New Zealand’s forests were once the home of the largest eagle in the world. This enormous bird had claws as big as a tiger’s, and could strike its prey with the force of a concrete block dropped from ...

What an improbable animal is the seahorse! With a horse’s head, a possum’s tail, eyes like tiny glass fishbowls and fins that wave like chiffon frills, the shy creatures have intrigued and delighted ...

Once thought to be an insect which turns into a plant, the vegetable caterpillar is one of the more bizarre oddities in New Zealand’s fauna. In 1763, an English scientist claimed to have discovered an ...

During the summer of 2002, kakapo on Codfish Island/Whenua Hou, off the north-western coast of Stewart Island, bred with unprecedented success. Of 26 chicks hatched, 24 survived, boosting total kakapo ...

The planting of Russell lupins as sheep feed in the Canterbury high country is triggering a clash between farming and conservation values. In early summer, photographers jostle for space on the ...

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 ...

Toxoplasma is a mind-altering parasite. The malaria-like microbe moves from cats to intermediate hosts, and back again, as part of its lifecycle. The host can be any warm-blooded animal—birds, rodents ...

In the last century illegal whisky production in Southland’s Hokonui Hills was a subject of police investigations. Today that shady past is a cause for celebration. The legend of Hokonui leads back to ...

The fight to eradicate the yellow-legged hornet involves poison-puffing spears, spacesuits, Christmas tinsel, hectic chases ...

More than technical prowess, the photographs that were short-listed in each category share an original perspective—a insight into the fabric of our country and society that tells us something new ...

There was a sense of expectation as we drove down the broom-lined track towards the Manuherikia River. It was December 2001, and we hoped that exposed layers of sediment in the Bannockburn Formation ...

Feijoas have become a New Zealand emblem. So how did they end up in Aotearoa, and how did we end up adoring them—to the point of obsession, for some—when feijoas have not really caught on anywhere ...