What does high-tech predator elimination actually look like?
Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) develops some of the most advanced predator elimination technology in the country. Here are five tools making that possible.
What possessed us to introduce stoats, weasels and ferrets to New Zealand?
Why did they do it? What possessed New Zealand’s government of the day, its citizens and acclimatisation societies to introduce rabbits and then stoats?
Oreos and uppers: inside the research to get the last 1% of predators
To achieve Predator Free 2050, every last individual predator needs to be caught – and the final few are often the hardest.
Elegant black waders: five facts about kakī
With only about 170 in the wild and confined to the central South Island, the kakī (black stilt) is one of New Zealand’s rarest manu (birds).
Heavy-lift drones are transforming predator control
Drones lifting up to 100kg are changing predator free work, carrying traps, bait and supplies through dense bush and steep terrain while saving time and money.
Sound science: using noise to keep cats away from nesting birds in urban areas
Roaming cats can doom bird nests simply by paying a visit. Could sound keep cats away from precious birds and nests?
Final countdown: hedgehog clear out in the Mackenzie Basin
Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) is closing in on the few remaining hedgehogs in Mackenzie Basin.
The tide turns: feral cats join the predator free mission
There are moments in conservation where you can feel the tide turning, writes Predator Free New Zealand Trust chief executive Jessi Morgan.
20 years of predator control quadrupled kākā population near Taupō
Large-scale, frequent and effective introduced predator control helped increase kākā density fourfold and improved the sex ratio.
From catching 2,000 a year to none: life without possums on a Banks Peninsula farm
The Gibbs’ Banks Peninsula 235-hectare farm has been declared possum-free, and the change is noticeable everywhere.
“It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster”: the dotterel guardian of Southland
Each spring, pukunui (Southern dotterels) head to Rakiura’s mountaintops to breed. All summer, Glenda Rees waits, heartsick, fearing which won’t return.
Comic: bird nerd explains 1080 in a mast year
Illustrator Andrew James outlines how the Department of Conservation are planning to respond to this summer’s forecast beech mast.
“We are seeing the land come back”: restoring nature and relationships on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands)
On Rēkohu, Maui and Susan Solomon are returning nature to a place stripped bare. Their project is restoring a relationship with the land, birds and trees.
NZ’s weird export niche: predator control technology
Invasive species threaten ecosystems worldwide, but New Zealand stands out for its solutions, exporting conservation tech to the world.
From wasp swarms to birdsong: 1500 wasp nests removed in five years
Five years ago, the forest above Waikawa in Marlborough was more horror story than sanctuary. Today, it’s on the road to restoration.
