Demon Cricket
New Zealand giant wetas – also known as “demon crickets” – are among the most exotic animals at London Zoo.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Born Free
New Zealand organisation has succeeded in liberating Sonny the chimp, a former performer with Ridgeways Circus. He has been reunited with his brother Buddy in Zambia.
Kiss Off
Don’t pick the mistletoe – it’s endangered, but you can take a chainsaw to the holly – a noxious weed.
Wildlife Sting
Flora and fauna around the world are competing against introduced animals – New Zealand’s kaka is losing the battle over food sources to wasps, but island sanctuaries are a success story.
Nuclear Protest
ANZAC protest flotilla to confront Tasman-bound shipment of nuclear waste in early 2001.
Ozone in Godzone
Having suffered under the hole, New Zealand should be among the first places to feel the benefit of ozone regeneration.
Orca Warning
Orca in Wellington Harbour are a treat for onlookers, but authorities warn water users that the whales “don’t eat cucumbers”.
Maine Marine
The US Conservation Law Foundation calls for marine sanctuaries, citing New Zealand’s flexible marine conservation scheme.
Tuna Tussle
How much is too much? New Zealand, Australia and Japan have brought in independent scientific experts to settle the row over tuna quotas.
Whale of an Appetite
Whales eat up to five times as much fish as humans, therefore protecting them is absurd, according to Dan Goodman of the Japan Institute of Cetacean Research, speaking at a whaling conference in New Zealand. …
Thar’ She Blows!
The Kaikoura whale-boom is part of one of the world’s fastest-growing tourism opportunities, worth over US $1billion world-wide.
Kiwi Cannibal Hookers
“We were shocked. The male would come ashore, grab the pup, swim out 5 or 1 metres with it, shake it around, kill it, and then bite off chunks and limbs and eat them,” said Dr…
Dog Eat Cat World
Felines are unwelcome at Macquarie Island. New Zealand cat-hounds are cleaning them up.
One mammal, One Moniker
New Zealand is to be included in an Asian flora and fauna database aiming to reduce confusion caused by species with more than one name.
Avian Aphrodisiac
There are only 62 Kakapo in the world, and they don’t always seem that interested in making more. DOC scientists, hoping to see some action from the feather fellows, have concocted a special kind of muesli…
Moa Manipulation
Digital manipulation is an example of Stephen Jay Gould’s ‘Great Asymmetry’: creation takes much longer than destruction or consumption. “It takes millions or billions of years for evolution to produce a species well-adapted to its environment, while…
Fishy Dispute
The science of salmon conservation is muddy, but, as New Zealand’s introduced salmon show, the king of fish is an adaptable beast.
Soft-soaping Protector
Waiuku orchardist Chris Henry has created the world’s first organically acceptable soft-soap fungicide. The product, branded as Protector, is “just what environment conscious growers and customers have been demanding”.
Top of the Pots
New Zealand plants have a distinctive look to them, and the tree-fern is perhaps one of the most unusual. Ponga trees are a hot item in the UK. Home Front TV gardener Diarmuid Gavin highlights them on…
Moa Simulation: The Strange World of Canterbury Ecology
New Zealand has more small-leaved, tangled shrubs than anywhere else in the world. Some experts think the plants evolved like this to deter the now-extinct moa from making them dinner, but Canterbury University ecologist Dave Kelly doesn’t…
Kiwi Trout: Once Bitten
Studies at the Cawthorn Institute in Nelson have revealed that trout learn from experience. Fish that have been caught and returned to the water stay out of sight next time. The trout are also smart enough to…
Flax: A Protective Edge
The Sunday Times garden columnist, Dan Pearson, gets all excited about Phorium tenax: New Zealand flax, or Harakeke. He’s found its adaptation to New Zealand’s harsh coasts makes it the perfect windbreak for a seaside garden…
Just Add Soap and Hey Presto: 20m Geyser!
In the notes and queries section of the Guardian a reader enquires about the practice of putting soap down geyser spouts to stimulate eruption. Leo Pyle elaborates on the science of the practice by refering to…
Immunising Roadkill to Protect Livestock?
Imagine a countryside filled with possum traps, not designed to kill, but to entice the pesky pest in for a quick facial spray to vaccinate them against bovine TB. Hailing some edge thinking the Guardian writes: “It…
Organic Expert Export
Organic farmer Evelyn Eng-Lim is introducing the organic lifestyle to Singapore and hopes to set an example for other farmers to follow, “If other farmers see that it is commercially viable, then they will be convinced…
The Art of Selling Nothing: Cashing in on Kiwi Fresh Air
New Zealand’s tourism campaigns play on the myth of its clean, green image, but soon the truth may be stranger than fiction. A proposal for clean air producers, such as New Zealand, to sell “carbon sinks”…
God Save Thee, Ancient Mariner!
