Bay Harbour: October 27, 2021

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Bay Harbour News Wednesday October 27 2021 18 NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Danger in looking after menagerie at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve’s founder Michael Willis has survived many an encounter with the feathered and furry creatures in his care, including having half his thumb bitten off. He talks to Susan Sandys What motivated you to establish Willowbank? Willowbank was an establishment of a dream I had since I was a wee boy. I come from a large family of six children, and we are all back country orientated in a big way. My father established a bach up in the Craigieburn Valley. I kept a whole lot of pets. I had hares, keas, possums and hawks. I always wanted to have a zoo, ever since I was big enough to read Gerald Durrell and Richard Attenborough. When I came back to New Zealand in my 20s, I looked for a block of land to establish a zoo on. I had worked in the United Kingdom with animals, in a wildlife refuge. In Africa I was offered a job in Kruger National Park but came home instead. CARING: Michael Willis at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve with a capybara, a South American rodent. PHOTO: RNZ And you found that block of land, where Willowbank is today, at Northwood, in your home city of Christchurch? I was buying some eggs and asked the farmer if he knew of any land for sale. He pointed me in that direction. It was 11 acres, covered in gorse and broom and rubbish and so on. It’s an old riverbed that the Waimak used to come through. So I bought it. It was 1968. It was ideal for what I wanted, near the airport, near the main road. When did you open it? It was 1974 before I could open it as a wildlife park. I had no money, so it was a very poor excuse for a wildlife park. I built a house on the property, we (myself and former wife Kathy and then two children) lived there. I couldn’t even afford to have an entrance box. I had an old Land-Rover and sat in the front seat with a shoe box, and put the money in that. It opened Labour Weekend in 1974 and the rest is history I suppose. All the money we got, we just kept putting back into it. Did you envisage it would become the facility it is today? No, at that stage I wanted a zoo. So I kept on getting animals. I kept on getting monkeys, mountain lions, we had camels, we had agoutis, we had otters, we had chimpanzees. The chimpanzees were the tipping point, when I realised there was really no future in keeping exotic animals in New Zealand. We’ve got so much exciting and valuable wildlife that needs preservation, I decided there was no future in being a zoo. So my childhood dream didn’t shatter, but it changed completely. I changed the direction of the park totally to become New Zealand focussed. Are there any exotic animals at Willowbank today? We still have otters, there’s talk that New Zealand had an otter. We have capybara, gibbons, capuchin monkeys, lemurs and we have exotic birds like macaws. We try and have a story of New Zealand when people visit here. It starts with introduced animals, then it goes into the exotic sections. They fit into the story of zoos in New Zealand. Up to 50 % Off *Call for Terms & Conditions Off *
Wednesday October 27 2021 Bay Harbour News Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz NEWS 19 Willowbank for reserve’s founder There is a big focus on New Zealand species? The story finishes with the New Zealand section. This is where we breed all our kiwi, and we have takahe and tuatara and a wide range of native species. When I changed the direction of the park, by that stage I had been to Arapawa Island mustering goats, and saw the wild sheep up there. That led to a whole field of conservation which I hadn’t thought about, which was conserving rare breeds in New Zealand. Did otters live in New Zealand? The Southland Maori had an animal called waitoreke. They described this four-legged animal that lived there. When Cook was here, his men saw an otterlike animal in Fiordland. Early explorers and others reported seeing otters. There has really been no sightings since about 1954. One theory is (they came from a ship after) Tamil Indians wrecked in the area. Otters are very cute creatures. They are dynamite to handle. I have had them in the house, we have bred them and reared babies. We bred some and the mother couldn’t feed them and we had a cavalier king charles spaniel belonging to my son. She just had some pups, so I put the two otter cubs on with her, she looked after them with her pups. So they bounced round with the pups. They are dynamite, they smell very fishy. They would get in the pot cupboard, fly around the pot cupboard, they like poking into everything. When you look back on the years that you kept exotic animals, do you have any regrets at all? The chimpanzees were an interesting one. It’s not like keeping an animal, it’s like keeping your grandmother in a cage. They are hugely intelligent, hugely emotional. The public used to jump up and down outside their cage, hooting and scratching themselves and so on. The chimps would sit there watching them, wondering what the hell they were doing. It used to upset the chimps actually, they would be quiet after a busy weekend. It makes you realise you shouldn’t have them. We only got them because they were in a zoo in Dunedin that closed down, and there was no place for them to go. I took them on, but it took me about 12 years to find a home for them. They went to Mogo Zoo in Australia. Was that a happy ending for their story? Charlie the male, who was a BEST FRIEND: Charlie the chimp was among many exotic creatures at Willowbank. Above – Michael Willis’ daughter Kirsty, with one of Willowbank’s former mountain lions. Kirsty and brother Mark are now adults and help their father run the park. real favourite friend of mine, he was killed by another chimpanzee. It wasn’t entirely their (the zoo’s) fault, they were trying to integrate him. It was good for the female, she later went to Rockhampton Zoo. She is with a crew there, and she has had babies and she is in a good breeding programme. They were probably as happy as they had ever been with us, we spent a lot of time with them. I had a wonderful relationship with them, even if Charlie took half my thumb off, he bit it off. He wouldn’t have done that on purpose? It was deliberate. I had some sunflower seed and I had my hand like that (cupped) against the wire, and he was picking the seed out of my hand. Somebody called to me and I turned my head away to answer them, and his finger shot out and grabbed my hand and pulled it against the netting so my thumb went through and he went “bang”, got it. Were you still friends with him after that? He was strutting around the place weeks after that, full of himself, top dog. So after a while, when I got myself back together again, I went down there and had a plasterer’s trowel in my hand. I put some sunflower seed just outside the cage. He put his fingers through to get the sunflower seed. I went “whack” (smacking his fingers with the trowel). Then we were the best of friends. He was lovely, you would go down there, I would be able to hold his hand. We would kiss each other through the netting and he would hoot away, we had a wonderful relationship. He knew all the hierarchy of the staff, who had just started, who was the boss and who wasn’t. He knew who to have on. Really incredibly clever, really special. • Turn to page 20
Page 1 and 2: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2021 Connect
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Page 5 and 6: Latest Canterbury news at starnews.
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Bay Harbour: October 27, 2021

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