Mount Hikurangi (Gisborne) - Flora and Fauna

Flora and Fauna

The summit of Mount Hikurangi is the northernmost place where New Zealand's alpine vegetation can be seen. Among the alpine shrubs and delicate herbs found there are large buttercups (Ranunculus spp.), and prickly wild spaniards (Aciphylla spp.).

The mountain contains the only known habitat of a small sub-alpine shrub, the Hikurangi tutu (Coriaria pottsiana), found on the grassy scree slope behind the Mount Hikurangi Tramping Hut at 37°54′22″S 178°3′31″E / 37.90611°S 178.05861°E / -37.90611; 178.05861.

Mount Hikurangi was the location of the last known mainland sighting of the North Island Saddleback in 1910, before its reintroduction to the North Island on the 16th of June 2002 at Zealandia in Wellington. In Māori times, kākā would fatten themselves on the berries of the tāwari trees growing on the mountain. In the 1960s, members of the Gisborne Tramping Club heard what they thought may have been the call of a kākāpō on the mountain, a parrot whose last documented existence in the North Island was in 1895.

The nearby Raukūmara Forest Park's forests include a wide range of podocarp-broadleaved species such as rimu, rātā, tawa, hīnau, rewarewa, kāmahi, kahikatea, miro, beech and tōtara. Native birds and animals found in the area include fantails, tūī, whio, kākā, falcons, kererū, brown kiwi, Hochstetter's frogs, snails, lizards, skinks, Motuweta riparia (Raukūmara tusked wētā), and short- and long-tailed bats. Introduced animals include deer, goats, possums, pigs, cattle and mustelidae, all of which pose a threat to the native wildlife.