Getting along swimmingly

The presenters of Endangered Species Aotearoa spend a fair bit of time on and in the water in the second season.

- RUSSELL BROWN

The first season of Endangered Species Aotearoa made a virtue of going small, focusing on the intriguing attributes of some of our tiniest native creatures, rather than presenting the “charismatic megafauna” that are the mainstay of wildlife TV. Season two goes full mega in its first episode.

Presenter Nicola Toki and her co-presenter Pax Assadi get in the water with te whai rahi, the oceanic manta ray. It’s a fish that can weigh in at two tonnes, with a wingtip-to-wingtip span of up to seven metres, and it glides around and under them like a gentle giant.

“That was probably one of the coolest and most bizarre experiences of my life,” says Toki. “And the same for Pax. His mind is blown.”

Remarkably, this encounter doesn't take place at some distant locale, but in the waters of the Hauraki Gulf, on Auckland's doorstep.

"The fact that that’s right there, right adjacent to New Zealand's biggest city, the biggest manta ray in the world, is something that we should all hang on to and shout about," says Toki. "Instead of arguing with the Australians about who's responsible for pavlova, we should be talking about manta rays and the fact we've got them here."

The same goes, if less spectacularly, for the other creatures in the episode, including the tiny tītitipounamu, or rifleman, New Zealand's smallest bird. It is thriving in the bird sanctuary of Tiritiri Matangi, an island within the boundaries of the Hibiscus and Bays local board area. Toki says it was a conscious decision to begin the season close to home.