News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Whale Shark Expert Simon Pierce Hopes Tourism Helps

Whale Shark Expert Simon Pierce Hopes Tourism Helps

New Plymouth-born head of the Marine Megafauna Foundation and leading authority on whale sharks Simon Pierce has been overseeing a project on Nosy Be, an island off the northwestern coast of Madagascar, where there…

Kahurangi National Park Gets Bigger

Kahurangi National Park Gets Bigger

Kahurangi National Park, situated in the north-west corner of the South Island, the second-largest national park in the country, has expanded by 14 per cent, roughly half the size of Auckland. More than 64,000ha of…

Extinct Penguins Wiped out by Hungry Humans

Extinct Penguins Wiped out by Hungry Humans

The discovery of two extinct penguin subspecies in New Zealand is a cautionary tale of the threats faced by the waddling birds in the wild. Veronique Greenwood reports for The New York Times. For thousands…

Origins of Extinct Adzebill Traced to Africa

Origins of Extinct Adzebill Traced to Africa

Scientists at the University of Adelaide have revealed the African origins of New Zealand’s most mysterious giant flightless bird – the now extinct adzebill – showing that some of its closest living relatives are…

NZ’s Deteriorating Water Raises A Stink

NZ’s Deteriorating Water Raises A Stink

“New Zealand’s clean, green image took a beating this summer as tourists travelling through the countryside posted pictures of lakes and rivers off limits due to contamination by farm effluent, rubbish and human faece.”…

Candyman’s Quiet Quest to Collect Banana Varieties

Candyman’s Quiet Quest to Collect Banana Varieties

In Alega, American Samoa some delicious banana varieties are getting harder to find. A New Zealander, known only as Candyman, collects the fruit. Acquiring a new one can be as simple as trading with…

What Is the Sea Telling Us about Whale Strandings?

What Is the Sea Telling Us about Whale Strandings?

Whale whisperer Hori Parata was just seven years old when he attended his first mass stranding, a beaching of porpoises in Northland, their cries screeching through the air on the deserted stretch of sand. Seven…

Hopes Webcam Can save Endangered Albatross

Hopes Webcam Can save Endangered Albatross

Millions of amateur naturalists around the world have been tuning in to the secret lives of albatrosses as Department of Conversation (DOC) rangers on the Otago Peninsula employ YouTube in a bid to save…

Endangered Penguins Kitted Out in Onesies

Endangered Penguins Kitted Out in Onesies

Ahead of Penguin Awareness Day on 20 January, a story has been doing the rounds about The Wildlife Hospital in Dunedin. They are using baby onesies to aid in the recuperation of endangered yellow-eyed…

Where to Spot Wildlife in New Zealand

Where to Spot Wildlife in New Zealand

“Located at the bottom of the planet, New Zealand has a diverse range of landscapes in a country with a population that is tiny by world standards” and “it’s no surprise that New Zealand…

Why Are Whales Stranding in New Zealand?

Why Are Whales Stranding in New Zealand?

While whale strandings are not uncommon, they usually involve just a single animal rather than a whole group. The recent flurry of mass strandings on New Zealand beaches has brought…

North and South Islands Moving Closer Together

North and South Islands Moving Closer Together

The North and South Islands are moving closer together after a series of earthquakes in 2016 that lifted the sea floor, GNS Science has said. Over about a minute-and-a-half, parts of the Marlborough coast were…

Kiwi To Be Reintroduced to Wellington

Kiwi To Be Reintroduced to Wellington

Wellington could soon have kiwi nesting beside Parliament House thanks to an ambitious conservation project that aims to reintroduce New Zealand’s iconic national bird to the capital city within the next decade. There are 68,000…

New Zealand Bird of the Year

New Zealand Bird of the Year

The Kererū – “a native green and bronze wood pigeon with a taste for fermented fruit has been named the 2019 bird of the year in New Zealand” in a poll organised by Forest…

Fiordland Penguins Make Mammoth Migrations

Fiordland Penguins Make Mammoth Migrations

Every December, the Fiordland crested penguins, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, which live on the South Island, disappear, Jason Daley reports for the Smithsonian journal. A new satellite study shows the penguins migrate up to 7000km to…

Time May Be Running Out for Tāne Mahuta

Time May Be Running Out for Tāne Mahuta

New Zealand’s oldest and most sacred tree, Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), stands 60m from death, as a fungal disease known as kauri dieback spreads unabated across the country. Despite stringent efforts by…

Sign Up to Help Protect Our Iconic Bird

Sign Up to Help Protect Our Iconic Bird

Kiwis for kiwi is a national charity working with community and Māori-led conservation projects to put a stop to the horrific decline of our national icon. With the support of Old Mout Cider, they have…

Frolicking Right Whale Charms Wellingtonians

Frolicking Right Whale Charms Wellingtonians

A huge southern right whale frolicking in Wellington harbour brought the capital’s waterfront to a standstill last week as locals skipped work to catch a glimpse of the animal. Southern right whales used to be…

NZ Most Perilous Place for Seabirds

NZ Most Perilous Place for Seabirds

“Seabirds are more at risk of dying due to plastic in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, new research presented to parliament has shown.” Eleanor Ainge Roy reports for

