Ahi Pepe | MothNet heads north
Students and teachers from at least nine kura kaupapa schools across New Zealand gathered at Pūtiki Marae in Whānganui last week for Ahi Pepe | MothNet’s first North Island camp.
The students, from schools in Invercargill to Hamilton, spent 5 days with project leader Dr Barbara Anderson and the wider team, learning about the importance of moths in New Zealand, and how to run their own Ahi Pepe experiment back at their school.
Over the course of the week, students set out and collected moth traps in Whānganui’s Bushy Park Sanctuary. These were brought back to the marae to be identified and released.
The group also looked at the effects of predator-proof fences on moth populations by placing their moth traps and tracking tunnels both inside and outside the sanctuary.
Setting up a moth trap
Students carry moth traps into Bushy Park Sanctuary
Robert Hoare talks about a moth seen in the field at Bushy Park with teacher Tiahuia Kawe-Small.
A student on the Ahi Pepe camp looks at the results of the nights collection of moths
The moths have been collected from Bushy Park Sanctuary and brought back to Pūtiki Marae in Whānganui
Robert Hoare examines a specimen
One of the moths collected during the camp in a specimen jar.
Robert Hoare, lepidopterist with Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research identifies moths collected during the Ahi Pepe camp.
