to
have descended from ancestors that broke off from Gondwana, are one of the few exceptions to the rule that
amphibians are never found on oceanic islands (another being the frogs of Fiji). New Zealand's few wholly
freshwater fishes are derived from diadromous species.

This Auckland tree wētā is about 7 cm

long, excluding legs and antennae.

New Zealand's terrestrial invertebrate community displays strong Gondwanan affinities, and has also
diversified strongly, if unevenly. There are over a thousand species of snail, and many species of insect have
become large and in many cases flightless, especially grasshoppers and beetles. There are, however, fewer
than 12 species of ant. The most famous of New Zealand's insects, the wētā, are ground-living relatives of the
crickets that often reach enormous proportions. Many endemic marine invertebrate species, particularly
marine snails, have evolved in the seas surrounding New Zealand.[14][15][16]
Endemism

The siphon whelk Penion ormesi is a large,

marine snail species endemic to New
Zealand.

New Zealand has a high number of endemic species,[17] such as:

80% of all vascular plants

70% of all native terrestrial and freshwater birds

All bats

All native amphibians

All reptiles

90% of freshwater fish

90% of insects and molluscs

75% of marine molluscs alone[18]

Of an estimated 20,000 species of New Zealand fungi, only about 4,500 are known.[19] New Zealand also has
two subspecies of endemic cetaceans, Hector's dolphin and its close relative Maui's dolphin.

Human impact

The common brushtail possum is one of

the 33 species of land mammal introduced
to New Zealand by humans.
 Large areas of native bush has been
logged and cleared for pasture in the past.

The silvereye is one of several

species of birds that have
introduced themselves to New
Zealand in the wake of human
settlement.

The arrival of humans has impacted the natural environment, posing a threat to native species and resulting in
the extinction of several. This is predominantly because many species in New Zealand have evolved in the
absence of mammalian predators for the last few million years (a situation known as ecological naivety), thus
losing the responses needed to deal with such threats. Humans brought with them to New Zealand
(intentionally or otherwise) a host of attendant species, starting with the Polynesian rat, and now including
stoats, weasels, black rats, Norway rats, brushtailed possums, and feral cats and dogs, as well as herbivores
such as deer, wallabies and tahr (a wild goat species from the Himalayas), which detrimentally affect native
vegetation.[20]

The date of arrival of the first human settlers (the antecedents of the Māori) in New Zealand is given as around
1300 CE,[21] and evidence suggests that Polynesian rats seemed to have arrived at a similar date.[22] Their
arrival set off a first wave of extinctions, eliminating smaller defenceless ground nesting birds such as the New
Zealand owlet-nightjar. A second wave of extinctions was triggered by the arrival of the Māori, who hunted
many of the larger species, such as the moa, adzebill and several large ducks and geese, for food. The Haast's
eagle and Eyles's harrier are thought to have gone extinct due to the loss of their food source. A third wave of
extinction began with the arrival of European settlers, who brought with them numerous new mammal species,
particularly the predatory domestic cat, and initiated more habitat modification. In all, over 50% of New
Zealand's bird species are considered extinct,[23] along with a species of bat (the New Zealand greater short-
tailed bat), several frogs (only four frog types remain), a freshwater fish (the New Zealand greyling), skinks, and
geckos.

In some instances, the extinction of New Zealand's native fauna has brought about a natural colonisation from
Australia. In the case of the silvereye, which colonised New Zealand in the 19th century, it had no relative in
New Zealand's original fauna and is now restricted to newer man-made niches. In the case of the black swan
(which was originally thought to have been introduced by humans but is now suspected to have self-
introduced), the invading species re-occupied part of its former range (the extinct New Zealand swan is now
believed to be a subspecies of the black swan). The arrival of the pūkeko and the swamp harrier is more
interesting, mirroring the arrival of related species in the past, before they evolved into the takahē and the
Eyles's harrier. Once these specialised birds declined and (in the case of the harrier) became extinct, their
niches were available and colonisation could occur again.[24][25]

Management

The New Zealand government, through the Department of Conservation, works aggressively to protect what
remains of New Zealand's biological heritage. It has pioneered work on island restoration where offshore
islands are systematically cleared of introduced species such as goats, feral cats and rats. This then allows
the re-introduction of native species that can hopefully flourish in the absence of non-native predators and
competitors. The longest running project of this type is on Cuvier Island,[26] but other islands are also being
used such as Tiritiri Matangi and Mangere Island. Establishment of conservation areas is not restricted to
islands however and several ecological islands have been established on the New Zealand mainland which are
isolated by the use of pest-exclusion fences.
State of biodiversity 2020

State of biodiversity in New Zealand, 2020 [27]

See also

Landcare Research has biodiversity as one of its major research areas.

