In the summer thoughts turn in some touristic coloring. What places are we dreaming to visit? Touristic meccas or those countries, travelling to which we can plan somehow? Some places we cannot reach both in dreams and reality. And what about traveling to New Zealand by «Coffeebus»? It appears that is real. About her journey to New Zealand, her life, her birds, recently in the «Coffeebus» at the Victory Square in Zhytomyr has told us Hanna Kyzio, a biologist, an ecologist, an ornithologist, a coordinator of an unusual project BirdID Ukraine. Zhytomyr.Travel had tried its best to select, though it wasnt an easy task, the most interesting stories about birds and people from her traveling and scientific-popular lection
«Have you ever heard about birdwatching? It is a very popular hobby abroad. We also talk very often about birdwatching. People walk in the nature and distinguish birds by their singing. Birdwatching is about wild birds. BirdID Ukraine is a course, during which scientists teach amateurs to distinguish birds,in order to embody different projects later on. The listeners are selected in winter,and in spring and summer they learn. The teaching groups in BirdID Ukraine are in Lviv, Kamianets-Podilskiy and in Kyiv. There are no in Zhytomyr»
«I am from Lviv, work in Zhytomyr, hang out in this town it the weekdays»
«I want to say: don’t be afraid to dream. New Zealand was such a dream…that I couldn’t even dream about. From my childhood I wanted to visit Australia. In many years I accidentally got acquainted with a man from England. He traveled a lot. I told him about my dream to see Australia. And he advised me: «Better dream of New Zealand»
«To New Zealand I went firstly as a tourist, not as a scientist. Only a flight took me about 24 hours…Very interesting country. It is worth going there…We came there in November- that is the end of spring and the beginning of summer in the Southern hemisphere. Here the peaks are all in snow during the whole year, as the Arctic is near: it is so much South, that it is really cold»
«The island ecosystems are very impressonable, as they are torn apart from the whole world. New Zealand was a heaven on Earth, as there were no poisoning insects, snakes, mammals- no dangerous animals. Till the Europeans came there. They took with themselves an entire zoo- cockroaches, mice, cats ,dogs and rabbits. The imported animals «bursted» the local ecosystems»
«Everyone ask me, whether I had seen kiwi. It is a night wingless bird. Simultaneously kiwi doesn’t look like a bird. Kiwi is one of the birds from New Zealand who doesn’t fly. When a female bears an egg,it takes the majority of her body. And this is the only egg in a year. Some time kiwis could live even in such conditions. Till the humans appeared. Their activity is the main reason, why are these birds became so impressionable in their living. Their feathers by touch and structure mainly resemble fur. People used to make wraps from it. And so were demolished lots of these birds. Also cats and dogs killed lots of them. There were lots of resources needed to save and rescue kiwi, one of the main symbols of New Zealand, from the total demolition. It is much easier to lose…Now every bird is counted, the majority of them also have sensors. There are five different kinds of them…»
«Moa are such gigantic ostrich like birds, even bigger than ostriches. When the Europeans came to New Zealand there were no for a very long time. And in a maoristic language there is such a saying: disappeared like moa. The scientists say that there were at least 20 kinds of these moas. The maorists had demolished them: simply ate. The Eagle Haast was also investigated by the vestiges, like moa. The maorists itself had suffered too, from the colonial population-the British…»
«The Europeans also had un their history an opposition with the maorists. Now the maorists are protected, their reservations are supported, so to say, they work to save the traditional. But very often the traditional lifestyle of the maorists contradicts the nature conservation values. And so till now they are arguing»
«All the names of plants and animals, besides English, are written in the Maoristic language. In Maoristic language syllables are often repeated»
«There grow different kinds of fern. And the silver fern us everywhere- at the passports, emblems, planes…From the far sight it looks like a tree, but it’s not a tree, it is a fern too, a tree-like fern. For you just to imagine, it is such a plant, which grew even when the dinosaurs existed»
«In New Zealand there is a very vigilance contol at the Customs. It is prohibited to import fruit and seeds. You have to declare everything. For instance, they observed my boots, if they aren’t dirty and there is no seed on them. The citizens of New Zealand understood: because their ecosystem is closed, that is why it is so fragile»
