Appreciating what lies beyond the forest’s edge: Interview with Illustrator, Melissa Boardman
Melissa Boardman is an illustrator passionate about native birds, conservation and the environment. She frequently visits predator free sanctuaries across Aotearoa where she spends her…
New home for barking geckos in successful penned release
Small, slow-moving in cold weather and with limited defenses other than camouflage and hiding, our skinks and geckos are vulnerable to predators – but efforts…
Burning questions, conservation conundrums – kiwi researchers share insights on key research challenges
What don’t we know? What challenges need further investigation? In January of this year, Predator Free 2050 Ltd announced two funding initiatives – one for…
Multiple methods demonstrate wetland restoration benefits
Once we called them swamps and thought of these places – if we thought of them at all – as potential farmland and subdivisions, muddy,…
What’s outside the fence matters too
Fenced sanctuaries don’t come cheap – but they do offer a way to create areas of rich, predator free habitat for vulnerable species. But what…
New book invites children to be ‘nature heroes’ too
New Zealand Nature Heroes by Gillian Candler (Published by Potton and Burton) is a book I would have loved to have received as a child.…
Goat Island rat abundance measured in multiple ways
Markus Gronwald and James Russell from the University of Auckland recently measured rat relative abundance on Goat Island, 70km north of Auckland. Both camera traps…
Volunteers monitor kiwi dispersal for 8 years
Between 2010 and 2016, the community group Friends of Flora Inc., in partnership with the Department of Conservation, translocated 44 roroa (great spotted kiwi, Apteryx…
A strange tale of a bat and a ‘rose’
New Zealand’s short-tailed bats are tiny – but their appetite is massive. They can increase their bodyweight by a huge 30% in just one night’s…
Plastic nest material is potential threat to gannets
Ocean plastic is a worldwide problem – and its impacting wildlife here in New Zealand too. A recent study checked out how much plastic is…
Tākapu are high-dive champions
Even been stung by a badly executed bellyflop? Then imagine the impact as a diving tākapu (gannet) hits the water in a perfectly executed dive.…
Are weka ‘good predators’?
Weka can be engaging and entertaining, but their opportunistic appetite for other birds’ eggs and chicks can cop them some controversy. They’re not always welcome…
Hidden haven off Coromandel’s 309 Road
Take a drive along Coromandel’s spectacular scenic 309 Road and there’s a spot, somewhere around halfway between Coromandel town and Whitianga where a tarseal street…
River tested as reinvasion obstacle to possums
Reinvasion by predators, of previously cleared areas, is one of the many challenges of becoming predator free. We can’t fence huge tracts of wilderness –…
Lizards counted on predator free Kāpiti Island
What a difference 20 years makes! The lizards of Kāpiti Island have now had 20 years of living rat-free and researchers Jennifer Gollin, Nic Gorman…
