Flora and Fauna
The scientific categorisation of the flora and fauna of the island began in 1854 when HMS Herald, captained by Henry Mangles Denham, arrived to complete the charting of the island. He arrived on the 2nd and was occupied till 24 July, during which time he frequently had to move the ship on account of the rough weather experienced. William Grant Milne and John MacGillivray, naturalists on board the Herald, made a small collection of plants on Raoul. This was forwarded by Captain Denham to Sir W. Hooker, and was described by Sir Joseph Hooker in the Journal of the Linnean Society for 1857.
Raoul is part of the Kermadec Islands subtropical moist forests ecoregion and is largely covered with closed-canopy forest, predominantly of the evergreen Kermadec pōhutukawa (Metrosideros kermadecensis) and the Kermadec nikau palm (Rhopalostylis baueri, formerly described as Rhopalostylis cheesemanii). It is just far enough south that the occasional fertile coconut from Polynesia that washes up on shore and takes root will not survive in the longterm due to a lack of warmth. The island has no native land mammals and was formerly home to vast colonies of seabirds who nested in the forests. The islands may once have had a species of megapode (based on early settler records) and a subspecies of Kereru. Currently native landbirds on the island include the Kermadec Red-crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae cyanurus), the Australasian Harrier, Pukeko, Tui and several introduced species. The island forms part of the Kermadec Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it is an important site for nesting seabirds.
Polynesian visitors introduced the Polynesian rat in the 14th century and Norway rats, cats and goats were introduced by European and American visitors in the 19th and 20th centuries. The rats and cats greatly reduced the seabird colonies, which mostly withdrew to offshore islets, and exterminated the Red-crowned Parakeet, the last confirmed record of resident parakeets for over a century being made in 1836. Although the goats did not eliminate the tree canopy as they did on other islands, they greatly reduced the understory vegetation and were removed in 1986. The Department of Conservation eradicated rats and cats between 2002 and 2006, following which Red-crowned Parakeets soon returned naturally, presumably from the Herald Islets, 2–4 km (1.2–2.5 mi) away. The parakeets had been absent from the island for 150 years and their natural return was a notable event in parrot conservation.
There are numerous invasive plant species on the island and a large scale weeding programme involving teams of DOC workers and volunteers has been under way for a number of years in an attempt to eradicate them.
The island is part of the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve, New Zealand's largest marine reserve, which was created in 1990.
Read more about this topic: Raoul Island
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