Blogger: Serial Bird of the Year campaigner and ex-Wellington zoo staffer, Stephanie Gray —– Part I of a two-part blog about native species in New Zealand zoos —- The hugely publicised arrival of an Emperor penguin to the Kapiti coast coupled with the rare opportunity to see this Antarctic native explains the throngs of people […]
Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Little Blue Penguin, Stephanie Gray. Like dinosaurs and the solar system, penguins seldom fail to capture the imagination of children first introduced to the strange bird with an upright waddle and sleek feather coat. The Antarctic Emperor penguin is arguably the most familiar of species, beloved for its tuxedo of […]
Guest blogger: Campaign Manager for the Kingfisher, Stephanie Gray. If I were to paint our Sacred Kingfisher in caricature, I’d give him a little leather jacket in midnight-blue. For he is a thug. A stunning little predator. A handsome, hard-headed, supremely successful species that excels at pulverising the small prey he swoops upon. Skinks, silvereyes […]
Guest blogger: Kakapo feeder Stephanie Gray It was a quietly momentous occasion—the last two kakapo youngsters to be released this season stepping clumsily into new lives in the wild to the fanfare of bellbirds and kaka.Weaned from morning crop-feeds several days ago, the birds left their chick-pens in robust good health. Their first night in […]
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 […]
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 […]