List of ecoregions of New Zealand

List of extinct animals of New Zealand

New Zealand dinosaurs

References

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Penguin Books. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-14-302088-2.

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5. "Searching for the lost continent of Zealandia" ([Link]

[Link]/[Link]) . The Dominion Post. 29 September 2007. Archived from the original (ht
tp://[Link]/[Link]) on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2007. "We cannot
categorically say that there has always been land here. The geological evidence at present is too weak, so
we are logically forced to consider the possibility that the whole of Zealandia may have sunk."

6. Campbell, Hamish; Gerard Hutching (2007). In Search of Ancient New Zealand. North Shore, New Zealand:
Penguin Books. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-14-302088-2.

7. Morgan-Richards, M.; Smissen, R. D.; Shepherd, L. D.; Wallis, G. P.; Hayward, J. J.; Chan, C. H.; Chambers,
G. K.; Chapman, H. M. (2009). "A review of genetic analyses of hybridisation in New Zealand". Journal of
the Royal Society of New Zealand. 39 (1): 15–34. Bibcode:2009JRSNZ..39...15M ([Link]
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molecular phylogenetic evidence" ([Link] . Ibis. 152 (2):
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9. Wallis, GP; Trewick, SA (2009). "New Zealand phylogeography: evolution on a small continent" ([Link]
org/10.1111%2Fj.1365-294X.2009.04294.x) . Molecular Ecology. 18 (17): 3548–3580.
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10. Grantham, H. S.; Duncan, A.; Evans, T. D.; et al. (2020). "Anthropogenic modification of forests means only
40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity – Supplementary Material" ([Link]
[Link]/pmc/articles/PMC7723057) . Nature Communications. 11 (1): 5978. doi:10.1038/s41467-
020-19493-3 ([Link] . ISSN 2041-1723 ([Link]
[Link]/issn/2041-1723) . PMC 7723057 ([Link] .
PMID 33293507 ([Link] .

11. Fraser, Ceridwen I.; Hay, Cameron H.; Spencer, Hamish G.; Waters, Jonathan M. (2009). "Genetic and
morphological analyses of the southern bull kelp Durvillaea antarctica (Phaeophyceae: Durvillaeales) in
New Zealand reveal cryptic species". Journal of Phycology. 45 (2): 436–443. doi:10.1111/j.1529-
8817.2009.00658.x ([Link] . PMID 27033822 ([Link]
[Link]/27033822) . S2CID 18309093 ([Link]
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12. Fraser, Ceridwen I.; Velásquez, Marcel; Nelson, Wendy A.; Macaya, Erasmo C.A.; Hay, Cameron (2020).
"The biogeographic importance of buoyancy in macroalgae: a case study of the southern bull-kelp genus
Durvillaea (Phaeophyceae), including descriptions of two new species" ([Link]
939) . Journal of Phycology. 56 (1): 23–36. doi:10.1111/jpy.12939 ([Link]
9) . PMID 31642057 ([Link] .

13. Worthy, Trevor; Hand, SJ; Worthy, TH; Archer, M; Worthy, JP; Tennyson, AJD; Scofield, RP (2013). "Miocene
mystacinids (Chiroptera, Noctilionoidea) indicate a long history for endemic bats in New Zealand".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (6): 1442–1448. Bibcode:2013JVPal..33.1442H ([Link]
[Link]/abs/2013JVPal..33.1442H) . doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.775950 ([Link]
0%2F02724634.2013.775950) . S2CID 85925160 ([Link]
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14. Powell A. W. B., New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979
ISBN 0-00-216906-1

15. Beu, A.G. and Maxwell, P.A. 1990. Cenozoic Mollusca of New Zealand. New Zealand Geological Survey
Bulletin, 58.
16. Vaux, Felix; Hills, Simon F.K.; Marshall, Bruce A.; Trewick, Steven A.; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2017). "A
phylogeny of Southern Hemisphere whelks (Gastropoda: Buccinulidae) and concordance with the fossil
record". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 114 (2017): 367–381. Bibcode:2017MolPE.114..367V (htt
ps://[Link]/abs/2017MolPE.114..367V) . doi:10.1016/[Link].2017.06.018 ([Link]
org/10.1016%[Link].2017.06.018) . PMID 28669812 ([Link]
2) .

