-
Source: ONE News -
Watch Video
Roadkill is never a pleasant sight on travels this holiday season, but some ecologists are asking motorists to include the flattened fauna in a game of I Spy with their children.
For seven-years Jon Sullivan has biked 17 kilometres to work, noting the road kill as he goes.
"I started to record things I saw, mainly the birds and the butterflies and pretty soon after that I started doing roadkills."
He says the hobby highlights trends in New Zealand's wildlife.
"When you start to see them over time, and you see lots of observations, you start to see these neat patterns and the pulse of the landscape, really of how things are coming and going."
And with plenty of long road-trips forecast for the summer months, Sullivan and other environmentalists are hoping motorists will follow their lead.
They have proposed a game of I Spy and any wildlife - rare, common, alive or dead - will do.
The game, that is played when the family are driving around in a vehicle, starts with someone saying "I spy with my little eye something starting with the letter..."
Once the family get home, the environmentalists want them to record their finds at nzbrn.com and help map which species live where.
"When I get home, this all gets mapped into the system and so you can see this is where I start and this is all the roadkill birds I've seen over my rides."
All the information gathered adds to a telling picture of New Zealand.
"Native plant species seem to be sort of declining and exotic introduced plant species seem to be increasing through the records that we've got," New Zealand Biodiversity Recording Network spokesman Colin Meurk says.
The game of I Spy may be the perfect tool for teaching kids this summer about New Zealand's wildlife.
Latest NZ News Video
-
ONE News Minute 9am update: May 26 (1:00)
-
Kids cough up $14m for Government (1:50)
-
Education ministry 'barbaric' (1:55)
