Michael Willis to the Rescue /
The man behind Christchurch’s famous Willowbank
Canterbury families have enjoyed animal encounters at Christchurch’s popular
Willowbank Wildlife Reserve for more than 40 years now. Co-founder Michael
Willis has recently authored a book on the Willowbank story and his remarkable
experiences in the field of animal rescue and conservation. We meet the animal
year, on the second Sunday in March, a stock auction unlike any other is held at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. I have arrived in time for the start of the 2020 event, joining people from around New Zealand who have gathered here to bid on some of the country’s rarest and most unusual livestock.
Auctioneer Dave Hazlett starts the 31st annual charity auction off with an interesting assortment of sheep. Curious children climb up on the stockyard rails for a closer look at dark-fleeced Arapawa, multi-coloured Damara and softfleecy Gotland Pelt sheep. They are an arresting sight, so different to the Romney that predominates in New Zealand’s national flock.
Goats, pigs, cattle and poultry of all kinds are also coming up for sale at today’s auction, organised by the Rare Breeds
keeper-turned-saver, who remains as passionate as ever about his life’s work.
Conservation Society of New Zealand (RBCS).
Looking on is Michael Willis, who helped found the RBCS back in the 1980s and has been involved in its work ever since. Of course, Willowbank itself owes its existence to Michael and his ex-wife Kathy, who first opened the doors on the park in 1974.
In those days, Michael was chasing the dream of a zoo with his heart set on displaying exotic animals like lions, monkeys and camels. That gradually changed as he became more interested in New Zealand wildlife conservation and rare breeds rescue work. The history of Willowbank and Michael’s many adventures to remote islands and wild places in pursuit of forgotten animals are engagingly told in his new book, Rescue – One New Zealander’s Crusade to Save
Endangered Animals. It actually represents three books that Michael started before ultimately settling on one combined work for Quentin Wilson Publishing, as a fundraiser for the RBCS. In Rescue, he describes trekking the length of New Zealand on horseback, capturing wild goats on Arapawa Island, wild pigs on the Auckland Islands and wild rabbits and cattle on Enderby Island, having part of a thumb bitten off by a chimpanzee and being thrown over a fence by a Highland cow.
Rescue also delves back into Michael’s childhood, describing early adventures in the outdoors. A love of the mountains first sparked his interest in the natural world. Many happy weekends were spent at a family cottage in the Craigieburn Valley. He’d often go hunting and trapping. Sometimes he’d find something to take home to Christchurch: a kea, a possum, a hare or a hawk to add to a growing menagerie of pets. Life in the family’s suburban home must have been pretty noisy and chaotic at times!
At our Willowbank interview, Michael confides that his childhood pet collection included some 30 or 40 pigeons that were used by his family as long distance message carriers between mountains and home. This pigeon post system proved to be a real life-saver one year when it was put into action to raise the alarm about a school group trapped by a storm on Mt Cheeseman. ‘Dad read the emergency note delivered by pigeon and immediately started putting together a convoy of Land Rovers. He definitely understood the value in keeping pigeons at least because he could see their usefulness!’
In Rescue, Michael writes about how ‘zoo keeper’ first got added to his boyhood list of dream vocations after he was given Gerald Durrell’s book, The Bafut Beagles, as a Christmas gift one year. Once he’d read that, the idea of going off on animal collecting expeditions into the unknown really didn’t seem so far-fetched.
In their early married life, Michael and Kathy toured Europe’s zoos and Michael worked for a time in an animal rescue centre in England. Their travels back through
Africa reinforced Michael’s determination to start his own animal park. On their return to Christchurch, Michael went looking for land to buy and, as he puts it in the book,
Michael confides that his childhood pet collection included some 30 or 40 pigeons that were used by his family as long distance message carriers between mountains and home.