«A bird which we call «chaika» in Russian, in Ukrainian must be «martyn». And gull it is a different bird. They are very clever and good-looking birds. Gulls in New Zealand behave like pigeons in Ukraine. Once we stayed at the terrace to eat sandwiches. Near was a notice: « Don’t feed the birds». I looked back: not a single bird. I thought: strange, maybe it’s not a season. Less than five minutes passed, we just took our sandwiches, when a gull flew and showed its pretentious to our food»
«There is a big bird-ogar. In Ukraine, in the South East, also live ogars, but they are entirely orange. It is a rare bird in our country. In New Zealand ogar- one of the minority of the endemics (such kind of a plant or animal, that live in a certain area-editor), who gained its usefulness from the humans agriculture. They eat in the fields, pastures, it is often seen among sheep and cows. Even the football field is suitable for them. Nowadays in New Zealand there is such a caring attitude to nature, they have learned to live with it. The birds aren’t scared. A wild bird can come up to a human. We were so excited! Once we stopped at a gas station and saw a New Zealand sandpiper-magpie! Long-legged and long-beaked. Their main feature is that they eat at the shallow water, for example, at the flow-ebb zone, in some instant rush. They are searching there for some invertebrates- worms, insects, shellfish… A very similar kind lives in the Southern Polissia and is also called a sandpiper-magpie. Entered in the Red Book of Ukraine…»
«Beach, a touristic path, black and white sandpipers and a notice «Do not disturb the wild birds» – and noone disturb them, and they live peacefully. Of course different notices about plants and animals are constructed in the national parks. But in that place the sandpipers are nesting, the endemics too. And people respect that. Instead they have a possibility to observe the wild birds close. I was shocked, but that was happily. If only we had such a level of awareness»
«One of the smallest birds in New Zealand are the whites. There are lots of its kinds all around the world. They are very cute and moving. It is very hard to take a photo of an adult bird of this kind. The smaller bird, the faster its metabolism so it has to eat all the time»
«In New Zealand there are only two predatory birds- one kind of falcon and eagle. In Ukraine there are more than 37»
«Here is their endemical kind of the gannets. Stands and dries its wings in the botanical garden. So why is it drying its wings? In all the waterbirds a caudal gland provides a repellent of water, but in gannets it is badly developed. That’s why it dries its wings after swimming. Our gannets dry their wings too»
«You are surely had seen a gray heron in Ukraine. In New Zealand lives an endemic kind of heron. It flies like an ornithosaurian. Herons don’t straighten its wings, and put its head on shoulders»
«A sulfur purpur is really big. It eats in a very interesting way: it puts its head into a mud and can search for something in it for several minutes. By the way, I have remembered about an ostrich. Ostriches do not hide its head into a sand. Its all rumors, but the sulfur purpur-hides»
«And here is an Australian black swan. In Ukraine black swans are held in the modern restaurants. It is very expensive to breed them. Really this bird lives in nature in Australia. To New Zealand a black swan is imported»
«In the whole world there are only 16 kinds of penguins, and 9 of them live in New Zealand. Here are several endemical kinds of them, so it means that they live only on these islands»
«There is a very cool and interesting kind- an endemic parrot kea. It was saved just in time from its demolition. It mostly walks, than flies. Kea is the only parrot in the world which lives in an Alpine zone. Just a moment, an Alpine zone… What is there to eat? Why does it live in such severe conditions? Because kea is an omnivorous parrot. And it is the kind of parrots that can eat a dead flesh. Kea is very clever, its IQ is equal to the IQ of the four years old child»
«Hobbiton»- is a very popular place. Here was filmed the cyntology «Hobbits». When the «Master of the rings» was filmed, there were lots of the buoyant locations created and then destroyed. Later on, though, agreed with an owner to build an artificial town. This is the most visited place in New Zealand: more than 3000 of visitors each day. It is very beautiful there»
«By now it is the only time when I managed to go so far. I would like to see Peru too. There is a very rich biodiversity. So all in all it is worth dreaming, and the possibilities will come. If I didn’t think this way, so I wouldn’t have noticed my friend’s announcement, who organised this trip to New Zealand»
Reference With all the manager things of the meeting with Hanna Kyzio in Zhytomyr has worked PO «Lifestyle-health».
