Auckland Museum blog

About a year ago sea slugs like the specimen shown in these videos hit the headlines after they were shown to be responsible for several dog poisonings on Auckland and Coromandel beaches.

Historical specimens from our collections established that the toxicity of Pleurobranchaea maculata is not a new event and in fact, that in Auckland, it has been toxic for at least 16 years.

Discovering toxic sea slugs

In July, August 2009 there was an unexplained spate of dog deaths on Auckland beaches, particularly Narrow Neck and Cheltenham, along with wash-ups of dead marine organisms, such as pilchards, porcupine fish and blue penguins in a wider area.

The deaths co-incided with a drop of brodifacoum poison on Rangitoto Island by the Department of Conservation – part of their pest control programme.

Very quickly a large number of agencies became involved and equally quickly a number of potential causes, including brodifacoum poisoning, were eliminated.

The Cawthron Institute became involved because of their skills in toxicology, particularly of algal bloom events, and there was a slight possibility we were dealing with toxic algae. However, extensive testing failed to pin-point any of the 26 common marine toxins.

Instead Cawthron were able to establish from the testing of a beach-cast grey side-gilled sea slug (Pleurobranchaea maculata) and the stomach contents of two of the dead dogs that a toxin new to New Zealand, tetrodotoxin (TTX), was responsible. The slugs were the carrier.

Tetrodotoxin (TTX)

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is the same toxin as that found in some tropical pufferfish and the Australian blue-ringed octopus, as well as a wide variety of other animal species. It is a neurotoxin, and causes paralysis of the muscles, while leaving the heart and brain relatively unaffected.

One of the muscles TTX affects is the diaphragm and victims usually die of asphyxiation. TTX is deadly even in small doses, and 1-2mg of TTX is enough to kill a 75kg human.

Our little sea slugs contain between 1-8mg of TTX – enough to kill up to 8 adults. They are therefore even more dangerous for children or dogs. For a child it could be fatal just to put their fingers in their mouth after touching a sea slug.

Why are the slugs toxic?

We don’t know why the slugs contain TTX, but it occurs in a wide variety of organisms, for example blue-ringed octopus, the Japanese Fugu pufferfish, toads, some sea stars, and a number of bacteria. In some species, such as the pufferfish there is some evidence the TTX is produced in association with symbiotic bacteria.

Further research by Cawthron Institute, Massey University and Waikato University will look at whether the sea slug is able to manufacture the TTX itself, whether it gets the TTX from its diet, or whether it is produced in association with symbiotic bacteria.

This research will use freshly collected specimens from around New Zealand, historical specimens from Auckland Museum and Museum of Victoria (Australia). It will also try to breed the slugs in captivity.

Have the slugs always been toxic?

Although we don’t yet know if all individuals of the grey side-gilled sea slug are poisonous, in the past year Cawthron Institute has tested freshly collected specimens from Auckland Harbour, Manukau Harbour, the Coromandel west coast and Nelson and all were toxic.

Grey side-gilled sea slug specimens in Auckland Museum’s collections from 1994, 2000 and 2007 tested positive for TTX and show that slugs collected from Auckland Harbour have been toxic since at least 1994. It is therefore highly likely they have always been toxic.

One of our specimens from 1989 (from Stewart Island) tested negative. However, this may have been a false negative – we don’t know yet how stable TTX is in preserved specimens and TTX may be discarded when we replace the alcohol in our specimen jars.

Why didn’t we know it was toxic before?

We weren’t aware about TTX in sea slugs until last year, when MAF Biosecurity reported the unusual cluster of dog deaths for Auckland beaches. This suggests that if there have been any previous dog deaths due to TTX poisoning they have gone under the radar because they were isolated cases. There was simply no reason to test our samples for the toxin before this.

Why are the slugs a problem around this time of year?

Grey side-gilled slugs lay long coils of eggs at the end of winter/start of spring, after which they usually die. The dead slugs often wash up on beaches, particularly with on-shore winds.

At the end of winter, you should keep children and dogs away from the high-tide line, because this is where slugs and slug eggs on seaweeds are washed up. Don’t let them touch or pick up seaweeds or slugs – there is no antidote to the fast-acting toxin these sea slugs innocently carry.

