Many people think of hedgehogs as the cute, harmless creatures they see in British children’s story books. But in New Zealand, they’re known pests that are lethal to native wildlife. Last night, on Campbell Live, we met the founders of Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand. They take in sick or injured hedgehogs and rehabilitate them before returning them to the wild. The […]
In September last year, the Frog Lab group at the Department of Zoology (University of Otago) had the privilege of hosting the Kiwi Conservation Club for part of the day. We wanted to help them learn more about New Zealand’s very own rare native frogs and get up close with some that we have in captivity. At […]
Forest & Bird owns a number of important reserves around the country. One of these is Te Rere Reserve – a 70 hectare block of regenerating native forest located near the southernmost point of the South Island. It is home to about 70 yellow-eyed penguins – the rarest penguin in the world. Every summer for thousands of years, these penguins […]
World Wildlife Day this week highlighted the desperate situation faced by many wild creatures around the world. It’s a good reason to look at a native species that few New Zealanders will have ever seen and some work being done to save it from extinction. Hochstetter’s frog is one of our four native frogs, which […]
Mike Creed asks: Two Tui have been visiting our feeder over the past couple of days. They are very noticeable because of their unusually fluffy collar feathers. Are these old birds? Do the collar feathers normally develop like that? They seem to be a couple. Any info would be appreciated! Colin Miskelly from Te Papa says: These do […]
“The Batting Season” has nothing to do with cricket. It is the term used by chiropterophiles (bat lovers) to describe the busy summer weeks when bats are out foraging in the warm, insect filled evenings. Such days are so long, bat researchers often won’t get home to sleep until after midnight. This summer in the […]
After a weekend doing ground-based pest control, I can better appreciate the value of aerial 1080. I slid down a muddy bank with nothing to grab but a soggy tree fern stump that lifted from the soil like a mushroom. Through the rain and the supplejack lassoes I could see Ian and Merryl a few […]
Windthrow is a natural part of NZ’s forest dynamics of catastrophe-regeneration. Thousands of hectares are levelled every year in our public conservation land forests and have done so for millenia. It is a part of the natural forest cycle in this windy country. Yet we do not intervene to sell the fallen timber in protected […]
Wandering through much of Aotearoa’s remnant bush in 2014 can be a lonely experience. One has more chance of seeing a hobbit than a kaka or kokako, and the experience is a long way from Joseph Banks’ much repeated description of the the dawn chorus in Queen Charlotte Sound in 1770: “I was awakened by […]