Lake Poukawa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lake Poukawa |
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 Lake Poukawa
Location in North Island
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| Location | North Island |
| Coordinates | 39°47′02″S 176°42′04″E / 39.7838°S 176.7010°E |
| Basin countries | New Zealand |
| Max. depth | less than 1 m (3.3 ft) |
Lake Poukawa is a small, shallow lake located in the Hawke's Bay Region on New Zealand's North Island. It lies about 20 kilometers southwest of Hastings, New Zealand, near the small town of Te Hauke. This lake is the largest one found within a special type of wet, spongy ground called a peatland. It sits in a valley known as the Poukawa depression, which is an area where the Earth's crust moves. Lake Poukawa is well-known for the many ancient bird fossils discovered there.
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Discovering Lake Poukawa
Where is Lake Poukawa?
Lake Poukawa is in the central part of Hawke's Bay. It's nestled between two mountain ranges, the Raukawa Range and the Kaokaoroa Range. The lake is quite round, about 1.5 kilometers across.
A Lake's Changing Depth
Today, Lake Poukawa is very shallow, less than one meter deep. But in the past, it was deeper, around 2.5 meters. After a big earthquake in 1931, called the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, people drained some of the lake's water. This made it much shallower than it used to be.
Amazing Ancient Animals
Lake Poukawa became a famous place for finding fossils in 1956. That's when a scientist named Russell Price started digging there. He found many bones from ancient waterfowl, which are birds that live on or near water. These bones were from the Pleistocene and Holocene periods, which were a very long time ago.
More than 13,400 bird bones have been found at Lake Poukawa since 1956! Many of these birds are now extinct, meaning they no longer exist. Some of the extinct birds found here include:
- The New Zealand musk duck
- The New Zealand stiff-tailed duck
- The New Zealand merganser
- Finsch's duck
- Mantell's moa (a type of moa, which were large, flightless birds)
- The New Zealand bittern
- Hodgens's waterhen
- The New Zealand coot
- Scarlett's duck
- And a large goose-like bird called Cnemiornis gracilis.
About 12 kilometers south of Lake Poukawa is another important area called the Te Aute swamp. This swamp is also known for its moa fossils and even ancient moa footprints!
The Lake's Water Flow
Water flows out of Lake Poukawa through a waterway called the Poukawa Stream. This stream then travels northeast through the Pekapeka Wetland before eventually flowing into the Clive River.
