Page 18 - Sentinel May 2018

BEARS Continued from page 16 weather with their calves, sipping exotic drinks, but from the
boat we could only see a sliver of their backs and heads while
Total damage here! Moral to this story: LOCK YOUR CAR AT spouting until they dove. In each case, after 20 minutes we
NIGHT! DO NOT LEAVE FOOD OR EVEN EMPTY FOOD were given a magnificent fluke display.
CONTAINERS IN THE CAR OVERNIGHT! In fact, even
if you only ate in the car earlier in the day, consider spraying The sperm whales’ fa-
to dissipate the odor. Bears have an incredible sense of smell! vorite food is the giant
They will trot over from several miles away to get to that food squid, which lives in
you left in your car!
the deep depths. We
were shown a very
scary documentary
clip of a squid feed-
ing. It looked like
a creature from the
Black Lagoon when
grabbing their prey with their long tentacles. These are not
your calamari squid. They range from 33 feet (male) to 43 feet
(females.) They have eyeballs the size of a basketball – the
largest in the world. We saw a film of the careful dissection of
one before its carcass was preserved for display in a glass case
filed with formaldehyde. Impressive.

A treat was to see about 200 dolphins, doing back flips and ma-
jor acrobatics. It is believed they do this to stir up the fish, and
then it is suppertime! The only major change to the rhythms
of nature in Kaikoura is when the Orcas or Killer Whales come
through. Everything hides from these aggressive predators.
In driving to Kaikoura, we had an up-close look at the mas-
sive damage done by a major earthquake a few years ago. It
uplifted the ground 24 feet along some of the shoreline north
of the town. In the town, it was ONLY 12 feet. People were
isolated by the quake and had to be airlifted out by helicopter.
Some of the crumbling houses remain. After much work, the
road was re-opened but re-construction continues, particularly
after a recent typhoon temporarily closed it. There were FOUR
typhoons in the area right before our trip with another town be-
A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE ing hit very hard.
Susan Peters... Birds abound. The Tui is a common honeyeater bird with tufts
of white feather balls hang-
Lands Down Under...Short Takes ing from its chin. The melo-
Wildlife Abounds, but not like that dious song is unmistakable
of Larkspur! and we were delighted to
encounter it in various ven-
We took a month’s return sojourn to ues like olive groves, but the
the southern hemisphere and want you to join us on the recol- large Kea, a species of par-
lections about wildlife in the southern hemisphere, encompass- rot, was rarely seen. While
ing the Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Oceans, this time for the visiting vineyards, frequent
most part, visiting places we had missed on previous visits. sounds of gas guns firing made us feel like we were in a scene
of the Hunger Games. The guns were used to frighten away
New Zealand birds, namely the ubiquitous starlings, from eating the ripened
On this trip to Kiwiland, we focused mainly on the wine routes. grapes.
But a first priority was a visit to Kaikoura to see the giant, 40-
foot long, carnivorous sperm whales of Moby Dick legend. Awhile back I told you about Kiwi efforts to rid the islands of
Between a plane flight and a whale cruise, we were anything all non-native animals that have destroyed the native popula-
but disappointed – experiencing six of what used to be called tions, namely birds. The Kiwis proudly boast of their progress
“leviathans.” The best view was from the air. The cruise was
incredibly up close to these guys – the gals are in warmer Continued on page 20
Page 18 - May 2018 Perry Park Sentinel