Meeting the Mōhua

We heard the mōhua before we saw them. Like our experiences with their cousins, they were most often spotted high above us in the trees peering down and chattering to one another.

The Baya Weaver (One Way to Please Her: Become a Master Weaver)

After an adventurous Malaysian jungle experience, we were back in the 4×4 heading out of the forest and soon bouncing our way down the dusty tracks surrounded by oil palm plantations. I had one more ask of our extremely patient guide and friend, Mr Lam. Several days earlier on the way into Endau Rompin National Park, we…

The Rhinoceros Hornbill : Malaysia’s National Bird

…Their most striking feature, their casque (the head ornament that looks like a second bill, or rhinoceros horn) is thought to have a similar function to that of  hadrosaur’s head crest.

Exploring the Malaysian Jungle: Endau-Rompin National Park

Tom and I spend the southern hemisphere’s summer in New Zealand, my home country, and the northern hemisphere’s summer in England, Tom’s home country. We follow the summer because it is also the ecology season when we get most work. The flight can be pretty long when you have to travel half-way around the globe, so…

Takahē: The World’s Largest Living Rail

The takahē’s story is quite amazing. Between 1849 and 1898, only four individuals were ever sighted… By the early 1900’s takahē were considered to be extinct.

New Zealand’s Smallest Endemic Bird isn’t a True Wren, it’s the Rifleman

Despite being known as one of the New Zealand wrens, of which it is one of only two surviving species, the Rifleman actually belongs to the ancient Acanthisittidae family. They are often called “wrens” due to similarities in appearance and behaviour to the true wrens of the family Troglodytidae.

New Zealand’s Longest Beetle: the Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis)

The New Zealand giraffe weevil is endemic to our country, and is in fact our longest beetle. It is also the longest beetle in the world of its family.

A Rare and Elusive Species: The Coromandel Striped Gecko [Toropuku “Coromandel”]

…only 28 individuals have been identified and recorded up until 12th November 2014. I am not aware of any updates to the database, but know that additional animals have been found since. I can be sure of this as Emma and I with our wildlife-spotting friends, Sara and Ro, came across two presumably new individuals that night!

The Toheroa Twist

In January this year, Tom and I ventured down to the bottom of New Zealand for an ecology contract surveying Toheroa. We were there to count and measure these shellfish on Oreti Beach, near Invercargill, in a effort to estimate the population and age distribution. They were an interesting species to work with considering their place…

Hochstetter’s Frog – 1 of the 4 Native New Zealand Frog Species

We had been instructed by our knowledgeable friends that if we were to turn over a few stones we would be in luck. No word of a lie, a few stones later we had found our first Hochstetter’s.

Booby Trapped

To see this individual was remarkable. Not just because it is the only known bird to have ever landed on mainland New Zealand, but because, by chance, we managed to stumble onto its location before its seaward departure at sunrise.

A Guest Among Gannets

The Muriwai gannet colony in one of three mainland gannet colonies in New Zealand. The origin of the colony at Muriwai began on the island of Oaia, just off the coast where gannets first established nesting sites in the early 20th century.