Introduced over 150 years ago as the basis for a fur trade, the Australian brush-tail possum has instead become an ecological plague, chomping its way through millions of tonnes of forest foliage a ...

Human mutation has always been fascinating. From the exploitative ‘dime’ museums of the nineteenth century to reptile collector who are willing to pay thousands of dollars for oddly mutated specimens.

The worst experience of the Second World War for New Zealand Red Cross nurse Mona Plane was caring for the survivors of Japanese POW camps. “On one stretcher there seemed to be just a skeleton,” she ...

In April 2000, a small boulder that had for decades graced the garden of the old St Stephen’s Presbyterian manse in Dunedin was ceremoniously welcomed home by the people of Moeraki. The rock had begun ...

A resonant whoosh of air and water blasts skywards as a Bryde’s (pronounced “broode­rs”) whale surfaces 60 metres in front of us. The twin blowholes on the top of its head are clearly visible. The ...

Here we are—a nation of parents, grandparents and children all in the same boat, together at home. He waka eke noa. Every day of the lock-down we will post a story or video and set of activities that ...

The wall went up in 1964. It didn’t go up very far, mind you—1.4 metres of it was under the ground, with only about 50 centimetres sticking out the top. But Frank Evison, the prominent geophysicist ...

How did I ever get caught in a trap like this? No way up and certainly no way to climb back down. A wall of vertical granite fell away beneath my feet and gravity, so deftly defied until now, returned ...

The iconic puriri moth is the elephant of New Zealand’s 30 species of swift moth. Its life is brief. The adult moth lives for only 48 hours after as long as five years as a larva. And with no ...

Like many children, Mana Vautier was captivated by space travel early on. “As far back as I can remember I was very interested in space—in particular, human space flight,” he says. “I’ve always looked ...

In March of this year, a special courier arrived in Wellington from France carrying a rather unimpos­ing stuffed lizard for dis­play at the National Museum. This specimen ­described by one ...

Everyone knows that trees are good for the environment. They hold land together, produce oxygen and turn that pesky carbon dioxide into carbon credits—formerly known as wood. But now comes a smut that ...