It’s spring and all across the South Island our native animals are building their nests, fighting for territory and sussing out mates for this summer’s breeding season as Lucy Dickie writes. New Zealand Sea Lions One such animal undertaking this courting behaviour is our largest, endemic animal, the New Zealand sea lion, or Rapoka. It’s […]

Ben from Auckland sent in this wonderful story about a little blue penguin named Fred who goes on an adventure in the ocean. We loved it so much we asked Giselle Clarkson to turn it into a comic, which you can read in the latest issue of our Wild Things Magazine. Read all three chapters of Ben’s […]

Henderson Valley School has been working on a mural about the Māui’s dolphin because it is nearly extinct. The idea for a mural happened about a year ago when Paolo Maladondo, who is one of the school parents, wanted to make a mural out of plastic bottle tops. This would mean the bottle tops wouldn’t […]

The Great Kererū Count is nearly here! From the 16th- 25th of September, you can take part in New Zealand’s largest citizen science project by getting outside and counting kererū. This will help scientists get a better understanding of kererū numbers and where they live. The more people who take part, the better information they get about how […]

Birds come in lots of different sizes and it helps to know how big they are when you’re trying to identify them. Sometimes, it’s hard to describe to someone else how big the bird that you saw was. You might use your hands to estimate, but comparing it to something you know the weight of means you can […]

What’s happened to our freshwater? Over the last 30 years our freshwater has been slowly getting more and more polluted.  Our farms are increasing the number of cows and the amount of fertiliser they use.  Our towns and cities have also been growing and at the same time our government and regional councils done a poor job of looking after our lakes and rivers. […]

Are you going out fishing this easter weekend? You might want to look out for seabirds and teach the adults you’re with how to protect them from nets and hooks. New Zealand is the “seabird capital of the world” because we have more threatened seabirds than anywhere else in the world. There are about 14 million […]