Wild Animals in New Zealand

This field guide lists 64 wild animals whose research-grade iNaturalist sightings are concentrated in New Zealand: 34 birds, 15 ray-finned fish, 7 mammals, 3 reptiles and 3 other groups. The most frequently recorded are New Zealand Pigeon, Tūī and New Zealand Fantail. Every species below has its own page with a photo, its scientific name, its conservation status and where it is most observed.

64 — the species in the Tracks field guide for which New Zealand holds the most verified sightings. This is not a complete national checklist: a species recorded even more often in a neighbouring country appears on that country's page instead, and the Tracks app itself catalogues 40,286 species worldwide. Between them these 64 species account for 178,261 research-grade observations.

New Zealand Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), with 17,626 research-grade observations on iNaturalist — more than any other species on this page. Next most recorded are Tūī and New Zealand Fantail. "Most recorded" means most often photographed and verified by people, which is a good proxy for what a visitor is likely to actually see.

On the Tracks rarity scale the rarest species on this page is Long-tailed Wattled Bat (Epic tier), with 116 recorded sightings. Tracks rarity is based on how often a species is actually encountered rather than on its conservation status, so a rare card is a hard animal to find, not necessarily a threatened one.

This guide lists 7 mammals for New Zealand, most-recorded first: Southern Fur Seal, New Zealand Sea Lion, Dusky Dolphin, Hector's Dolphin, Subantarctic Fur Seal and Domestic Ferret, plus 1 more on this page.

34 bird species are listed for New Zealand. The most frequently recorded are New Zealand Pigeon, Tūī, New Zealand Fantail, Paradise Shelduck, VOC and New Zealand Bellbird, plus 28 more on this page.

Yes — 3 reptiles and 1 amphibian are listed for New Zealand. They include Common New Zealand Skink, Tuatara, Common gecko and Green and Golden Bell Frog. Reptiles and amphibians are under-recorded almost everywhere relative to birds and mammals, so treat these counts as a floor.

2 of the species on this page belong to the groups behind most wildlife injuries — large carnivores, crocodilians, sharks, venomous snakes and big herbivores. They are Elephant Shark and School Shark. Nearly all of them avoid people given the chance. The practical rules are the same everywhere: never approach, corner or feed a wild animal, keep dogs leashed, store food securely, and give any animal with young a wide berth.

No snakes are listed for New Zealand. This page is the slice of the guide where New Zealand holds the most records, so it under-counts anything recorded more often elsewhere.

9 marine or coastal species are listed for New Zealand, including Southern Fur Seal, New Zealand Sea Lion, Ram's Horn Squid, Dusky Dolphin, Elephant Shark and Hector's Dolphin, plus 3 more on this page.

8 of the species on this page are IUCN-listed as Vulnerable or worse: School Shark (Critically Endangered), Long-tailed Wattled Bat (Critically Endangered), Kea (Endangered), New Zealand Sea Lion (Endangered), New Zealand Longfin Eel (Endangered) and Hector's Dolphin (Endangered), plus 2 more. Conservation status is shown on every species page.

No insects or arachnids appear on this page — the guide's New Zealand list is mostly birds and ray-finned fish. A species is shown on the page of whichever country records it most, so any insects or arachnids recorded in New Zealand either sit on another country's page or fall outside the guide's 64-species slice.

Dawn and the hour before dusk, almost everywhere and for almost every species: most mammals are crepuscular, and birds are loudest and most active in the first hours of daylight. Weather matters as much as season — overcast, still mornings after rain are productive, and hot midday hours are the worst time to be out looking. Each species page links to its iNaturalist record, where the observation dates show when people in New Zealand actually recorded it.

National parks, nature reserves and protected wetlands concentrate both animals and the people recording them, but the edges are often better than the core: hedgerows, riverbanks, coastal paths, and the scrubby margins between habitats. Cities count too — a large share of the sightings behind this page were logged in parks, gardens and suburbs. Because every species here is backed by iNaturalist records, its species page links straight to the map of where it has actually been observed.

Photograph it if you safely can, and note the size, habitat and behaviour. The Tracks app scans the area you're standing in and shows the animals people have actually recorded there, which narrows an identification far faster than searching a national list. If the animal you saw isn't in Tracks yet, add it on iNaturalist: its community will help you put a name to it, and because Tracks is built from iNaturalist's research-grade observations, a sighting verified there feeds back into the data behind pages like this one.

No — and in many places it is also illegal. Feeding is the fastest way to ruin a wild animal. It teaches them to associate people with food, so they lose their wariness and start working car parks, campsites and picnic tables; a habituated animal that begins grabbing food gets labelled a nuisance and is usually destroyed or hit by a road vehicle. Human food is the wrong food too: bread and processed snacks cause malnutrition and wing deformities in birds and gut damage in mammals. And artificial feeding concentrates animals at densities they would never reach naturally, which is how disease spreads through a local population. If you want wildlife closer to you in New Zealand, do it by habitat — native planting, a clean water dish, leaving dead wood and leaf litter alone — which supports animals without teaching them to approach people.

No. Keep your distance from every wild animal, however calm it looks — a good rule of thumb is that if the animal changes its behaviour because of you, you are already too close. Don't handle snakes or reptiles, keep dogs leashed near wildlife, and if you find an animal that is injured or appears orphaned, contact a local wildlife rescue or the relevant authority rather than picking it up.