1Jun 29, 2017
Forest & Bird awarded the outgoing Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment an ‘Old Blue’ for her significant contribution to New Zealand’s environment and wildlife. Dr Jan Wright was emotional after receiving her award at Forest & Bird’s Sanderson Memorial Dinner on Saturday evening. She says her office works hard to make science easy to understand, […]
2May 16, 2013
New Zealand leads the world in clearing pests, however until now DOC has talked gingerly about the obvious next hurdle: clearing pests from inhabited islands. Until now…. For fifteen years people have talked about getting pests off Stewart island (popn = 380), and five years ago a feasibility study was done to determine whether this is […]
3Dec 3, 2012
The kakapo has been pinned with many adjectives. Shy, frisky, curious and romantic are ones that crop up most often, however one that is noticeably absent from the usual list of descriptors is ‘gloriously perfumed’. The cover of darkness means that fabulously coloured plumage will go unnoticed by potential mates. So instead it smells. Great. […]
4Sep 9, 2009
Guest blogger: Campaign Manager for the Kakapo & Kakapo Ranger, Dana Boyte This is a story about beating the odds and coming out on top. A true New Zealand story. The kakapo is threatened by the very things that make them so unique and amazing. Their sweet musky scent is far too alluring for cunning […]
5Aug 12, 2009
Guest blogger: Kakapo feeder, Stephanie Gray Beginning with a hot-pink sunrise over Stewart Island’s Raggedy Ranges, my fifth day on Whenua Hou wrapped up beautifully with a game of petanque on Sealers’ Bay. In true island-style, we bowled over and around heaps of glossy kelp, skipped the jack to the creek’s edge, and considered the […]
6Aug 10, 2009
Guest Blogger: Kakapo feeder, Stephanie Gray By the look of the empty feed bowl, Sinbad enjoyed his kumara cubes and macadamia nuts last night. He’s tidy too, leaving only a few crumbs, unlike the chicks who scatter lumps of pasty, half-chewed pellets up to two meters from their hopper—a kakapo feed station. I start to […]
7Jul 13, 2009
If asked to name New Zealand’s public enemy number one, the first thing that springs to my mind is our most reviled Australian immigrant – the possum. European immigrants to NZ tried to introduce these critters not once, but twice (in 1837 & 1858) to establish a fur industry – and then voila, their population exploded. […]
8Dec 23, 2008
After receiving our training from the four friendly DOC rangers on the island my 2 compadres and I are now fully fledged kakapo supplementary feeders. On the first day we each did a round of feeding stations alone with one ranger. This was a perfect introduction to the feeding and cleaning protocols and also to […]
9Dec 19, 2008
I write this diary from the Sealers Bay hut, Codfish Island, Whenuahou. I have just arrived on this beautiful 1396 hectare nature reserve which lies to the north west of Stewart Island, in the most celebratory fashion. I was flown in on a fixed wing light aircraft across the Foveaux Strait which homed in on […]