Flora Feltham wrote an early version of our cover story when she was living on Wellington’s predator-free reserve Mana Island with her husband, then a DOC ranger. The couple spent two years on the island, often alone, spanning Feltham’s first pregnancy and 10 months of their baby’s life. An incredible honour, she says, but it […]...
A diabolical gamemaker scatters 85 flags across the Pisa Range. He assigns each flag a certain number of points. Some are buried in brambles, others hidden in gorges. Some, fiendishly, will lead you away from fresh water. You have 24 hours, and a map. Go....
Human antidepressants flow into waterways after passing through the body, where they affect the behaviour of fish. Australian researchers created tanks of water polluted with one of the world’s most commonly prescribed antidepressants, fluoxetine (also known as Prozac), at concentrations that have already been detected in waterways around the world. Over two years, the scientists […]...
On January 4, 2007, while visiting tarns at Carrol Hut in the Kelly Range, Arthurs Pass National Park, Dr John Flux noticed a pair of redcoat damselflies (Xanthocnemis sinclairi) apparently mating and preparing for egg-laying. He was able to photograph the whole process. The pair backed down a stem into the water, the female first, […]...
Butterflies and moths are active in the middle of the day, and mostly through spring and summer. So that’s when Chrissie Ward, 77, goes for her transect walks. Once a week, right through every warm season since the spring of 2009, she has walked the same 4.5 kilometres around the outskirts of Nelson, following and […]...
Cabbage Trees, flax and bush-clad hillsides plunging into a shimmering blue sea. Sounds like New Zealand, right? Well, not quite. This is the Republic of Georgia, and the sea in question is the Black Sea, not the Tasman....
