topic Thinking Small with a Big Lens: in Share Your Photos

Thinking Small with a Big Lens:

Tronhard — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 01:49:31 GMT

Historically, I have preferred to photograph large mammals - like bears, moose, deer, antelope, wolves and big cats, but in NZ we have only one endemic mammal and that's a tiny bat! So, I have had to adapt and gone in the other direction!

The Elegant Green Gecko, or Auckland Green Gecko is endemic to the upper part of New Zealand's North Island, and is an extremely small little reptile - usually measuring no more than 125mm (5") from nose to tip of tail. They tend to live in fairly dim bush, but (being cold blooded) they come up to energize in the heat of the sun.

To me, they are the most beautiful of the tiny reptiles found in NZ and I love seeking them out. Geckos differ from lizards in that Geckos cannot blink, and have to lick their eyes to clean and lubricate them.

They present challenges in even finding them - they are so well camouflaged, and they tend to be shy of major movements nearby, so one has to be careful. Furthermore, with long focal lengths and close subjects, the DoF is razor thin, but this is where the brilliant eye tracking of these cameras comes to the rescue. Once it can find the subject, it locks right on.

The following shots were taken in available light, hand-held, using the Canon R5, R6 MkI and II, with the RF 100-500L.

R5, RF 100-500@188mm, f5, 1/250sec, ISO-320R6, 428mm, f/6.3, 1/500sec, ISO-3200R6MkII, EF 100-400@ 400mm, f/8, 1/400sec, ISO-6400R6MkII, 500mm, f/8, 1/640sec, ISO-3200

Re: Thinking Small with a Big Lens:

normadel — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 22:53:48 GMT

No NATIVE land mammals, you mean, right? A quick Wikipedia search shows a long list of mammals INTRODUCED to NZ since the 1600s.

Re: Thinking Small with a Big Lens:

Tronhard — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:43:26 GMT

Yes, if it helps absolutely use the word native if that clarifies it for you. 🙂

There may well be a colloquial or cultural issue here. NZ'ers are rather protective of their (native) wildlife and about 33% of our total land mass is protected. I would say you would find it hard to get many Kiwis to regard any organism brought in by humans as belonging or being of NZ - especially considering the absolute havoc they have created with the resident (i.e. native) species.

One of the major cultural elements within the relationships between Europeans and the indigenous Maori is the concept of whenua - of the land. Like many aboriginal societies, Maori see themselves as tangata whenua: belonging to the land, rather the European-centric view of the reverse. Similarly, or as an extension of this, is a sense of custodianship of the beings that came before nga tangata whenua.

So, from a scientific or outside point of view, it might be necessary and desirable to clarify if something is native, indigenous, or endemic, by and large New Zealanders limit their association with of New Zealand, especially in terms of wildlife to the Maori nga tangata whenua. The concept of the latter is now really absorbed into the shorter tangata whenua where Maori see themselves as protectors of what came before - even if they eradicated several significant species themselves. For me, it's one of the things that makes NZ special.