page_title: Pureora Forest Park
section_title: Fauna and flora
hierarchical_section_title: Pureora Forest Park / Fauna and flora
caption_attribution_description: English: adult male Allocinopus sculpticollis
context_page_description: Pureora Forest Park is a 760-square-kilometre protected area in the North Island of New Zealand. Within its rich rain forest are an abundance of 1,000-year-old podocarp trees. It is "recognised as one of the finest rain forests in the world". Established in 1978, after a series of protests and tree sittings, the park is one of the largest intact tracts of native forest in the North Island and has high conservation value due to the variety of plant life and animal habitats available. New Zealand's largest totara tree is located nearby on private land.
context_section_description: Lower altitudes are characterised by tawa and tree ferns, as well as tall native trees, including kahikatea, matai, miro, rimu, and totara. The Pouakani Totara tree, New Zealand's tallest totara, is located east of the Field Centre. The giant totara, rimu, matai, miro and kahikatea trees tower 40–60 metres, and belong to an ancient family of trees dating from the dinosaur era. Higher altitudes include kamahi and Hall's totara; sub-alpine herbs are abundant near the peaks. Grasses within the park include toetoe. The Pouakani Totara Tree is the largest recorded totara tree in New Zealand and is located just outside the park in the Wairapara Moana Incorporation reserve, located on the SH30 road.
  The feral house mouse has a significant population within the park. There is rich native bird life in this forest including the rare North Island kokako and the kaka, kakariki, kuku (kereru, a native pigeon), and North Island robin. Sika deer have been shot or sighted within the confines of the park, believed to be an illegal liberation. Pigs are present, and of the at least eleven pest species that co-exist within the park, possums and goats are subject to management operations.
caption: Allocinopus sculpticollis, from Mount Pureora.
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