Tag Archives: Kea

Aves Appreciation Rubs off on Sydney Writer

Aves Appreciation Rubs off on Sydney Writer

It seems like “every single” New Zealander has some kind of “bird madness”, and Sydney writer Rebecca Shaw has now determined that she too is “infected”, “and loving it”. Shaw reports on her new-found…

Endangered Kea Image a Shot of the 2000s

Endangered Kea Image a Shot of the 2000s

Photographers working for UK newspapers The Guardian and The Observer pick their favourite moments from over two decades reporting around the world. A fleeting moment, captured by Murdo MacLeod, in the South Island features. “The…

Kea Show Humanlike Ability to Make Predictions

Kea Show Humanlike Ability to Make Predictions

Whether it’s calculating your risk of catching coronavirus or gauging the chance of rain on your upcoming beach vacation, you use a mix of statistical, physical, and social information to make a decision, Virginia…

New Zealand’s Engaged Diaspora an Asset

New Zealand’s Engaged Diaspora an Asset

The number of New Zealanders scattered around the globe is massive. Back in 1999 Brian Sweeney, founder of nzedge.com which originated the idea of a Kiwi Diaspora, put the number at one million of…

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…

Laughing Kea a Science Story of the Year

Laughing Kea a Science Story of the Year

Leading scientists pick the dozen most significant discoveries and developments of 2017 – from a steep decline in flying insects to a laughter-like play vocalisation – a warble call – has been discovered in…

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…

Kea’s Laughter Positively Contagious

Kea’s Laughter Positively Contagious

New Zealand’s alpine parrot the kea has become the first non-mammal to show signs of contagious “laughter,” according to a study published in the journal Current Biology. Kea aren’t quite cracking each other…

New Zealand Paradise in New York Gallery

New Zealand Paradise in New York Gallery

Transcendental images of New Zealand sky, horizons and water by photographer Brian Sweeney are on show at pop-up New Zealand gallery ORA on New York’s Seventh Avenue. “Paradise Road,” Sweeney’s exhibition of…

Advancing Our Reputation on the World Stage

Advancing Our Reputation on the World Stage

Four internationally successful New Zealanders – digital entrepreneur Claudia Batten (pictured), Shrek director Andrew Adamson, investor Neville Jordan, surgical robotics technologist Dr Catherine Mohr – have been celebrated for advancing our reputation on the…

Finding the Famous Five

Finding the Famous Five

When he was last in New Zealand British zoologist Mark Carwardine spent two weeks travelling the length and breadth of the country, “in search of an outlandish menagerie of animals known as the ‘Small…

Investing for Prosperity

Investing for Prosperity

A new study undertaken by global network Kea claims that encouraging expatriate New Zealanders to invest in their home country is the best way to “achieve improved prosperity.” The research was based on interviews…

Spend Your Time Wisely

Spend Your Time Wisely

New Zealander Derek Handley, who sold his mobile marketing company, The Hyperfactory to American media conglomerate Meredith Corporation last year for an undisclosed amount, gave a speech in April at Kea, New Zealand’s global…

NEW Zealand: NEW Thinking

NEW Zealand: NEW Thinking

Brian Sweeney’s Speech at Kea’s “NEW Zealand: NEW Thinking” event in New York. (13 minutes)

Staying Connected with Home

Staying Connected with Home

Online networking site Kea New Zealand has launched a global ‘census’ of expatriate New Zealanders, dubbed ‘Every Kiwi Counts’, and aimed at connecting the estimated one million of us living overseas. “New Zealanders living…

Identity Theft

Identity Theft

A Fiordland kea made off with a Scottish tourist’s passport when the man’s tour bus driver opened the luggage  compartment of the vehicle. The passport has not been recovered and, given the 4,600 square…

Karate vs. Kea

Karate vs. Kea

Organisers of a vintage car rally near Mt Cook took an unusual defensive stance against marauding local kea, which are notorious for damaging cars in alpine areas. The car club hired 40 karate practitioners to protect…

Kea Car-ha?

Kea Car-ha?

Judy Diamond and Alan B. Bond’s spent hours at an Arthur’s Pass rubbish dump working out the evolutionary significance of the kea: “Keas are giant mountain parrots, and they love cars, especially soft-tops. If you leave…

Who’s a Clever Kea Then?

Who’s a Clever Kea Then?

The kea outscores gibbons in intelligence tests. “There was definitely learning going on,” says Rachel Johnston who administered the avian IQ tests.

Clever Kea

Clever Kea

The inhospitable alpine environment has caused the kea to develop “a very human-like curiosity and flexibility”.

Bad Bird

Bad Bird

“Even in New Zealand there are sheep farmers that lose stock to wildlife, namely the Kea, a large native and protected parrot. It may seem incredible, but it’s true.”