Here are some cool facts from NZ Arb about each of our beloved trees… Click on photo to go to voting form Rākau āporo | Apple tree There are around 7500 varieties of apples are grown world wide. The most popular variety of apple in NZ is the Royal Gala. It was born and bred […]

Beaked whales are the largest family of whales after dolphins, yet little is known about them. They’re seldom seen at sea, and some species are known only from skeletal remains found on beaches. 13 species are recorded from New Zealand. The  “world’s rarest whale” – or at least the least known whale the spade-toothed whale […]

Watch the Flight Plastic  Plant in Lower Hutt in  action! This is the first PET Wash Plant in New Zealand.

By Rhiannon (age 13) This report goes supports what is written by Rhiannon in ‘Wild Things’ Issue 140 (Spring 2018).  Plastic forks, plastic straws, packaging and especially plastic bags. Plastic is made from oil which is a fossil fuel and one day it will run out. I learned at the conference in June that in 2025 there […]

By Ailsa Howard, Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust, and Chairperson, F&B Kaikōura branch In the South Island, about halfway between Christchurch and Picton, there are two parallel mountain ranges, known as the Inland and Seaward Kaikōuras. As mountains go, they are very young and steep, and the rocks that make them up are very soft and crumbly. Many areas are dangerous because of […]

An extension from the article in Wild Things issue 135 (winter 2017) by Dr. Daniel Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Vertebrate Zoology at Massey University. Giant fossil penguin bones have been found in several places in New Zealand and also overseas in Antarctica and South America. The key to finding giant penguin fossils is to look in the […]

From a fear of spiders to a career in them. Arachnologist, Fiona Cross talks to us about working with these fascinating little critters. When I grew up, I knew that I wanted to be a Zoologist (a scientist who studies animal biology), but I never thought I’d ever work with spiders! I used to be […]

Asks Amy Robinson We breathe oxygen from the air with our lungs. An earthworm breathes oxygen by absorbing it through its moist skin. It likes damp soil, but if the rain is very heavy, the oxygen in the water-logged soil may run out. Then the worm has to come up into the air to breathe. […]