Other articles written by Kate Guthrie

A velvet worm rearing its head up.

Exploring the ancient and alien-like peripatus, “velvet worm”

Peripatus, sometimes called velvet worms are stumpy-legged invertebrates that look like caterpillars and live on the forest floor.
A volunteer opening the DOC trap up.

Who invented DOC traps?

How did an oil painter, bird-lover, and rock drummer come to invent one of the most well-known and widely used humane kill traps in Aotearoa New Zealand?
Two children sitting on a picnic mat looking for birds.

No PhD necessary: citizen science could help save birds

The New Zealand Garden Bird Survey is a national event where citizens select a day and record the maximum number of birds they see or hear for an hour.
A kea flying away from the camera

New tips for keeping kea safe

The Kea Conservation Trust is urging people carrying out ground-based predator control in kea habitat to take extra precautions to avoid injury or death.
A skink on a red rock

Sunny side up: skinks are changing up their sun-bathing to avoid cats

When four-legged predators first arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, the native wildlife didn’t know what had hit them.
A stoat perched on a rock

Odour lures offer a new temptation to stoats

Trapping using food-based lures of hens’ eggs and rabbit meat, with long-life rabbit the main stoat control method in New Zealand.
Little spotted kiwi may be hybrid kiwi

Kiwi translocations – are we doing it right?

Kiwi are the most translocated bird species in New Zealand and the number of new projects and released birds are steadily increasing. We’ve been moving our kiwi around for over 100 years but could we be doing it better?
Female and male takahē standing in the grass; female on the left, male on the right eating grass

Seabirds, disease, sanctuary islands

Air travel could be with bird diseases to kakapo, takahe and other endangered species on their remote sanctuary islands.
A moa speciman on black background

Rakiura skeleton helps solve ancient mystery

Could moa have once lived on Rakiura/Stewart Island? Science has had little to say about moa living on Rakiura up until now.
Kākāriki on a branch

The challenges of counting kākāriki

Counting green parakeets in an equally green forest can be a challenge even for the experts. So how to count the rare orange-fronted kakariki?
A frog on twigs

Native frog behaviour surprises scientists

It seems the Maud Island frog, our odd little endemic amphibian, might not be quite as dedicated to a ground-hugging life as experts have believed.
A wrybill sitting amongst the rocks

‘Fake news’ foils would be predators

To survive and succeed in the wild, every meal an introduced predator eats has to be worth the effort and energy it takes to obtain it.
Robin on a small twig

Robins return – but where are all the tomtits?

A recent study on the recovery of forest birds after longterm predator control and eradication shows that toutouwai benefitted hugely
A close up of a white gecko

Feral cats feast on Australian reptiles

Researchers have calculated that the total number of feral cats in Australia in largely natural landscapes averages 2.07 million.
Fluffy weka fledging in long grass

Time to rethink the weka’s bad-boy image

Weka don’t tend to be the first bird chosen for reintroduction in recovering habitats.

National map

Click our map to discover the extent of predator control being undertaken throughout the country.

Click our map to discover the extent of predator control being undertaken throughout the country.

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