Finance Ground

Archive for the ‘Conservation Facts’ Category

At June of year 2002, there were 4,500,500 beef cattle and 39,500,000 sheep in New Zealand, which means 1.1 cattle and ten sheep for every New Zealand citizen. The wool, meat, and other products that come from this cattle farming division are worth approximately $6,300,000,000 every year, and are responsible for about 22% of exported goods of New Zealand.

There are more than 13,000 commercial beef and sheep cattle farms located in New Zealand, majority of which are possessed and run by cattle farming families. Beef and sheep farms are mainly on New Zealand’s hill country. There is a broad assortment of farm systems and types that differ according to farmer preference, scale, climate, topography and land type. Most of the farms both have beef and sheep cattle, which balance each other in grazing systems based on pasture. A number of farms include arable crops or run deer, as well. This diversification lessens the risk of the cattle farming business.

All beef and sheep cattle farms are operated on low key pasture grazing methods, sometimes incremented with fodder cropping, silage and hay. This low priced method allows New Zealand farmers to provide high-quality wool and pasture-fed meat to markets all over the world at cutthroat costs.

Beef exported goods are still lead by frozen product beef exports into North America. However, other industries are also progressing in significance. Asian industries, particularly, are seeking for young, grass-fed, tender beef. In September of year 2002, the country of New Zealand made 565,000 tons, or 1% of the world manufacture of beef. Approximately 85% of this manufacture was exported, corresponding to 7% of the world business in beef cattle farming.

Regardless of the New Zealander’s taking in of approximately 12 kilograms of lamb (with 12 kilograms of mutton) for each individual every year, 87% of their lamb manufacture is exported. Yearly manufacture is approximately 402,000 tons of lamb and 104,000 tons of mutton. This sum stands for just about 4% of world manufacture, but exports are responsible for 47% of the world exports. The sheep meat industry of New Zealand is very reliant on worldwide market access and meat costs.

Camp sites of varying standards, generally in conjunction with other forms of accommodation, are offered by holiday park operators throughout New Zealand. The Department of Conservation, which administers one third of the land area of New Zealand, operate 250 vehicle accessible campsites on public land. The facilities at these campsites varies from those with only a basic toilet to those that have the full range of camp ground amenities.

The largest organisation representing motorised campers is the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association. It was founded in 1956 and currently represents 33,000 owners of a fleet of 18,000 camper vans.

The thermette, a type of storm kettle, was a popular camping accessory before the advent of gas fired camping stoves.

Popular campsites during the summer holidays include the Mavora Lakes, Kaiteriteri Beach, Marahau and the Coromandel Peninsula. The summer holiday period, which is over Christmas and New Year, coincides with the peak of inbound tourists leading to high levels of crowding at popular locations.

Camping grounds are governed by the Camping-Grounds Regulations 1985.

Freedom camping

Freedom camping, where camping is done in a location without facilities and is not a designated campground, is allowed in certain areas of New Zealand under certain conditions. Limitations have been put in place in recent decades because of litter and human waste problems, and attempts to encourage payment for camping by directing tourists to commercial facilities.

The thermette was a popular item of camping equipment in New Zealand prior to the advent of gas camping stoves.

There has been a realisation that freedom camping, where campers a choose to camp in areas without facilities, is creating problems through the incorrect disposal of human waste. There are also reports of the discharge of greywater from campervans while parked on suburban streets. Campers using self contained camper vans are also disposing of human waste incorrectly by not using the dump stations supplied for this purpose.

The causes of the problem relating to freedom camping have been stated as:

lack of toilets

disposal from campervan toilets

increased number of freedom campers

Poor level of knowledge by the campers about the issue

inconsistent application and enforcement of the laws and regulations by government agencies

remoteness of the area

See also

Tramping in New Zealand

Tourism in New Zealand

References

^ “Conservation campsites by region”. Department of Conservation. http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/ByRegionLanding.aspx?id=37039. Retrieved 2008-08-29. 

^ “History”. New Zealand Motor Caravan Association. http://www.nzmca.org.nz/index.php?id=20. Retrieved 2008-08-29. 

^ “Camping-Grounds Regulations 1985″. New Zealand Government. http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1985/0261/latest/DLM103332.html. Retrieved 2008-08-29. 

^ a b Anon (January 1988). Freedom camping: the problem of human waste disposal. Ministry for the Environment (New Zealand). ISBN 0-477-05834-5. 