If you would like to know more about the sea slugs, feel free to ask me a question in the comments below or read more on our website.

While there is honey in Every Flower, no doubt
It takes a Bee to get the Honey out
A poet’s proverbs by Arthur Guiterman (1924)

Bees symbolise industry and persistence. In that way they can be compared with what we observe of Library users. Usually we see them as industrious pursuers of knowledge. What we do not observe until much later is the rich sweet product – the thesis, the book, the article, the television series, the exhibition.

Our Museum Library is one such beehive. And the honey produced by our researchers comes in flavours of local and natural history, genealogy, anthropology, art, medicine and more.

We are mostly familiar with the honey and bumble bees (the social bees), but did you realise there are at least 28 native bee species?

We have been farming bees in New Zealand from at least the early 1840s. Missionary William Charles Cotton wrote A manual for New Zealand bee keepers in 1848 and in the following year it was published in Maori as Ko nga pi.

Another missionary, Richard Taylor, noted 60 hives at the Paihia mission station in 1848. These had been created by Mrs Williams and she gave Taylor one to take one back to Wanganui. He describes the reaction of a local Maori mission teacher in his journal held in the Museum Library’s manuscript collection.

Here is a small selection of honey oriented recipes from New Zealand cookbooks, which I found when preparing for a recent Library tour for Kai to Pie. You will be brave to attempt the first 120 year old recipe for Honey Wine, but the Honey-Ginger cookies sound very pleasant.

Honey Wine [1891]

To 10 gallons of water put 10lb of honey and 1/4 lb of good hops, boil for 1 hour, and when cooled to the warmth of new milk, ferment with yeast spread on toast. Let it stand in a tub for 2 days, then put it into a cask. It will be fit to bottle in 9 months. Honey a year old is better for the purpose than new.

from: The New Zealand cookery book and colonial household guide, compiled to suit New Zealand by a Colonial (1891)

Pear and Honey Compote [1952]

Serves 3-4

Ingredients: Pears; lemon; honey; golden syrup; arrowroot; raisins; nuts

Step (1) Halve and core 1 lb pears – they need not be peeled. Cook in ¾ cup water until soft. Add the juice and grated rind of 1 small lemon. If the stems of the pears are added while cooking, the flavour is improved – but remove them before serving.

(2) Lift pears out with a slotted spoon and place in a dish. To the syrup in the saucepan add 1½ tablesp. Honey and 1 tablesp. Golden syrup. Mix 1 ½ level teasp. Arrowroot with about 2 teasp. Water and stir in. Cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thick. Taste and add more honey if not sweet enough.

(3) Pour over the pears in the dish. Fill the hollows with raisins and chopped nuts.

from: The hostess cook book by Helen M Cox (1952). Helen Cox was a popular New Zealand broadcaster and who worked during the war as a cookery demonstrator for Auckland Electric Power Board.

Honey Fruit Salad [1964]

Quantities for 4.
4oz honey (4 Tbs)
½ Tbs lemon juice
¼ pint water (½ cup)

Dissolve the honey in the water and add the lemon juice.

8oz dessert apples (2 medium)
2oz chopped walnuts (¼ cup)
4oz chopped dates (½ cup)

Peel and core the apples and cut into small dice. Add to the syrup at once. Add the dates and nuts and mix well. Chill before serving.

from: Pears family cookbook by Bee Nilson (1964). Mrs A R (Bee) Nilson was born and trained in New Zealand. She moved to England in 1936 and in 1964 was Senior Lecturer in nutrition at the Northern Polytechnic, London.

Honey-Ginger Cookies [1968]

4oz butter
½ cup honey
½ sugar
1 egg
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup chopped walnuts

Melt the butter and allow it to cool. Stir into the butter the honey, sugar and lightly beaten egg.

Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger into the honey mixture.

Stir in the nuts and mix thoroughly.

Drop in spoonfuls onto a greased oven tray, allowing space for spreading.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen.

from: Tui Flower’s cookbook by Tui Flower (1968)

Honey Buttered Beets [1974]

M McLew, Kennington

Serves: 4

2 cups cooked diced beetroot
1 cup beetroot juice
2-3 tablespoons honey
1½ teaspoons cornflour
2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar
1½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter

Heat beetroot and juice thoroughly.