Towards Making Auckland Island Predator-Free

Towards Making Auckland Island Predator-Free

At Forest and Bird’s 2018 Conference, New Zealand Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced funding for the first step in the country’s “most ambitious island pest eradication”. Sage has committed $2 million over the next three…

Roadside Gyms Keep Kea Busy

Roadside Gyms Keep Kea Busy

To try to keep New Zealand’s Mountain Parrots “out of harm’s way, conservationists have developed roadside kea gyms which is equipped with ladders, spinning flotation devices, swings and climbing frames,” as reported in an…

Saving New Zealand’s Prehistoric Giant Wētā

Saving New Zealand’s Prehistoric Giant Wētā

New Zealand is rich in wildlife and, because of its isolation, there are hundreds of plants and animals that evolved here that cannot be found anywhere else. The country’s giant wētā (wētā punga) managed…

Bird’s Eye View of New Zealand’s Changing Glaciers

Bird’s Eye View of New Zealand’s Changing Glaciers

Every March, glacier “watchers” take to the skies to photograph snow and ice clinging to high peaks along the length of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Researchers Andrew Lorrey, Andrew Mackintosh and Brian Anderson write…

New Zealand Rallies to Save its Iconic Bird

New Zealand Rallies to Save its Iconic Bird

There are 68,000 kiwi left in New Zealand, and they are declining at the rate of 2 per cent per year. A century ago, there were millions. Outside the predator-free zones, kiwi chicks and…

Dubai Safari’s Timothy Husband Recovers Exotic Pets

Dubai Safari’s Timothy Husband Recovers Exotic Pets

It has been a busy first six months for Dubai Safari under the stewardship of its technical director, New Zealander Timothy Husband, Nick Webster reports for The National. Too big for owners to manage…

Genetically Distinct Blue Whales Discovered in NZ

Genetically Distinct Blue Whales Discovered in NZ

A new population of at least 700 blue whales has been found living between the North and South Islands. The gigantic marine mammals are genetically distinct from whales found in the neighbouring Pacific and…

Spectacular Sinkhole Opens Up In New Zealand

Spectacular Sinkhole Opens Up In New Zealand

“A spectacular sinkhole the length of two football fields and the depth of a six-story building has opened up on a New Zealand farm” near the North Island town of Rotorua, writes Guy Birchall in…

See the World’s Smallest Penguins in Oamaru

See the World’s Smallest Penguins in Oamaru

Life can be tough when you’re a blue penguin. For starters, you are no taller than a house cat and weigh less than a kilogram. That means many other creatures – rats, ferrets and…

Prehistoric Toothless Whale Among Oldest of Its Kind

Prehistoric Toothless Whale Among Oldest of Its Kind

A fossil found in South Canterbury is now one of the earliest members of the filter-feeding family of behemoths known as baleen whales. Modern baleen whales include many of the world’s largest cetaceans, such…

Sperm Race Helping Save Sugar-Lapping Hihi

Sperm Race Helping Save Sugar-Lapping Hihi

“It’s likely you’ve never heard of a hihi, let alone seen one in the wild. Also known as stitchbirds, these colourful little critters are a true taonga. They’re only found in New Zealand, and…

Glowworms Are Stars of the New Zealand Night

Glowworms Are Stars of the New Zealand Night

“If you want to experience a starry night in New Zealand even when it’s cloudy, there’s an option. When foul weather hides the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds of the southern skies, you…

How Bisexual Goose Thomas Became an Icon

How Bisexual Goose Thomas Became an Icon

A memorial was recently held for Thomas the goose, a “New Zealander who spent most of his life as a loving partner, caring father and an icon of the LGBT community”, Yvette Tan writes in a…

Frisky Spokesbird Sirocco Comes out of Hiding

Frisky Spokesbird Sirocco Comes out of Hiding

Sirocco, New Zealand’s superstar kakapo, is alive and well in Fiordland, according to the Department of Conservation. The conservation ‘spokesbird’ shot to fame after he got a bit too friendly…

World’s Loneliest Bird Nigel Dies on Mana Island

World’s Loneliest Bird Nigel Dies on Mana Island

Nigel, a handsome gannet who lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly last week. Wherever his soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse, Karin Brulliard…

Extinct Giant Burrowing Bat Fossil Found in NZ

Extinct Giant Burrowing Bat Fossil Found in NZ

The fossils of a massive bat have been discovered near the historic mining town of St Bathans in Central Otago. The 16- to 19-million-year-old bat’s body mass was just 40g, but its teeth and…

Struggling Kiwis Get A Little Help From Friends

Struggling Kiwis Get A Little Help From Friends

“The Farm Cape Kidnappers, a luxury resort in the North Island, sits inside one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the country, the privately-owned Cape Sanctuary. There, efforts are underway to save the native…

Experts Develop Roadside Gym for Endangered Kea

Experts Develop Roadside Gym for Endangered Kea

Conservationists want to stop New Zealand’s kea – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for food, so they have designed a special gym for the country’s playful…