Further reading

Ross, Kirstie (2008). Going Bush. Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-424-6. 

External links

Department of Conservation – Conservation campsites by region

New Zealand Motor Caravan Association

New Zealand camping guide

Bushcraft New Zealand – Information about roughing it in the New Zealand bush

Freedom camping

Gisborne District Council – Freedom Camping

Westland District Council – Freedom camping policy

Clutha District Council – Policy on Freedom Camping

Southland District Council – Freedom Camping

Categories: Camping in New Zealand | New Zealand society | Tourism in New Zealand

Largest amongst all existing cats, tiger compares in size to the biggest feline fossils ever found. Named ‘Panthera Tigris’, tigers are characterized by their orange coat and black stripes, the pattern of which uniquely identifies each individual tiger. With a whitish belly, tiger’s coat is designed to disperse their outline, aiding them in camouflage as they stalk their prey. Tigers generally weigh in a wide range – from two hundred and fifty to eight hundred pounds – depending on the individual subspecies and gender of the animal. Female Sumatran Tigers may weigh around two hundred seventy pounds, whereas adult male Siberian Tigers can be as heavy as eight hundred pounds. In fact the largest ever recorded Siberian Tiger in captivity weighed over one thousand pounds! The average length is between 2.5 to 3.5 meters, again subject to variation amongst sub-species.

The reason behind these size variations is evolutionary adaptation of the tiger to varying environments in different regions of the world. The large Amur tiger prowls over huge territories in Siberia, tackling massive prey animals and having to cope with bitter cold – thus evolving into the biggest tiger species with a thick fur. The Bengal Tiger comes next with its notoriety for great ferocity and occasional man-eating in the mangroves of Sundarban (more on that later!). In fact big male bengal tigers, particularly those in northern India and Nepal, weigh close to the Siberian Tiger. Following are the Indochinese Tiger, Malayan Tiger, South China Tiger and Sumatran Tiger. The other three sub-species – the Caspian Tiger, Balinese Tiger and Javan Tiger have all gone extinct in the past century.

Apex predators, tigers are solitary hunters designed to take down huge prey animals. They are excellent stalkers and display great cunning in patiently pursuing and ambushing their prey. Despite their great size, they can reach speeds up to 60km/hr and leap up to 10 metres. The primary mode of attack is a sudden charge and leap to unbalance the animal. Next they use their muscular forearms to hold down the hunted whilst they severe their spine (or suffocate by crushing the windpipe in case of big animals like gaur and water buffalo) using their long canines and strong jaws. Even still only a fraction of the hunts are a success for the tiger. Therefore it eats a lot during one sitting once it makes a kill (usually every four or five days). Next it hides the carcass and usually returns to it over the next couple of days to devour the scraps. Usual prey is deer, buffalo, gaur. However a hungry tiger will go for anything from young elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, leopards, bears and even humans. Whereas conflicts between tigers and elephants are rare, tigers have been known to charge and maul Indian bull elephants. A tiger can climb to the back of the elephant in a single leap and viciously attack the tourists atop – as is often chronicled by historians of the British India.

Tigers are territorial animals and mark their domain in the forest by leaving scat and urine trails. Males are very defensive of their region and this frequently leads to conflict between individual tigers, leading to severe injury and even death. A male’s territory frequently overlaps those of several females, to which he mates as they come in estrus. Pregnancy lasts for around three and a half months and usually four or five cubs are born. In the wild not all of these survive since the female is often not able to hunt enough to feed all of them as they depend on her for their food until one and a half years of age. Also randomly, other male tigers may kill the cubs to bring the female into heat.

Despite all its magnificence the tale of the tiger has been a sorry one over the past century. Their number in the wild has dwindled from over one hundred thousand to nearly seven thousand today, with the Bengal Tiger having the healthiest population among existing tiger species (thanks largely to an initiative by the Indian Government in the 1970′s that led to ‘Project Tiger’, one of the more successful conservation programs worldwide). Still many are killed annually by poachers for use in Chinese traditional medicines that make ridiculous claim about the aphrodisiac and strengthening abilities of tiger parts – with no scientific evidence to back them. Others are threatened by habitat destruction and ever increasing human populations. Of the others, the South China tiger is in immediate threat of extinction owing to ruthless hunting in the 1960′s when it was declared as a ‘pest’ by the then communist government. Despite the passage of a law protecting them in 1977, the few remaining tigers in China lack genetic biodiversity to sustain them as a specie.