Science Media Centre

A community-led conservation project – supported by Fairfax Media’s The Nelson Mail – aims to significantly reduce German and common wasps in the Nelson-Tasman region this summer. Stuff launched the campaign with an interactive feature – Wasp Wipeout – covering the history of wasps in New Zealand, current control regimes in the region and the […]

An island in the Marlborough Sounds has been restored to its predator-free status after an eradication operation successfully removed mice. Maud Island/Te Pakeka has been an important wildlife sanctuary since the 1970s, but mice were found on the island in spring 2013. The Department of Conservation (DOC) ran an operation the following winter using brodifacoum bait […]

A family of Northern royal albatross nesting on the Otago Peninsula have become internet stars thanks to a 24-7 live web cam set up by the Department of Conservation. The Department launched the #royalcam at Taiaroa Head — the world’s only mainland Albatross colony — today. The camera is trained on the nest of a […]

The Otago Daily Times reports that a rare serpent-like specimen, known as an oarfish, has been found on the beach in Aramoana, Dunedin. Department of Conservation service manager David Agnew said in his 20 years with DoC, he had never seen anything like the 3 metre specimen. Director of the Otago University marine studies programme […]

Smart spending of private conservation funding for individual ‘charismatic’ species can significantly benefit other species, say the authors of a new study. In New Zealand, the Department of Conservation (DOC) runs a National Partnership sponsorship programme, allowing companies to sponsor an individual, iconic ‘flagship’ species such as the kiwi, kakapo or takahe. Some experts have […]

The largest 1080 predator control operation ever attempted in New Zealand will be carried out in Kahurangi National Park later this month, as part of a national effort to combat soaring rat and stoat numbers in the conservation estate. This year’s large beech flowering and mast seeding event has created a huge increase in food […]

New Zealand’s forests are set to be the battleground for a war between introduced predators and the Department of Conservation. A larger than usual flowering and seeding of beech trees – known as a mast year – is expected to boost the number of rats and stoats in New Zealand’s forests. The coming plague of […]

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright,  is calling on the government to “sort out” land classed as ‘stewardship land’ —  a poorly protected category of conservation land in New Zealand. Dr Wright has expressed her concerns in a new report, Investigating the future of conservation: The case of stewardship land, which was released […]

A kiwi chick released on an island off the Kapiti coast may be the key to securing the future for the world’s most endangered kiwi – the rowi. The as-yet-unnamed rowi Kiwi chick was this week helicoptered to Mana Island — a predator-free kiwi sanctuary — as part of the National Kiwi Recovery Programme. The […]

Department of Conservation statistician Ian Westbrooke comments on 1080 use and the impact on birds and responds to the Whiting O’Keefe paper. Based on the fact that 1080 is an acute toxin, the primary focus for DOC on terms of native animals has been establishing if there is an immediate impact from 1080 operations, with […]