Add honey. Blend cornflour and lemon juice to a smooth paste.

Add to the beetroot with salt and butter. Simmer for five minutes.

Serve as accompaniment to cold roast lamb, silverside, pickled pork or ham salads.

from: The N Z radio and television cookbook by Alison Holst (1974)

Enjoy!

“He Whare tu ki te pae he kai na te ahi. He whare tu ki te tuwatawata koira kee te tohu o te rangatira!”

Ko Syd Kirby taku ingoa, no Te Whakatohea ahau, he kaimahi ahau ki Tamaki paenga Hira. Ko tenei pou whakarae tetahi o nga tino taonga e rata ana ahau ki tenei whare taonga. I nga raa o mua he poupou tenei no tetahi paa tuwatawata I tu ki Opotiki mai tawhiti. Koinei tetahi taonga nui ki ahau ta te mea I ahu mai tenei poupou mai I toku rohe I te tairawhiti.

“The unpallisaded fort is food for the fire, the pallisaded fort is truly the sign of chieftainship!”

My name is Syd Kirby, I hail from Te Whakatohea an east Coast tribe. I work here at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. This carved pillar is a carving that is important to me here at the museum. In former times this post was part of the fortified paa at Opitiki. This taonga is a treasure because it comes from my hometown on the East Coast.

Kia ora. Ko Jacqueline Snee taku ingoa. Ko Ngati Porou me Ngati Kahungunu oku iwi. Ko ahau te kaitiaki o nga pukapuka raupapa kei Tamaki Paenga Hira.

Ko te Moa Tipua, kei te papa tuatahi taku taonga e noho ana.

Aue e hika maa tona taroaroa hoki! Ko te Moa Tipua te manu tiketike rawa atu i te ao katoa! Ka hoki mahara ki nga tipuna me ta ratou kitenga i tenei manu hautipua ara te Moa. Rokohanga ka kitea ai nga wheua kaitaa o tenei tu momo manu! Ko aua wheua i hahu ake patata ki toku ake wa kainga ki Takapau.

Kare e kore i tupono oku tipuna ki tenei momo manu!

“Hold fast to your language and culture, least they become extinct like the Giant Moa!”

The giant Moa is the tallest bird in the world. When I look at this replica I think of my ancestors and the first time they saw it. According to the korero we ate the Moa. Giant Moa bones have been found on the Takapau plains which is close to my home town in the Hawkes Bay. This is the connection to our ancestors the first peoples of Aotearoa.

Ko Beth Tauroa toku ingoa,
No Pohara Paa ahau,
He Uri ahau no Waikato.

Kete: Ko Mathew McIntyre Wilson te kairaranga o tenei kete, he uri ia no Taranaki, no Nga Mahanga, me Titahi hoki, nana tonu enei kete i hanga mai.

I rarangahia ai enei taonga ki te waea kappa me te waea hiriwa hoki.

He kete enei taonga, he taonga na nga mahi a te whare pora. He kete enei hei whangai i te hinengaro o te iwi, e titiro ana me pehea te whakauru atu I nga ahuatanga hou ki roto i nga mahi toi o enei raa.

Ki oku nei whakaaro he mea nui kia takoto ngatahi nga taonga tuku iho me nga taonga o tea o hurihuri nei. Kia mohio ai he iwi mauritu te iwi Maori, he iwi ihumanea, he ahurea hihiri hoki!

He tohunga tōku koroua ki te mahi hāngi. Kei te rongo tonu tōku ihu i ngā hua o āna mahi! Te reka hoki o te mīti poaka, kau hoki, me te paukena, kūmara, rīwai!

Nā, ka tukuna e tōku koro i āna pukenga ki tōku pāpā, heke iho ki ōku tūngaane. A tōna wā pea, ka mau aku mokopuna i tērā mātauranga tino nui ki a tātou te iwi Māori. Tau kē!

