ADVANCE PARTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26963, 24 December 1948, Page 6

ADVANCE PARTY

AMERICAN SCIENTISTS EXPEDITION TO FIORDLAND PA AUCKLAND, Dec. 23. Two - American scientists have arrived by Pan-American Airways Clipper«to prepare the expedition to the South Island Fiordland to carry out research work among wild life there. They are Dr O. J. Murie, director of the United States. Wilderness Society, which is interested in conserving wild life, and Colonel John Howard, the American who visited New Zealand last year in search of wapiti specimens. The expedition, which has been arranged by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, will leave for Fiordland in February. Several scientists, including representatives of American scientific institutions, will take part in the venture. Colonel Howard, who is representing the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, said he and Dr Murie were particularly interested in obtaining biological information on the wild life in Fiordland. He intended taking photographs which would help the research and also to assist in collecting specimens. The members of the party will conduct their investigations in the heart of the mountainous and partly-ex-plored forest country. Small working camps will be established in each area of investigation and will be linked with a large base camp in the Te Anau district. This camp will be fully equipped for research work. One of the wild life problems with which Dr Murie will be largely interested concerns wapiti and red deer. He hopes to be able to develop the life history of the New Zealand species. Dr Murie has just written a book, which has not yet been published, on the American wapiti, from which the New Zealand breed originated. The expedition is expected to provide useful information on the control of red deer. This matter will probably be discussed by the Government with the American scientists, who will be able to draw on their experiences with the problem in the United States.