There are now dozens of nature schools across New Zealand where children learn about foraging, planting trees and trapping pests
Ashton Wilcox, 8, points to a dead hedgehog snagged in the rocks of a stream at Battle Hill, a farm 45 minutes north of New Zealand’s capital city Wellington. “Look, its insides are moving” he says with alarm, examining the quills now colonised by maggots.
A teacher nearby gently advises Ashton not to touch the animal, then explains hedgehogs are a pest in New Zealand and that the maggots are breaking down its remains. Ashton watches a moment longer in curious horror, before bouncing back up the stream to join a group of excitable children who are feeding a writhing mass of eels.
Children cross a stream during a Nature School activity day. Director/Kaiako, Bush Sprouts Nature School NZ Trust, Leo Smith, Penelope Toomath (4) and Reid Payne (6) look at eels in a stream (bottom)
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