Ko te tupuna nei ko Tohirere Matehaere Tangataware Rawiri, engari e mōhiotia whānuitia nei ko Te Ware. Nō Ngāti Whanaunga, nō Ngāi Tai, nō Ngāi Te Rangi.

Ka moe ia i a Maude Moengārangi Tuhimata, nō Tuakau, ka puta ko Te Ruapotaka. Ka moe a Te Ruapōtaka i a Ngāpuāwai Rose Barlow, nō Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whātua hoki, ka puta ko au.

Ki te reo Ingarihi (In the English language)

This tupuna is Tohirere Matehaere Tangataware Rawiri, but he was known by everyone as Te Ware. His iwi are Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāi Tai, and Ngāi Te Rangi.

He married Maude Moengārangi Tuhimata, who was from Tuakau, and Te Ruapotaka was born. Te Ruapōtaka married Ngāpuāwai Rose Barlow, from Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Whātua, and I was born.

My grandfather was an expert at making hāngi. My nose can still smell the fruits of his work! So delicious was the pork, beef, pumpkin, kūmara, and potatoes!

Anyway, my koro passed on his skills to my father, who passed them down to my brothers. Perhaps in time, my grandchildren will attain that knowledge that is so important to us. Awesome!

Ko Antoine Coffin tēnei, nō Ngaiterangi me Ngāti Ranginui. He uri ahau o ngā tūpuna o Tauranga Moana. Nā ratau i hanga mai ēnei kōhatu. Ko te whakaaro o ngā kaihuakanga, ngā ‘bowling balls’ mō ngā mea takaro porowhiu.

He kōhatu orooro nō Tauranga Moana.

Rite tonu te kīhatu orooro ki ngā papa kuti o tēnei wa.  He hoanga hoki mō ngā kai.  Ko ngā kai oroorotia me pakarutia, he aruhe, he rongoa, he kaimoana hoki.  E pai ana te taonga ki te hikitia, mai tena ki tera o nga wahi.  Te patu aruhe me te kōohatu orooro e mahi ngatahi.

Ahakoa, e katakata ana ahau ki nga korero i runga i te tapanga, kaore e tika.  Ko te korero tuturu, he kōhatu ma te mahi kai. Ko te mahi kai, hei whangaitia ta matou tinana.

9000 sharks…11,000 baskets of potatoes…4000 conversations (and counting)…

9000 ngā mango…11,000 ngā kete riwai…4000 ngā kōrerorero (ka piki ake) …

In exhibition development we trim the text to give visitors enough information, but not an excess. This sounds simple, but sometimes there is so much to say it’s hard to know where to make the cut. Luckily the digital medium knows no such bounds. So on behalf of our team, I’m returning to the raw detail of the Maori feast at Remuera in May 1844, a key story in Kai to Pie, to launch a longer conversation about an extraordinary event of which there are many stories.

The feast (hākari) was recorded in a watercolour painted by Joseph Merrett; lithographs based on this watercolour; newspaper articles; and eyewitness accounts of those who were actually there – though their details differ, all record an immense amount of food (kai). Governor Robert FitzRoy visited Remuera on the morning of Saturday 11 May. He described a 500 metre long line of small dried sharks (mangō) suspended above baskets of potatoes (ngā kete riwai). Each basket (kete), FitzRoy wrote, was a “fair load for a man to carry to market”. If you zoom into the detail beneath Remuwera (Mt Hobson) you can see this spectacular spread.

Exactly how much food was there?

In the exhibition we say that 9000 sharks and 11,000 baskets of potatoes were presented to 4000 people. You might wonder how we landed on these figures. They are printed in the caption beneath the lithograph made in 1890. The person who wrote the caption might have drawn the numbers from an article in the Daily Southern Cross of 27 April 1844 which reported the preparation of “11,000 baskets of potatoes… 9000 sharks… and 100 full grown and well fattened pigs…”

So, what might have begun as an estimate – perhaps one journalist’s rounding-up, was published in a newspaper, later beneath a lithograph and then in more than one book. This tally has become legendary, and you can understand why – exact numbers are explicit; they’re easy to hold onto and to pass onto someone else; and they stir the imagination.

Still, we don’t know for sure that these neat numbers are correct. Similarly, we don’t know for sure that there were 4000 people in attendance – this was FitzRoy’s summing up, but others estimated there were near to 6000.

