The Last 10,000 Years : Tales from South Canterbury’s lost world

An event to mark International Biodiversity Day, Thursday 22 April at 7pm

Museum Director Philip Howe presents an illustrated talk and tour of Museum exhibits focussed on how our region’s ecosystems have changed over the last 10,000 years.

This will also feature specimens and hands-on replicas of items such as a giant moa egg and extinct New Zealand eagle foot.

10,000 years ago New Zealand was coming out of the last ice age. Locally the coastline was further out than today, but slowly crept back in, drowning the lower coastal plains forest and shrubland. Evidence such as the moa footprints found at Pareora beach in 2022 by Chris Sargent, or exposed forest tree stumps on local beaches indicate the climatic changes that occurred.

Our region had one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in New Zealand. It was home to a wide range of creatures that have either become extinct or disappeared from this part of the country.

These included six of the nine species of moa known form New Zealand, the extinct pouakai/NZ eagle, which was the world’s largest, and a range of flightless birds ranging in size from the large adzebill to tiny wrens that scuttled around on the forest floor like mice.

Tuatara lived in our forests, probably sharing burrows with marine birds such as petrels that nested in coastal forest areas. There were two kiwi species present, kākāpō, kōkako, tīeke, kākāriki, tākahe and many other birds now only found in sanctuaries and remote parts of the country.

Over the last 1,000 years, two very different waves of human settlement have changed our ecosystem completely. Yet small pockets of forest and subfossil remains remind us of what was here.

The talk is being given as a fundraiser for the South Canterbury Museum Development Trust who are raising funds for developing exhibitions in the planned new museum. Spaces are limited and booking is required.

Contact us: Phone 687 7212, or email museum@timdc.govt.nz

Admission: $10 adult, $5 Student

When: Thursday 22 April at 7pm

Where: South Canterbury Museum

Proceeds to the Museum Development Trust. Bookings Essential