{"id":891355,"date":"2026-09-14T05:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T05:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891355\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T05:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T05:54:19","slug":"department-of-conservation-call-centre-logs-calls-about-mma-chimpanzee-bout-eel-eating-seals-and-ufos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891355\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Conservation call centre logs calls about MMA chimpanzee bout, eel-eating seals and UFOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unexpected queries included a caller adamant a UFO had dropped from the sky to the Tararua Range<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another person was concerned about a potential mixed martial arts (MMA) bout between a human and a chimpanzee, while one caller wanted information on whether animals would be visible at Wellington Zoo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Calls about habitats and wildlife outside the department\u2019s remit are frequently logged.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne person called the Department of Conservation regarding if animals would be visible at Wellington Zoo. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Calls about activity in Auckland\u2019s Wait\u0101kere Ranges, managed by Auckland Council and common pests such as wasps, mice and rats were also frequent.<\/p>\n

A worried child emailed about a ginger cat walking across a public reserve.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, rats, mice and possums on private property are regularly the subject of calls. <\/p>\n

DoC customer service team lead Olivia Tooley said many customers misunderstood what the department does \u2013 and doesn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

\"Rats,Rats, mice and possums on private property are regularly the subject of calls to the Department of Conservation. Photo \/ Steve Pilkington, Department of Conservation<\/p>\n

Tooley said calls about seals landed daily, and while it was the appropriate agency, many weren\u2019t aware of the approach taken with the semi-aquatic mammals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our callers are unaware of our \u2018hands off\u2019 approach to seals,\u201d Tooley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had queries and concerns about seals appearing very dry and covered in sand on beaches, questions from callers about which fish to feed a seal, and even people who mistakenly believe we have some sort of seal rehab or hospital facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

One recent caller insisted DoC staff remove a seal from a stream on his property, as it was eating his \u201cpet\u201d eels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a seal is in harm\u2019s way, our great Operations staff will attend \u2013 but generally, we leave seals alone and ask the public to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tooley said another caller asked if it was okay to feed commercially produced cracker biscuits to ruru.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consistently urge people not to feed wildlife, no matter how hungry the animals or birds may seem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we do want to acknowledge there are plenty of situations when calling DoC was the right thing to do \u2013 and we appreciate people\u2019s concern for nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" A seal on the path at Waikareao Estuary in Tauranga in 2024. Photo \/ Nataalia Lunson, DOC<\/p>\n

Tooley said staff knew how to remain patient and professional \u201ceven on the most challenging and lengthy calls\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat comes through from many of our calls is people care about nature, and that\u2019s certainly important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On a busy day, the Customer Services Team of seven staff will deal with more than 200 calls. <\/p>\n

Calls also spike over the Christmas holidays when many New Zealanders are out in nature and near coastlines. <\/p>\n

Jazlyn Whales is a multimedia journalist based in the Christchurch newsroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unexpected queries included a caller adamant a UFO had dropped from the sky to the Tararua Range. Another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[1466,617,64,63,5975,20971,14170,98710,101544,6821,81609,2929,7136,1786,75725,461009,41794,786,5587,1899,15369,394340,785,1787,172176,29338,127735,85,62119,316,3605],"class_list":["post-891355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-about","tag-and","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bout","tag-call","tag-calls","tag-centre","tag-chimp","tag-chimpanzee","tag-common","tag-conservation","tag-deal","tag-department","tag-does","tag-eeleating","tag-falling","tag-fighting","tag-from","tag-have","tag-human","tag-logs","tag-mma","tag-of","tag-request","tag-seal","tag-seals","tag-sports","tag-ufos","tag-what","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}