On 21/09/2008, at 1:58 PM, Euan Ritchie wrote: > NZ's population is just over 4 million (in a country 20% larger than > the > U.K), we have more like 60 millions sheep currently and not many of > their pastures were rain forests (only the very North of NZ is > sub-tropical, mostly we've a temperate climate).
Rainforest isn't all tropical or sub-tropical, it's just that's the best known. Rainforest is based on rainfall, not latitude. F'rex, south-east and south-west Victoria have a mix of temperate forest and temperate rainforest (Mainly the Otway Ranges on the Great Ocean Road, and far south-east Vic past Orbost and Cann River, and into NSW). The rainforest is characterised by dense undergrowth, thick hanging mosses and lichens, and some of the largest trees in the southern hemisphere (not far behind parts of Tasmania and southern Western Australia, as well as, of course, the monsters in South America). Much of New Zealand's pastureland (by no means all) is cleared land, and that means some of it would have been rainforest, even on the South Island. Apart from that, as you were. :) Charlie List Biologist Maru _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