Largest Underwater Eruption Discovered off NZ

Largest Underwater Eruption Discovered off NZ

Researchers have found that the world’s largest deep ocean volcanic eruption happened 1000km north east of New Zealand. Named as Havre, the deep ocean volcanic eruption was first discovered in 2002. A solidified volcanic rock…

Adorable Penguin Melts Hearts in Bluff

Adorable Penguin Melts Hearts in Bluff

Footage of a Fiordland crested penguin in Bluff waddling up to his awaiting human friend Rodney Clark has delighted the internet and amused many New Zealand locals. The video shows Bluff local Clark standing on the…

Human-Sized Penguin Remains Found on Hampden Beach

Human-Sized Penguin Remains Found on Hampden Beach

Remnants of a 1.77-metre-tall penguin who walked on earth 55m to 60m years ago have been found south of Christchurch on what is now Hampden Beach. Measurements of the partial skeleton show that the flightless…

New Zealand’s War on Rats Could Change the World

New Zealand’s War on Rats Could Change the World

Before they were brought to New Zealand in the 13th century, the only land mammals in the country were bats and local birds could roam free. Today much of New Zealand, “has been so…

Trump Forest Countering Ignorant Climate Policy

Trump Forest Countering Ignorant Climate Policy

Founded in New Zealand in March 2017 by British climate scientist Dr Dan Price, American PhD candidate Jeff Willis and French-New Zealander Adrien Taylor (pictured right), the Trump Forest movement has now gone global,…

NZ’s Winter Shorter by a Month over 100 Years

NZ’s Winter Shorter by a Month over 100 Years

Studies by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) show that winter has contracted equally at its beginning and end. Winter has gotten shorter by a month over the last 100 years,…

Compassionate Conservation a Better Alternative

Compassionate Conservation a Better Alternative

“It’s a well-known fact that New Zealand is at war with much of its wildlife. Of course, not all New Zealanders agree with this onslaught, the goal of which is to remove all non-native…

Kea Soars to Bird of the Year Victory

Kea Soars to Bird of the Year Victory

The kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, has been crowned New Zealand Bird of the Year, beating the kereru and the kakapo with thousands more votes cast for the species than there are surviving…

Teen Plans to Open Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand

Teen Plans to Open Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand

Jack Lanting, from Hamilton, was eight years old when he fell in love with Lily, a rescue elephant he met at the Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand while on a trip with his…

New Zealand Wasp Named After Harry Potter Villain

New Zealand Wasp Named After Harry Potter Villain

Auckland University entomologist and Harry Potter fan Tom Saunders has named a parasitoid wasp after “redeemed” character Lucius Malfoy in the hope of showing not all wasps are bad. Saunders named and described the wasp…

Drilling Reveals Secrets of Sunken Lost Continent

Drilling Reveals Secrets of Sunken Lost Continent

The mostly submerged South Pacific landmass Zealandia may have been closer to land level than once thought, providing pathways for animals and plants to cross continents from 80 million years ago, an expedition has…

How to Raise the Rarest Kiwi

How to Raise the Rarest Kiwi

“When I first see the kiwi chick, I briefly wonder if I’m actually looking at a real animal. It’s a grapefruit-sized sphere of fluff with an adorably short version of an adult’s long beak,”…

New Zealand’s Iconic Kiwi May Be Losing Its Sight

New Zealand’s Iconic Kiwi May Be Losing Its Sight

The flightless nocturnal kiwi may be evolving to lose its eyesight altogether, suggest researchers. The blindness was discovered during a study of 160 Okarito brown kiwis (Apteryx rowi) in the South Island’s Okarito forest….

Quest to Rediscover Lost Pink and White Terraces

Quest to Rediscover Lost Pink and White Terraces

Roughly the size of a city block and up to eight stories high, the Pink and White Terraces were one of the top tourist attractions in New Zealand during the 19th century, Atlas Obscura…

You Never Saw a Dolphin That Looked so Cute

You Never Saw a Dolphin That Looked so Cute

During the summer of 1955-56, the Northland township of Opononi attracted thousands of visitors from across the country. They came because they wanted to catch a glimpse of a visitor who’d appeared on the…

Timothy Husband Helping Animals at Dubai Safari

Timothy Husband Helping Animals at Dubai Safari

New Zealander Timothy Husband should have been enjoying retirement at his cattle farm near the Blue Mountains of Australia, but he couldn’t resist the lure of helping captive wild animals at Dubai’s new safari…

Brown Kiwi Hatches at Zoo in Virginia

Brown Kiwi Hatches at Zoo in Virginia

A little brown kiwi chick has hatched at The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia, United States. Zoo staff had been monitoring the egg closely the previous week after signs it would…

Forest Trump Plant Trees in Opposition to Policies

Forest Trump Plant Trees in Opposition to Policies

New Zealand-based green group, Forest Trump, is mounting an effort to protest President Trump’s environmental policies by planting trees. The group was founded in March by British climate scientist and glaciologist Dan Price, American Ph.D….

Queenstown One of the Best Places to See Southern Lights

Queenstown One of the Best Places to See Southern Lights

The southern lights or aurora australis are the southern cousin to the aurora borealis and can best be seen from the most southern of landmasses, such as Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica, writes Jennifer…