Bay Harbour: October 27, 2021
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Wednesday <strong>October</strong> <strong>27</strong> <strong>2021</strong> <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
NEWS 19<br />
Willowbank for reserve’s founder<br />
There is a big focus on New<br />
Zealand species?<br />
The story finishes with the New<br />
Zealand section. This is where we<br />
breed all our kiwi, and we have<br />
takahe and tuatara and a wide<br />
range of native species. When<br />
I changed the direction of the<br />
park, by that stage I had been<br />
to Arapawa Island mustering<br />
goats, and saw the wild sheep<br />
up there. That led to a whole<br />
field of conservation which I<br />
hadn’t thought about, which was<br />
conserving rare breeds in New<br />
Zealand.<br />
Did otters live in New<br />
Zealand?<br />
The Southland Maori had an<br />
animal called waitoreke. They<br />
described this four-legged animal<br />
that lived there. When Cook<br />
was here, his men saw an otterlike<br />
animal in Fiordland. Early<br />
explorers and others reported<br />
seeing otters. There has really<br />
been no sightings since about<br />
1954. One theory is (they came<br />
from a ship after) Tamil Indians<br />
wrecked in the area.<br />
Otters are very cute creatures.<br />
They are dynamite to handle.<br />
I have had them in the house,<br />
we have bred them and reared<br />
babies. We bred some and the<br />
mother couldn’t feed them and<br />
we had a cavalier king charles<br />
spaniel belonging to my son. She<br />
just had some pups, so I put the<br />
two otter cubs on with her, she<br />
looked after them with her pups.<br />
So they bounced round with the<br />
pups. They are dynamite, they<br />
smell very fishy. They would get<br />
in the pot cupboard, fly around<br />
the pot cupboard, they like<br />
poking into everything.<br />
When you look back on<br />
the years that you kept exotic<br />
animals, do you have any<br />
regrets at all?<br />
The chimpanzees were an<br />
interesting one. It’s not like<br />
keeping an animal, it’s like<br />
keeping your grandmother in a<br />
cage. They are hugely intelligent,<br />
hugely emotional. The public<br />
used to jump up and down<br />
outside their cage, hooting and<br />
scratching themselves and so<br />
on. The chimps would sit there<br />
watching them, wondering what<br />
the hell they were doing. It used<br />
to upset the chimps actually,<br />
they would be quiet after a busy<br />
weekend. It makes you realise<br />
you shouldn’t have them. We<br />
only got them because they were<br />
in a zoo in Dunedin that closed<br />
down, and there was no place for<br />
them to go. I took them on, but<br />
it took me about 12 years to find<br />
a home for them. They went to<br />
Mogo Zoo in Australia.<br />
Was that a happy ending for<br />
their story?<br />
Charlie the male, who was a<br />
BEST FRIEND: Charlie the chimp<br />
was among many exotic creatures<br />
at Willowbank. Above – Michael<br />
Willis’ daughter Kirsty, with one of<br />
Willowbank’s former mountain lions.<br />
Kirsty and brother Mark are now adults<br />
and help their father run the park.<br />
real favourite friend of mine,<br />
he was killed by another<br />
chimpanzee. It wasn’t entirely<br />
their (the zoo’s) fault, they were<br />
trying to integrate him. It was<br />
good for the female, she later<br />
went to Rockhampton Zoo. She<br />
is with a crew there, and she has<br />
had babies and she is in a good<br />
breeding programme. They<br />
were probably as happy as they<br />
had ever been with us, we spent<br />
a lot of time with them. I had<br />
a wonderful relationship with<br />
them, even if Charlie took half<br />
my thumb off, he bit it off.<br />
He wouldn’t have done that on<br />
purpose?<br />
It was deliberate. I had some<br />
sunflower seed and I had my<br />
hand like that (cupped) against<br />
the wire, and he was picking the<br />
seed out of my hand. Somebody<br />
called to me and I turned my<br />
head away to answer them, and<br />
his finger shot out and grabbed<br />
my hand and pulled it against<br />
the netting so my thumb went<br />
through and he went “bang”, got<br />
it.<br />
Were you still friends with<br />
him after that?<br />
He was strutting around<br />
the place weeks after that, full<br />
of himself, top dog. So after a<br />
while, when I got myself back<br />
together again, I went down<br />
there and had a plasterer’s<br />
trowel in my hand. I put some<br />
sunflower seed just outside the<br />
cage. He put his fingers through<br />
to get the sunflower seed. I<br />
went “whack” (smacking his<br />
fingers with the trowel). Then<br />
we were the best of friends. He<br />
was lovely, you would go down<br />
there, I would be able to hold<br />
his hand. We would kiss each<br />
other through the netting and<br />
he would hoot away, we had a<br />
wonderful relationship. He<br />
knew all the hierarchy of the<br />
staff, who had just started,<br />
who was the boss and who<br />
wasn’t. He knew who to have on.<br />
Really incredibly clever, really<br />
special.<br />
• Turn to page 20