Look at nature through new eyes. Take time to explore your relationship with nature and enjoy its benefits – connecting with nature is good for us. Papatūānuku’s wellbeing is our wellbeing.
Did you know that Pateke live here? Keep your eyes peeled in the mangroves and the pohutakawa next to the road on the way to this geocache and you might spot a brown duck with a white ring around its eye.
Pateke (Brown Teal) are ducks endemic to New Zealand. During the day, they spend most of their time hiding in grass and overhanging vegetation but come night-time they are incredibly active - spending hours searching for worms and insects in paddocks, or for small shellfish in estuaries. Pateke are also exceptional parents and fathers will actively ‘educate’ and nurture their chicks right through to the flying stage – and beyond.
Before humans arrived in New Zealand, Pateke may have been the most widespread and numerous of New Zealand’s waterfowl. Due to habitat loss through wetland drainage and estuary reclamation and predation from introduced mammals (stoats, feral cats, ferrets etc), they are now the rarest waterfowl species on the New Zealand mainland.
However, it’s not all bad news! Thanks to lots of hard work in Northland by many groups, wild-born Pateke are starting to return to the eastern Coast of Northland area after being locally extinct for many years, and the Northland population is considered stable.
Some ways you can help with their recovery include only taking dogs to areas that allow them, volunteering to control predators and restore bird habitats, and putting a bell on your cat's collar and feeding it well.
Find out more about Pateke here: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/brown-teal-Pateke/