17. Brouwer, Floor; Fox, Glenn; Jongeneel, Roel; Jongeneel, R. A. (2012). The Economics of Regulation in
Agriculture: Compliance with Public and Private Standards ([Link]
2aoC&pg=PA88) . CABI. p. 88. ISBN 9781845935573.

18. Willan, R.C., de C. Cook, S., Spencer, H.G., Creese, R.G., O’Shea, S., Jackson, G.D. Phylum Mollusca. In: de
C. Cook, S.C. (eds.), New Zealand Coastal Marine Invertebrates 1, 296 – 298. Canterbury University Press,
Christchurch, New Zealand ISBN 978-1877257-60-5

19. "What happens in New Zealand... Stays in Vegas" ([Link]

news-and-media/media-releases/media-release-what-happens-in-new-zealand-stays-in-vegas/) . New
Zealand Trade and Enterprise. 11 March 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.

20. "Introduced Plants and Animals" ([Link] . Te Ara: The

Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 15 June 2022.

21. "Rat remains help date New Zealand's colonisation" ([Link]

n/[Link]) . New Scientist. 4 June
2008. Retrieved 30 June 2018.

22. Wilmshurst, Janet M.; Anderson, Atholl J.; Higham, Thomas F. G.; Worthy, Trevor H. (2008). "Dating the
late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat" ([Link]
[Link]/pmc/articles/PMC2409139) . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105
(22): 7676–7680. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.7676W ([Link]
676W) . doi:10.1073/pnas.0801507105 ([Link] .
PMC 2409139 ([Link] . PMID 18523023 ([Link]
[Link]/18523023) .

23. Brockie, Bob (24 September 2007). "Native plants and animals – overview" ([Link]
e-plants-and-animals-overview) . Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 15 June 2022.

24. Trewick SA. 2011. Vicars and vagrants: Assembly of the New Zealand avifauna. Australasian Science 32:
24-27.

25. Trewick SA, Morgan-Richards M. 2014. New Zealand Wild Life. Penguin, New Zealand.
ISBN 9780143568896
 26. Cuvier Island restoration ([Link]
Archived ([Link]
[Link]?id=39636) 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine (from the Department of
Conservation website)

27. Briefing to the incoming Minister of Conservation ([Link]

12/Dept%20of%[Link]) (Archived ([Link]
[Link]/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dept%20of%[Link]) 26 January 2021 at
the Wayback Machine, October 2020, Department of Conservation, New Zealand Government. ISBN 978-0-
9951392-4-4.)

Further reading

Bishop, N. (1992). Natural History of New Zealand. Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton 199 p. ISBN 0-340-54802-9

The New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy. [Wellington, N.Z.]: Dept. of Conservation; Ministry for the Environment.
February 2000. ISBN 978-0-478-21919-7.

Gordon, Dennis P. (ed.). New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Canterbury University Press.

Volume 1 ISBN 9781877257728, Volume 2 ISBN 9781877257933, Volume 3 ISBN 9781927145050

Parsons, S. et al. (2006). Biology Aotearoa: Unique Flora, Fauna and Fungi. Auckland: Pearson Education New
Zealand 126 p. ISBN 1-877268-00-3

Journal articles

Segedin, Barbara P. (17 March 2010). "A nomenclatural checklist of agarics, boletes, and related secotioid
and gasteromycetous fungi recorded from New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 39 (2): 285–348.
doi:10.1080/0028825X.2001.9512739 ([Link] .

Worthy TH, Tennyson AJ, Archer M, Musser AM, Hand SJ, Jones C, Douglas BJ, McNamara JA, Beck RM
(2006). "Miocene mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific (htt
p://[Link]/cgi/content/full/103/51/19419) ". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103;
19419–23

External links

New Zealand Biodiversity ([Link] Archived ([Link]

618085609/[Link] 18 June 2005 at the Wayback Machine – Government web
site.

National Aquatic Biodiversity Information System ([Link]

[Link]/nabis_prd/[Link])

New Zealand Species ([Link] - Significant collection of high resolution images. Free for
non-profit school use.
Biodiversity and Conservation ([Link]
[Link]/research/research_details.asp?Research_Content_ID=28) at Landcare Research

New Zealand Plant Conservation Network website ([Link] for information about the
indigenous flora and species of introduced weed and animal pests