Most importantly, researching the feast, we’ve found that people have different views as to why it was held and the reasons for attending it. FitzRoy declared unequivocally the feast was given by the principal chiefs of Waikato (Te Wherowhero and Wetere) to reciprocate one given to them a year earlier and “to show the extent of… their influences and alliances” in the Auckland area to Maori and Pakeha alike (a view supported by many secondary sources since). This may well have been the main motivation, but amongst a crowd of 4000, representing at least 17 iwi, there were bound to be other reasons for attending and numerous conversations to be had.

Do you have knowledge of this feast? We are keen to hear it.

Ko Kotuku Tibble toku ingoa, no Ngati Tuwharetoa ahau. He uri ahau no Iwikau nana i hanga mai i tenei paataka kai, hei tohu mo te kaupapa whakatuu i te Kingi Maori I Pukawa ki te pito taitonga o Taupo moana i te tau 1856.

Hinana ki uta, Hinana ki tai! He paataka kai tenei no Ngati Tuwharetoa.

He paataka tenei hei pupuri i nga kai, hei whangai i te taha tinana i te taha wairua hoki o te tangata.

Tino kaingakau ahau ki tenei taonga, ka taea e au te hono atu ki oku tupuna.

Ka mau te wehi!

The Auckland Museum blog is still finding its footing a little bit. And that’s OK. Like stuffing an elephant, good things take time.

Meanwhile I thought I’d chip in and share some pictures that I came across during a recent visit with some of the curators who look after our wonderful collections.

Behold then: the making of Rajah, one of Auckland Museum’s best-known exhibits – and a somewhat mammoth exercise in taxidermy.

Rajah the elephant has a special place in my memory just as he does in the memories of many visitors to Auckland Museum of a certain age.

Funnily enough I don’t recall ever considering how he came to be stuffed. Possibly, like my teddy bear, he was alive in my childhood imagination (just keeping very still around others who didn’t understand him like I did).

Here he is when he was actually alive, trumpeting around the Auckland Zoo.

The Zoo bought him for 125 pounds in 1930. Not sure what the equivalent of that would be today.

I’m sad to discover that Rajah wasn’t a happy elephant when he was alive. Aside from being in captivity, some horrid person had stubbed their cigarette out on his trunk, making him (rightly, I’d say) rather hostile to visitors.

So the Zoo put him down – all 4 tonnes of him (or 4000 kilograms, the equivalent of around 200 six-year old boys).

Enter Charles Dover, a taxidermist on Auckland Museum’s staff, who got to work making him into a museum exhibit.

Here’s how our curator of land vertebrates (things that live on the land and have backbones), Brian Gill, describes the rather gruesome process in a New Zealand Geographic article from 2002:

“Three weeks were spent on the hide alone, scraping and paring it down on the inside to remove fat and connective tissue. Meanwhile the scraped-down bones were placed on the roof of the museum to weather. [...]

Dover built a framework of timber struts and iron rods, incorporating papier mache casts of the skull and pelvic girdle for added fidelity. Wooden replicas of the ribs were made. The framework was finished with a layer of fine wire-netting covered with scrim and packed out in places with fine wood shavings.

The outer most layer was papier mache, painted when dry so as to be waterproof. Finally, the wet skin was taken from a tank of preservative and slid into place on the framework, which had been oiled to make the job easier. While still pliable, the cut edges of the skin were sewn together, final adjustments made and the finished mount left to dry” (The full story is called “The rogue’s return” and is published in Volume 55 of the New Zealand Geographic, on pages 8-9).

And here are the photos that I found on my tour with our pictorial collections curator, Gordon Maitland, during a welcome chance to leave my computer and my desk in the part of the Museum that does digital stuff.

(It seems somewhat cruel irony that Charles Dover is often pictured smoking).

So there you have it. The making of Rajah – a project that took seven months to complete. And you were thinking this was going to be another food post!

You’re either a taxidermy person or you’re not. I’m not sure I am…

But I do enjoy finding out about how things get made, and what lies beneath the surface of the objects we encounter around us in the world.  I hope that you do too.