New Zealand it operates the Scott Base research facility. New Zealand nationality law treats all parts of the realm equally, so most people born in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency are New Zealand citizens. New Zealand is located near the centre of the water hemisphere and is made up of two main islands and a number of smaller islands. The two main islands (the North Island, or "Te Ika-a-Māui", and the South Island, or "Te Waipounamu") are separated by Cook Strait, wide at its narrowest point. Besides the North and South Islands, the five largest inhabited
Stoats in New Zealand Stoats in New Zealand Stoats ("Mustela erminea") were introduced into New Zealand to control introduced rabbits and hares, but are now a major threat to the native bird population. The natural range of the stoat is limited to parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Immediately before human settlement, New Zealand did not have any land-based mammals apart from bats, but Polynesian and European settlers introduced a wide variety of animals. The rabbit was introduced by European settlers as a food and game animal, and by the 1870s it was becoming a serious threat to the newly developed farming economy. Farmers began