|
|
|||
|
New Zealand Fact Sheet
The indigenous people of New Zealand, Maori, make up about 15% of the population.2 The total land area of New Zealand is around 270,197 square kilometres between two islands, with approximately 10 000 kilometres of coastline.3 New Zealand is home to a variety of endemic species, with over a third of its 3,400 species of vascular plants entirely indigenous.4 New Zealand also has the most diverse seabird community in the world, with around 80 species known to breed here. At least three-quarters of the world's penguin species breed in the New Zealand region, including the threatened endemic yellow-eyed penguin.5 When Europeans arrived on the islands in the early nineteenth century, they brought with them 34 exotic mammal species (including brush-tailed possums, rabbits, cats, goats, stoats and ferrets) and hundreds of invasive weedy plant species.6 It is estimated that the New Zealand possum population now tops 70 million and chomps its way through seven million tonnes of vegetation per year.7 Numbers of New Zealand’s national icon, the Kiwi bird, have been steadily declining with now only around 75,000 left.8 Introduced predators are the biggest threat. Stoats and cats kill 95 per cent of kiwi bird chicks before they are six months old. Adult kiwi birds are often killed by ferrets and dogs.9 Over the past one thousand years the kiwi bird population has declined by 99.5% and it is estimated that at their current rate of decline, the kiwi bird could be extinct on the mainland within 12 years.10 |
||
Vietnam
Volunteers have the chance to teach English, care for and play with children in placements around central Vietnam. > Read More
|
|
© 2000-2009 Global Volunteer Network
Tracked by: Opentracker