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Post and Telecommunications Offices (Government agency, New Caledonia)

Office des Postes et Télécommunications

Flag of the Post and Telecommunications Office - Image by Jaume Ollé, 27 March 2006

Presentation of the Post and Telecommunications Office
Flag of the Post and Telecommunications Office

See also:

New Caledonia

Presentation of the Post and Telecommunications Office

Office des Postes et Télécommunications (OPT) is the government agency in charge of the postal service (including the release of postal stamps) and telecommunications in New Caledonia.
By Decree #2002-717 of 2 May 2002 portant transfert de l'office des postes et télécommunications à la Nouvelle-Calédonie (prescribing the transfer of the OPT to New Caledonia), the agency was transferred to the government of New Caledonia, as prescribed by the status of New Caledonia voted on 19 March 1999.

Source: OPT website

Ivan Sache, 27 March 2006

Flag of the Post and Telecommunications Office

The flag of the OPT, as photographied by Nozomi Karyasu, is yellow with the emblem of the OPT, which is a blue kagu with the letters OPT in yellow on its chest. NOUVELLE-CALEDONIE is written in blue below the bird.

There are 197 species of birds recorded in New Caledonia, among which 23 are endemic, that is not found anywhere else in the wild. The International Union for Nature Conservation (UICN) has listed 17 endemic forest birds of New Caledonia on the Red List of endangered species, which includes 1,211 bird species worldwide. The most famous of them and the emblematic bird of New Caledonia is the kagu.
The kagu (Rhynochetos jubatus) is the only member of the genus Rhynochetos, which is the only member of the family Rhynochetidae. It was trapped by the Melanesians, and later by the Europeans, for pet and plume trade. The bird retreated to the interior of the island, where its habitat was destroyed by nickel mining. The species is now threatened by feral dogs and pigs; predation by cats and rats is not documented. The kagu has full legal protection since 1977. It is believed than less than 1,000 kagus still live in New Caledonia, mostly in the South Province.
Most scientific publications on kagu were made by Dr. Gavin Hunt, now with the Department of Psychology of the University of Auckland, New Zeland and working on tool-making ability in New Caledonian crows. Dr. Hunt worked on bird conservation in New Caledonia from 1991 to 1995 and defended in 1997 in Massey University his Ph.D. Thesis entitled: Ecology and conservation of the Kagu Rhynochetos jubatus of New Caledonia.
He wrote the chapter on kagu in two references books:
Hunt, G.R. (2002). Kagu. In Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, Vol. 10: Birds. Gale Publishing Group, Farmington Hills, MI.
Hunt, G.R. (1996). Rhynochetidae (Kagu). Pp. 218-225 In (Eds. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J.) Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 3. Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Sources:

Ivan Sache, 27 March 2006