The Star: July 18, 2019

OUR PEOPLE 21
spread his wings across the globe
Thursday July 18 2019 The Star
I believe all wildlife should be
looked after. Birds also represent
connection throughout the
country with the migration
networks throughout New
Zealand and overseas. Basically,
we have a responsibility to look
after wildlife here and it makes
complete sense to keep an eye
out for it. There is no greater
attraction of looking at colourful
birds in the tree. We share the
planet with these other life
forms and we need to be not
solely focused on our ‘your born,
consume and die’ cycle.
Has local birdlife deteriorated
or improved since you started in
your role?
I really started getting involved
in the major conservation efforts
in 1993. That’s when the wetlands
began to get built and there was a
period of mass innovation and a
lot of investment in the city from
then into the quakes.
There was an incredible
increase of birdlife and pretty
much every species of bird
was increasing until the
quakes. When the quakes hit,
unfortunately there were some
outbreaks of avian botulism and
thousands of birds died over
several years, but we now have
managed to stop that. We have
been very active in combating
that, and last year for the first
time, we had no avian botulism.
What do you see as the biggest
threat to the city’s birdlife?
I think it is human
disturbance. I think that predator
control is important and the
provision of habitat is also
important. But what we are doing
is we are trying to put people
in every space where wildlife
is. Humans have occupied big
chunks of the world but they left
a bit around the fringes, like the
edges of wetlands. But now we
have got adventure sports and
other stuff and we are occupying
them for wilderness cycleways
and other activities and now
we are occupying places where
wildlife has been consigned to,
and we are displacing wildlife. In
Christchurch, there is this sort of
thing where people need to enjoy
the wildlife and the environment,
and that is true, but we need to be
very clever in the way that we are
planning our reserve networks
to make sure every important
site has a sanctuary corner that
is not disturbed. We aren’t doing
enough and so there are some
significant threats to wildlife,
which are almost all to do with
too many people in the wrong
place.
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW: Andrew
Crossland surveying
birds, including the
asian dowitcher, on the
Indonesian island of
Sumatra.
How long did it take you to
learn how to spot a flock of
hundreds of birds and within
seconds identify their species
and accurately estimate their
numbers?
I guess it took a couple of
years to learn the skills. I’m not
the only person who can do
that obviously. When I began
to get into wildlife as a young
guy, before the Department of
Conversation was formed, there
was an organisation called the
New Zealand Wildlife Service
and also the Ornithological
Society, which is now called
Birds New Zealand. There were
a couple of people there that
acted as mentors and gave me the
opportunity to learn the skills
from them and then you quickly
learn stuff yourself, so I’m sort of
self-trained, but certainly rubbed
shoulders with some highlyskilled
people and a lot of that
knowledge has rubbed off on me.
How did you train yourself?
People say to me ‘you know
the name of a whole load of
bird and animal species’, so I
say to them name 50 types of
cars or dogs and they can do it.
Anyone who is interested in a
certain field and wants to gain
skills in that field quickly learns
through motivation and by using
resources. In the wildlife field, we
have field guides and books with
all the species on them and you
learn the field characteristics of
these species and you learn the
calls by simply being out in the
environment. It’s no different to
a car dealer who can name lots of
different types of car.
What was your reaction
to winning the Robert Falla
memorial award?
It is quite a prestigious award,
and normally you get it for a
lifetime achievement. It came out
of the blue and I wouldn’t have
given it to myself until 30 years
time if I even deserved it. It is a
great privilege to get it, it is kind of
just a bit early. Totally unexpected
and kind of overwhelmed by it. I
am sure there are a lot of people
out there who have done more
than me who should have got it
before I got it.
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