EXPEDITION’S FIELD WORK IN FIORDLAND TO FINISH ABOUT MIDDLE OF MAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27059, 19 April 1949, Page 4

EXPEDITION’S FIELD WORK IN FIORDLAND TO FINISH ABOUT MIDDLE OF MAY

Staff Reporter GEORGE SOUND, Apl. 18. A wealth of information had been obtained, butt considerable time would be required to correlate and bring it to the point where conclusions could be drawn, Dr Olaus J. Murie, leader of the New ZealandAmerican Scientific Expedition in Fiordland, said in an interview. The actual field work of the expedition will end during the early half of May when operational headquarters will be transferred to the Dominion Museum in Wellington. The study of wapiti is being carried out by expedition members, led by Dr Murie, working in the interior behind George Sound. Dr Murie left on Sunday with his son, Donald, and Miss R. Mason for the Henry Saddle.

The idea of the expedition, which lay in the study of wapiti and red deer, had been elaborated by the New Zealand Government. Dr Murie said, and the field work of many scientists pursuing different lines of inquiry would contribute to the knowledge of wapiti in its New Zealand environment. ,

“ Everything is going very well and I am much pleased with the results,” he said. “These, however, are complex. We have covered a wide territory and will be covering much more before the expedition leaves Fiordland. We have made satisfactory progress in obtaining specimens and have a mass of field notes on vegetation and on the general activities of animals which I feel sure will eventually put us in a position to offer something interesting and worth while on life in Fiordland. I am hopeful that the knowledge derived from this study will be particularly helpful in the formation of policies and management practice for wild life in the region.” Continuing his explanation of the expedition’s work, Dr Murie said that in addition to field observations, members were collecting animal specimens.’ These included a limited and selected number of wapiti, and of red deer for comparison, and of whatever suspected cross animals could be found. One of the special problems was to determine the extent to which red deer and wapiti were crossing. “We are finding this a rather difficult problem to solve,” he said. “ However, when we get the material assembled at Wellington we will begin the work of comparing and studying the specimens. In the collection of these specimens I am taking advantage of any material available in the mountains. For example, we recovered a number of excellent wapiti heads from animals that must have died a natural death or that must have been left by stalkers in previous years. We also found one sick wapiti that eventually died. This animal was given particular attention and its bones and stomach contents were saved for further study.”

In the specimen collection an entire animal was weighed and measured, Dr Murie explained. It was examined for internal and external parasites and samples of the stomach contents wbre saved for later analysis by the botany division of the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research. Two aspects of the wapiti study were designed to determine the suitability of the Fiordland environment for wapiti and compare it with the original environment from which the animal came, the Rocky mountains of the United States. The wapiti in the sounds area had grown from a nucleus of about 18 animals liberated in George Sound in 1905.

Dr Murie said that the almost constant rain had been an obstacle and was a factor which he had not encountered in field work elsewhere. They had, however,, experienced enough dry days to accomplish what they wanted. Dr Murie was full of praise for his colleagues. “They have shown amazing determination in furthering the objects of the expedition. The camp personnel had also given wonderful co-operation.