New Zealand Predators, the animal type

 Hi there

Predators in the New Zealand animal world?  Predators against humans....?  Nope, nada, none, nil!

We have no mountain lions, foxes, hyenas, wolves, kangaroos, bear, alligators, crocodiles, snakes, vultures, dingoes.  Also, no racoons, moles, otters, yeti, saquatch, Nessie...

There are sharks of course, but they're native to the sea.  Oh, but I mustn't forget our one poisonous creature:  the Katipo spider.  They're actually on the close-to-extinction list so you'll not come across many of them.  If you get bitten, there is an antidote.

above:  Katipo Spider.  Found in beachy areas.

When I was overseas I so desperately wanted to see squirrels as we don't have them here.  I came across some guy feeding them in a park in York, England.  Passersby were treating the scene like we do in NZ when we see people feeding seagulls or sparrows.  We just walk on by.

But to me, those squirrels were the most wonderful creatures.  Thank goodness, they're not predators and I mean not the sort of predator that impinges on Beatrix Potter's garden but the kind that could attack me.  Oh wait, not knowing all that much about squirrels maybe they do attack?  Naw, I refuse to believe that.  I want to kiss and cuddle them (oh goodness, don't tell me there's a movie "When Squirrels Run Rampant", I just wouldnt believe you.  I'm forcing my ears closed, la-lal-la-LAH....)

Foxes, too, are obviously adorable.  I won't pay attention to my friend in England when she tells me that they raid her rubbish bin and she runs after them, angrily waving a broom.

I read a lot of autobiographies by hikers who've trekked the Appalachian Trail in the United States.  Wouldn't that be great?  Up to 6 months of hiking, living rough, ooh-ing and aahhing over a mother bear and her frolicking cubs?  Getting real close to the cubs to take a photo....?

I dont think we kiwis really understand all that much about animal predators (we understand fully about two-legged human ones).   When I was on a hike just out of Sydney a few years ago, I sat on the grass beside a stream to eat my tomato sandwiches.  Sydney-siders looked on me in horror when I happily recounted my day out.  They screamed at me about snakes and red-backed spiders (slightly akin to the Katipo) and, really, did I figure I had a charmed life?

Well, yes, I did actually.  Dumb kiwi, eh?