The mariner soon learnt his lesson, but it doesn’t seem to have rubbed off on today’s fishermen, with one of the world’s most majestic seabirds threatened with extinction from long-line fishing, and environmental and habitat pollution. The…
Japan Harpoons ANZAC Conservation Efforts
Japan has gestured towards restarting ‘scientific’ whale-killing, despite stern objection form New Zealand and Australia and environmental groups. New Zealand IWC Commissioner Jim McLay, who is seen as a key anti-whaling speaker inside the commission, said the…
New Zealand Not Giving Up on South Pacific Whale Sanctuary
A bid by New Zealand and Australia to establish an ocean sanctuary to protect whale breeding grounds failed at the International Whaling Commission Meeting in Adelaide. Despite securing two-thirds of the vote, they were blocked by the hard-lobbying…
Delightful Dowderwell’s Delphiniums
The Scotsman’s gardening writer Carolyn Spray recommends an esoteric Wanganui website: “If you’re as passionate about delphiniums as I am, you’ll love this site … All about growing, pests and diseases likely to occur, it also has…
New Zealand Versus the Mother Country: A Titanic Struggle
We’re obviously not talking rugby, but earthworms. Visitors to the University of Dundee’s Botany Department got to see a titanic struggle of earthly proportions, with the New Zealand flatworm attacking and overwhelming its British cousin – the…
Save Our Sea-mammals : Pacific Plan for Whale Sanctuary
New Zealand and Australian governments are set to pressure the International Whaling Commission into creating a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific, believing that a plan must be implemented to protect stocks already severely depleted by whaling.
Boar-wheel Drive: Kiwi Kune Kune Goes Skateboarding
Ten month old Purdey, a rare New Zealand Kune Kune pig is amusing the locals in Warrington by adopting a sty-lish mode of transport.
Ice Station Sirius:
Kiwi constructs camp of civil disobedience for Greenpeace Henk Haazen, a Dutch-born New Zealander, built the hi-tech camp and coordinated supplies for the Alaskan Greenpeace protest against oil company Northstar. Haazen’s part in Greenpeace’s ‘cold-war’ recently…
Edge Record: “And a Good South Wind Sprung Up Behind; the Albatross Did Follow”
For a very long time without a wallow … “The longevity record is of a giant royal albatross banded in New Zealand and recovered as a breeding adult 58 years later.”
New Zealand Nature on the Edge of London
An oasis of calm – in the form of a 105-acre wildlife reserve – has been developed just seven miles from the bustle of the centre of London. The Wetlands Center includes a New Zealand white…
The Mighty Moa
Preview of Discovery Programme: “Discovery takes a look at an extraordinary (and extinct) New Zealand bird, the moa. The story of the moa is one of mystery and imagination. It reads like a good detective story”.
“It’s a Grey Whale, I Tell Ya” NZ Whale Detectives Enforce Law of the Sea
Genetic scientists from Auckland University, New Zealand, have discovered that meat from the gray whale, an internationally protected species, was sold in Japanese shops in 1999. They are demanding the Japanese State Fishing Agency locate where the meat…
100% Pure: New Zealand Acts to Protect its Isolated Environment
New Zealand’s geographical islation has allowed farms, orchads and tree plantations to remain relatively free of pests and disease that could push up production costs and reduce market export access – but it’s isolation also means it…
Hard Work Starts to Pay off for Kiwi Organic Pioneers
At first farmers were concerned labeling certain products ‘organic’ would tarnish others as inferior, but many are beginning to see that increasing demand from consumers, home and abroad cannot be ignored, as New Zealand pioneers like Angela Aitchison…
“There She Goes.” Moby Dick Move Over as Hunt for Giant Squid Begins
That 19th Century tale of adventure on the high seas is about to be challenged by a 21st century adventure beneath them, when Jean-Michel Cousteau dives off New Zealand’s Kaikoura coast in search of the mythical…
Muse behind Watership Down
Ronald Lockley, internationally renowned naturalist, died in New Zealand on April 12, aged 96. The Economist obituary dryly notes that “New Zealanders liked Ronald Lockley, admired his reputation as a protector of nature, and…
Mum’s the Word: Experience Counts
Ecologist Elissa Cameron at Massey University has found that older mothers make better mothers simply because they use their time more efficiently – or at least mares do. The discovery was made in a study of…
Crack Kiwi Anti-predator Experts Keep Puffin Puffing
Bird-counting volunteer Louise Tickle sees positive effects of New Zealand wildlife preservation techniques on British seabird populations.
Doh! Homer the Seal Goes Home
The seal who has made a New Zealand fishing town his home for more than two weeks has finally gone back to the sea. But people who own property on the wharf will be relieved that…
New Zealand Scientists Find out More About Moa
In an article in Science new evidence suggests that a huge flightless birds called the moa was extinct within a few decades after humans’ first arrived at the bird’s New Zealand homeland, suggesting that whole species can…
