Ruru (morepork) whakapapa to wetlands as well as dense forests. Cheri van Schravendijk-Goodman explains their repo connections.
Questions for discussion:
- How was the connection between the ruru and the repo made?
- What does Cheri mean when she says the ruru don’t know boundaries?
Transcript
Cheri van Schravendijk-Goodman
A really good example of a bird that is not considered to be in wetlands but really is a part of it, as recognised in the mātauranga of people here – at least in Waikato – is the ruru, the morepork. So this is a bird that people associate with land, and yet when you talk to the kaumātua down in the lower river, they always talk about ruru calling alongside the main stem of the river. So if we didn’t embrace that kōrero, we would keep segregating out that bird as not being part of the river when in actual fact it’s an important part of the story.
We’ve also found now a whakapapa that links it right back to whitebait, through a tree and a moth. The ruru, they don’t know boundaries. They just know trees and where their food sources are, and the pūriri moth is one of their key food sources and that moth tends to prefer certain native trees. Often people associate it with the pūriri tree, but we also know that it will drill holes into mānuka, but also this other tree called the putaputawētā, which is named after the wētā, because wētā are lazy, and once the pūriri moth has left, the wētā will move in. So the putaputawētā is recognised as being this space where wētā are found, but it’s actually a really important tree for the pūriri moth.
So by having that understanding, we can now say to people who are doing restoration on the main stem to make sure that they bring that tree into those plantings whereas before it wasn’t considered to be an important tree. And we’re saying, well actually, it really, really is. It brings in our pūriri moths, which then feed our ruru, which are flying around the catchment. So that’s the beauty of making sure that our people can be at the forefront of those discussions to create that synergy and that integration.
Acknowledgements
Close-up footage of curious ruru, Nick Bradsworth
Footage of pīwakawaka and ruru, and close up of ruru, courtesy of Neil, a visiting English bird lover
Illustration, ruru whakapapa, Cheri van Schravendijk-Goodman, sourced from Te Reo o Te Repo – The Voice of the Wetland
Photo, pūriri moth on hand, Stefan Marks, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Photo, mānuka tree, Cheryl Dawson, CC BY-NC 4.0
Photo, putaputawētā tree, Steve Attwood
Tree wētā footage, Jan Henrik, Neat Nature Photography
Photo, holes in pūriri tree, Derek Craig, CC BY-NC 4.0, sourced from iNaturalistnz
Pūriri caterpillar in tree, Ngā Manu Images
Timelapse footage, pūriri moth hatching, Ngā Manu Nature Reserve
Extreme close-up footage, ruru, Denise Batchelor
The Voice of the Wetlands
The handbook Te Reo o Te Repo – The Voice of the Wetland forms the basis of the collection of resources funded by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research and MBIE’s Unlocking Curious Minds initiative.
