The last quarter has been a wonderful change welcoming our manuhiri (visitors) from overseas back to the Museum. We’ve seen a strong growth in visitors from Australia, followed by good numbers of visitors from the UK, particularly since the start of November. October was also a good month due to the school holidays and Labour weekend so we enjoyed meeting plenty of visitors from Auckland and around the rest of the country.
We look forward to welcoming you over Christmas Holidays and encourage you to bring your friends along to visit too.Collection Curiosities
Do Whales have hears? Yes they do and are specifically designed to hear under water and to navigate the ocean, find food and communicate with other whales.
Depending on the species, they use either loud low pitched moans and whines or high pitched clicks and whistles.
They also use “Echolocation” techniques which allows the whale to bounce off objects in the environment, for example how far away the object is, how fast it is moving and how large. From this they can actually work out if the object is a predator, food, or an inanimate object. Echolocation is very important when it is dark. An ear infection which may limit the use of echolocation may be one reason why whales strand on beaches. Whales and dolphins had land based ancestors that made their way into the ocean millions of years ago. So why can’t we hear underwater? We can but not well. Our ears are designed for hearing in air whereas whales had to make the transition modifying their ears so they could clearly hear sounds underwater and where they were coming from. So while marine mammals still have many of the same ear parts as humans do, they have been modified to enable them to function in the ocean.
A fossilized eardrum has been listed for sale at $US600 – a strange collector’s piece! Another carved eardrum has been listed for sale $2,500 in Juneau, Alaska. These whale drums are one of the fascinating item which are part of our collection.
We have a lot of new stock in the shop for Christmas and like many local businesses, we’d love to see you shop locally. We specialize in educational gifts with a wide range of children’s toys and history books on Taitokerau History as well as a range of other gifts, jewelry and pounamu (greenstone) available for you to chose from.
Cherrie Lawrie has designed some beautiful pottery available specially for the Museum. Many of the pieces feature Blue Penguins or Korora while others feature local scenes such at the Church. From $12 upwards, you will be able to find a present for everyone!