Kimihia Kōura
Kimihia Kōura is our latest curious minds participatory science project funded by Venture Taranaki. Ngāti Mutunga and Taranaki Regional Council are the science partners. for this project and we have teamed up with Taranaki Catchment Communities, Urenui School, Mimi School and Uruti School as our community research partners alongside our very own whānau through school holiday programs and other whānau engagement exercises.
The proposed outcomes of these projects as required by the funder are science based and the objectives of the curious minds program is to encourage and enable citizen scientists from throughout the community.
Ngāti Mutunga uses these curious minds funding opportunities to build relationships with our community and schools, create opportunities for our whānau to connect and/or reconnect with our whenua whilst exploring our taiao through meaningful and relevant research and environmental monitoring.
The main focus for this project is around kōura (also known as freshwater crayfish or crawlies). Our enquiry is to find out how abundant kōura are in our Ngāti Mutunga rohe and how widely spread they are. Kōura are great positive environmental indicators for our freshwater so if we can learn more about where they live and how they survive we can provide safe habitats for them to thrive which will mean that our waterways will remain clean and healthy!
WE NEED YOUR HELP! If are keen to find kōura in our waterways and would like to help us out, then you can download our Kōura survey app by scanning the QR code and completing our survey. This will help us get an idea how many reside in our rohe and how widely spread they are.
We have already been out there looking over the last couple of months with our Tamariki as part of our School holiday program and with our local kura. We hope to have more field trips as part of this kaupapa so please let us know if you’d like to be involved or know more about how to spot these elusive little ngārara.
If you are interested in volunteering in our taiao space please fill out a volunteer form so we can get in touch easier.
