This much-anticipated revised and expanded edition describes the Chatham Islands with emphasis on their geology, flora, fauna, habitats, and extinct and endangered species - on land, in freshwater and in the sea. It also provides an introduction to the human history of the islands, and is a guide to the many reserves and covenants that have been established to protect and conserve the islands’ heritage.
Contributors:
Te Miria Kate Wills-Johnson (heritage)
Michael King (history)
Hamish Campbell (geology)
David Schiel (marine life, seaweeds)
Wendy Nelson (seaweeds)
Rhys Richards (marine mammals)
Ian Atkinson (land habitats)
Peter Johnson (freshwater wetlands, lichens)
Nadine Bott (freshwater fish)
Peter de Lange (botany, mosses, liverworts)
Peter Heenan and John Sawyer (botany)
Allan Fife (mosses)
David Glenny (liverworts)
Peter Johnston and Ross Beever (fungi)
John Dugdale and Rowan Emberson (insects)
Phil Sirvid (spiders)
Karin Mahlfeld (land snails)
Allan Munn and Ken Hunt (managing the resource)
Colin Miskelly (birds, lizard, managing the
resource, people who made a difference)
COLIN MISKELLY works for the Department of Conservation in Wellington. He first visited the Chatham Islands as a volunteer with Taiko Expeditions in 1978, then undertook thesis research on snipe on Rangatira between 1983 and 1986. He has been involved with conservation work on the Chatham Islands since 1998, visiting several times a year. He was co-author of Endemic plants of the Chatham Islands and Birds of the Chatham Islands, and has published many technical articles on the ecology and conservation of Chatham Island birds.
ISBN 978-1-877257- 78-0 $39.95, Paperback, 248 x 185 mm, 224 pp. Available from early Dec 2008 from bookstores, Hotel Chathams, Department of Conservation Chatham Islands or by mail order from Canterbury University Press. Download order form here.
Written by David Butler & Don Merton with foreword by His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
I am often asked whether there have been any significant success stories in the conservation of nature. The case of the Chatham Island black robin must be one of the most dramatic stories of the rescue of a wild animal species from almost certain extinction. The black robin may not be one of the big or cuddly creatures that make the news, but the field teams involved in this project deserve great credit for completing this difficult and challenging task with such success.
I have not doubt that the description of the details of the techniques employed in this project will help those who are attempting to save other species, but probably more interesting for the general reader will be information about the reasons which very nearly brought about the extinction of this species. Change of habitat as a result of human activities is one, but the introduction of various animals from other countries into New Zealand has had even more devastating consequences. There are many lessons to be learnt from this book, but the most important is that introducing wild or domestic species into different eco-systems invariably spells disaster for many of the native species.
Available at Hotel Chatham, P. O. Box 3, Chatham Islands 8942 - $45.00 includes postage
Winner of the 1994 Non-Fiction childrens book awards & dedicated to the Chatham Islands Black Robin
A special book with one of the most amazing true stories about a bird called Blue. A story we have read to our adult children and grandchildren at the same time. Highly recommended for both children and adults.
Available at Hotel Chatham, P.O. Box 3, Chatham Island 8942 - $30.00 includes postage.
For almost as long as I can remember, I have felt that there was a story to be told about the Chathams. When I was at primary school, we were shown coloured slides of the islands and their inhabitants and wildlife by Keith Maynard, who worked at the radio station at Waitangi. This led me to Frank Simpson's and E.C. Richards' books, published only a short time before.
The combined impression I gained was of a mysterious place where volcanic cones rose out of sea mist; where ancient people of unknown origin had left imprints on trees and rocks: where seals and seabirds inhabited a harsh coast; where sparse trees were bent by relentless winds against bleak landscapes; where abandoned whalers trypots, stone fireplaces and whale bones preservered cameos that might have come straight from a Herman Melville novel; and where people----descendants of Moriori, Maori, sealers, whalers and missionaries---seemed a weather-beaten and as durable as the rocks and the trees.
Michael King
In photographing the people, and the landscapes in which they live, I have tried to give some sense of how the Chathams feel to an outsider. I was struck by how the landscape differs in many ways from any I've seen in New Zealand. There are differences in the people too, shaped as they are by their geographical isolation and their short but eventful history. It is a land I enjoyed travelling and photographing in and I intend to return some day and explore further.
Robin Morrison
Available from Hotel Chatham, P.O. Box 3, Chatham Islands 8942 - $45.00 includes postage.
If you haven't been there, you can only imagine the significance of this extraordinary place: the way the people live and relate to the importance of common things, the raw unspoiled natural backdrops and the observable effects of history. No Ordinary Place is inspired by the emotional and physical uniqueness of the Chatham Islands.
Sharon Pirika is a 4th generation Chatham Islander on her fathers side. She was raised on the Chathams with her older sister, 19 cats, 2 dogs and a goat.
Available from Sharon Pirika, P.O. Box 175, Chatham Islands 8942 - $45.00 includes postage
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