Out of a combination of sheer whimsy and curiosity, I signed myself up to become a KCC Co-ordinator last year. I had always wanted to smuggle myself onto our Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) trips. For the past six years, I have worked as Forest & Bird’s web editor and I’d always look longingly at the […]
Rodney has finished his 6.45am on-ship briefing. I photograph his hand-drawn map of Enderby Island and kit up for the day; wash the gumboots in antibacterial solution, check velcro for stray seeds, put on a life-jacket, throw some woollies and lunch into a daypack and head for the gang-plank. I ask Sergey one of the […]
In New Zealand annually, between 10 -30 of transfers take place each year in an effort to re-colonise our mainland islands with threatened birds – however some birds, just prefer home and will go to great lengths to return to their forest, island or wetland base. There’s the story of the weka who legged it […]
In a few months’ time, Kaikoura residents will celebrate the return of their nationally endangered Hutton’s shearwaters from Australia’s fishing grounds with a raucous street party. Indeed, these welcoming parties are becoming quite a tradition amongst birders in NZ. Church bells toll and cake flows when our godwits return from their marathon flight from Alaska. […]
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 […]
**Newsflash** Duncan was caught and happily returned to his home yesterday afternoon (May 15th). To go to the TV One news report – see here – http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/story-duncan-kokako-comes-close-video-5437943 In 2011, Duncan – our endangered kokako – disappeared from our pest controlled sanctuary in the Waitakeres and two years later he has turned up in suburban Glendowie. […]
Frogs typically make good captive breeders, so the fact that for eight years experts couldn’t successfully raise one froglet from our Archey’s frog was proving mind-bogglingly frustrating. Enter Richard Gibson – an English reptile and amphibian breeding expert with over 20 years of experience. He flew here in late 2011 to take up a position […]
Last weekend at their conference, The Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust formally announced that they’ve broadened their conservation efforts to include native moths and butterflies – a move that was welcomed by the NZ’s growing brethren of butterfly enthusiasts. The club began seven years ago to protect an overwintering site of the monarch butterfly in the Bay […]
The furore sparked by Gareth Morgan over New Zealanders’ somewhat careless attitude to the way in which we let our cats stalk our neighbourhoods to pick off native birds is best evidenced in the suburbs surrounding Wellington’s much prized fenced sanctuary Zealandia. In neighbouring Kelburn – where my parents live – whiskered faces can be […]