Flora and Fauna
You will find a large range of native New Zealand birds, lizards, insects and more as well as vegetation that has to cope with the wide spectrum of climatic conditions and temperatures in the region.
Wildlife
New Zealand’s plants and animals have developed during 80 million years of isolation from the ancient super-continent of Gondwana, as a result many of them are unique and found only in this country. Birds found in Tongariro National Park include blue duck, North Island brown kiwi, the North Island robin, whitehead, kereru, fantail, silvereye, chaffinch, tui, tomtit, blackbird, yellow-crowned parakeet, morepork and kaka. While the birds are mostly active during the day, many of the park’s other unique creatures, such as bats and kiwi, only come out at night. Tongariro is home to New Zealand’s only native land mammals, the short and long tailed bats. Skinks and geckos are also found in the park, but are more likely to be visible during the warmer summer months. Insects found in the park include many varieties of cicada, New Zealand’s largest beetle (the huhu), the rare forest ringlet butterfly, weta and several species of moth. Most notable amongst introduced animals are deer, goats, possum and hare, all of which cause severe damage to alpine and forest vegetation. Wasps also pose a threat to native bird species with whom they compete for nectar and other food. Red deer provide sport for hunters, but unfortunately also severely affect the health of our native forests.
Vegetation
The park’s plant life has to cope with a wide spectrum of climatic conditions and temperatures that range from warm to freezing cold. In barren, dry, and cold environments like the Rangipo Desert or high slopes on the mountains, many plants like the vegetable sheep adopt a low creeping form, or shelter in cracks and crevices. In moist alpine environments, mountain shrubs survive, many of them herbaceous. Common plants in this category include mountain inaka and white daisy. Sedges, rushes and flax are common in the park’s wetlands, such as those on the southern slopes of Ruapehu, and around Hauhangatahi. The greatest variety of plants probably exists in the tussock grasslands so characteristic of the park’s mid-mountain slopes. While red tussock may seem to dominate these landscapes, these native grasses shelter a large number of other plants including mosses, daisies, hebes and mountain toatoa. Mountain beech forest is the most widespread forest type in the park, occurring as an almost continuous belt around the western and southern slopes of Ruapehu. Distinctive in these mountain beech forests is kaikawaka, or mountain cedar, which is recognised by its dark green, conical appearance. Silver and red beech occur in isolated patches on the eastern slopes of Tongariro and extensively on the south slopes of Ruapehu, in a zone below the mountain beech. In other scattered areas of the park, usually between 600 and 900 m, various hardwood species and podocarps such as rimu, kamahi, kahikatea, and rata can be found. Native plants in the park have been displaced by introduced plants (referred to as weeds) including heather and broom. Although these weeds have attractive flowers they are aggressively invading many tussock grasslands in the park.
