• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Geography / What Makes New Zealand Unique and How Many of Its Plants and Animals Are Not Found Anywhere Else On Earth?

What Makes New Zealand Unique and How Many of Its Plants and Animals Are Not Found Anywhere Else On Earth?

May 4, 2020 by Karen Hill

New Zealand is located in the Southern Hemisphere about halfway between the Equator and Antarctica.

It sits on top of two tectonic plates, whose movement has resulted in the South Island’s magnificent mountains known as the Southern Alps.

Mount Cook is the tallest of these craggy mountains, at 12,310 feet (3,753 m). In an area about the size of California, visitors can experience a range of landforms, from glaciers to rain forests.

New Zealand has been a separate microcontinent for 80 million years, plenty of time for diverse forms of life to evolve there.

About 90 percent of its insects and 80 percent of its trees, ferns, and flowering plants are not found anywhere else on the earth.

New Zealand also has 60 unique reptile species, but not a single snake.

New Zealand is home to one of the world’s largest and heaviest insects, the giant weta. Wetas are flightless, grasshopper-like insects that can weigh twice as much as a small mouse.

New Zealand’s only native land mammals are two species of bats. All other mammals there were brought from somewhere else.

Several species of flightless birds are unique to New Zealand. Because they had no natural enemies, these birds could walk freely on the ground and never needed to use their wings.

The best known is the kiwi, the New Zealand national emblem. This shy, nocturnal bird has nostrils at the end of its beak.

Related Facts

  • Where Is New Zealand Located and Is New Zealand Close To Australia?
  • How Many People Live In New Zealand, How Did New Zealand Get Its Name, and Who Are the Maori People?
  • How Did New Zealand Get Its Name?
  • Where do Germs, Bacteria, and Viruses come from and How do they make us sick?
  • What was the European Age of Exploration?
  • How many Sheep are there in New Zealand Compared to the Number of People who Live There?

Filed Under: Geography

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Which Continent Is the Highest, the Driest, and the Coldest in the World and How Cold Is Antarctica?
Next Post: Where Is New Zealand Located and Is New Zealand Close To Australia? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy