Protecting a very special duck: Q&A with Eastern Whio Link
The Eastern Whio Link is a conservation project with a difference. Based in the Upper Waioeka between Gisborne and Ōpōtiki, this project is dedicated to…
Ranger, illustrator and bird nerd: Sarah Little
Sarah Little spends her time caring for kākāpo on Whenua Hou, tramping around Aotearoa and telling conservation stories through her popular cartoons. Today, we’re chatting…
How to keep your compost rodent free: A Q&A with an Expert from Compost Collective
Composting has many benefits: it enriches soil, reduces waste and is great for the environment. The Compost Collective is a collaborative project aimed at helping…
Predator professionals: the next generation
On a fine day, views along The Old Ghost Road stretch across the winding Mokihinui River and over alpine vistas, valleys of tussock and dense…
Maukahuka Pest Free Auckland Island: Will it work?
This week marks the publication of the Maukahuka Pest Free Auckland Island project report on the technical feasibility of eradicating pigs, cats and mice from…
Bats influenced by rainfall when visiting unique ‘wood rose’
Short-tailed bats are the main pollinators of New Zealand’s only fully parasitic flowering plant – the wood rose (Dactylanthus taylorii), known to Māori as te…
Getting to know our largest reptile
Everyone knows about tuatara – right? Most New Zealanders know that our tuatara was around in dinosaur times and out-survived all the dinosaur ‘big names’…
Breeding wrybills face multiple challenges
Wrybills, the little shore birds with a bend in their beak, are only found in New Zealand. They breed on the South Island’s braided rivers…
Rat-trapping has a long history in Aotearoa
Rat-trapping started early in Aotearoa’s history. The Polynesian ancestors of Māori brought the kiore across the Pacific in their voyaging waka, probably around the 13th…
Predator pitfalls for live-trapped lizards
A common way to monitor what insects or lizards are around, is to use a live-capture pitfall trap which skinks, geckos and ground-based insects then…
Feisty, melodious tūī is a welcome garden visitor
We New Zealanders love our tūī. Maybe its their feisty, humorous territorial antics. Or maybe it’s the melodious calls interspersed with those ridiculous ‘snorts’. Perhaps…
Sheep, beef farms have significant conservation potential
Productive land such as farms, horticulture and lifestyle blocks make up 60% of the land area in New Zealand and often contains native vegetation. Such…
Waikato pest distribution, detectability studied
A recent study by Brandon Breedt and Carolyn King provides the first estimates of the proportion of the Waikato Region occupied by each of the…
A glimpse of the social life of Otago skinks
Researchers have recently been studying the social life of our native skinks – and yes, skinks really do have a social network. Who would have…
Rare alpine seabird is ‘one of a kind’
The Hutton’s shearwater/Kaikōura tītī (Puffinus huttoni) is the only seabird in the world that breeds in an alpine environment, with breeding colonies in the Seaward…
