- the only fiord in the area with road access Te Hāpua / Sutherland Sound Hāwea / Bligh Sound Te Houhou / George Sound - accessible via tramping track Taitetimu / Caswell Sound Taiporoporo / Charles Sound Hinenui / Nancy Sound Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound Doubtful Sound / Patea - accessible via tours and tramping track Te Rā / Dagg Sound Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound Tamatea / Dusky Sound - accessible via tramping track Taiari / Chalky Inlet - leads into Edwardson Sound and Kanáris Sound Rakituma / Preservation Inlet - leads into Long Sound A further sound, Kaikiekie / Bradshaw Sound, is basically an extension of Thompson and Doubtful Sounds after their junction at the eastern end of Secretary Island. Ecology The area has been categorised as the Fiordland temperate forests ecoregion, having a variety of habitats and due to its isolation a high number of endemic plants. Much of Fiordland is heavily forested except for locations where surface rock exposures are extensive. The natural habitats are almost completely unspoilt. Nothofagus beech trees are dominant in many locations, silver beech (Nothofagus menziesii) in the fiords and red beech (Nothofagus fusca) in the inland valleys. In the understory there are a wide variety of shrubs and ferns, including crown fern (Blechnum discolor), areas of scrubby herbs above the treeline, patches of bog next to mountain streams and finally an area of rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum)-dominated sand dunes in the Waitutu area on the south coast. Despite a latitude in the mid 40s, the treeline is generally below because of the cool summers and the influence of the southern ocean on the climate. The area is home to threatened native bird species, such as the flightless takahē and kiwi, blue duck (whio), and yellowhead (mōhua). The takahē was presumed to have been extinct for 50 years before a small remaining population was discovered in Fiordland's Murchison Mountains in 1948. Since then, that area has been managed by the Department of Conservation, trapping stoats and controlling deer, helping takahē numbers in the area to increase to over 200 and remain at that level. There are also a great number of insects and one indigenous reptile, the Fiordland skink (Oligosoma acrinasum). There are around 300 insect species endemic to the Fiordland region, many of them sizeable, such as weta, large caddis, and giant weevils, and some of them unusual, such as egg-laying