Once a month, timed to coincide with the darkest nights of the new moon, the small but dedicated group of volunteers catches the first gondola up Ben Lomond Queenstown, ready to discover what's been visiting their moth traps overnight.
Inside a small containment tent, they carefully photograph each moth one by one - sometimes up to 300 in a single trap - before releasing them back into the wild. This might not be the typical image of conservation work, but that's exactly the point. The Te Taumata-o-Hakitekura / Ben Lomond Moths Project is bringing everyday people into the world of one of Aotearoa's most overlooked wildlife groups: our native moths.
Run by Whakatipu Wildlife Trust in collaboration with Southern Lakes Sanctuary conservation scientist Samuel Purdie, the project has ventured up Ben Lomond every month since December, deploying non-lethal light traps to monitor moth communities across the mountain's sub-alpine slopes and introduced conifer forest. Every moth is photographed and released, with records uploaded to a dedicated iNaturalist with research-grade identifications by community experts, including ecologist Carey Knox.
To date, the project has recorded an impressive 1,931 individual observations across 186 different moth species. The stakes are high: About 70% of New Zealand’s moth species are classified as At Risk or Threatened, and Ben Lomond is emerging as a significant habitat, with four threatened species recorded on its slopes - including Pyrausta comastis, a moth unseen in the region since the 1980s until a remarkable 2021 sighting.
Moths are vital indicators of environmental health and important pollinators for our native plants.
Alongside community volunteers, the project has brought school students out into the field, connecting tamariki with the science of conservation in a hands-on, memorable way. It is, at its heart, a collaborative endeavour: community-powered science in service of species that have long gone unnoticed, until now.
"What has fascinated me, as a newbie to moth appreciation, is how beautiful and diverse our moths are when you have the opportunity to pay attention and really look at them. I am also intrigued by how we see different species each month. My absolute favourites so far are the Alpine Treasure Owlet and Greater Alpine Grey." - Anna, Executive Officer, Whakatipu Wildlife Trust.
WWF-New Zealand’s Community Conservation Fund, in partnership with the Tindall Foundation, is proud to support Whakatipu Wildlife Trust and their dedication to invertebrate conservation and community collaboration.