Once hunted to the point of extinction, the Kaimanawa wild horses now thrive in the harsh high country of the Desert Road. Ironically, their rapidly increasing numbers pose a threat to the fragile native plants of the area. In the developing ecological tussle the horses are again in the firing line....
Mountaineer Graeme Dingle’s 1200km odyssey with six young violent offenders was a journey he would later describe as the most difficult and stressful adventure of his career, and one that nearly claimed his life....
On the map it’s just a speck in the vast Southern Ocean, lashed by the winds of the Furious Fifties. Yet scientists and weather staff queue up for a chance to live in this remote southern outpost. Raewyn MacKenzie went to find out what draws them there....
One of the Coromandel’s most famous visitors is back. Willie, or Humphrey, a three-tonne sea elephant who hit international headlines last year when he adopted a Wharekawa dairy herd and refused to return to the sea, has been seen in the neighbourhood again. Early in November he was spotted in the Whangamata estuary and has […]...
Before the end of summer more than 100,000 school children will have seen the two giant panda bears residing at the Auckland zoo, despite opposition from the World Wildlife Fund and the New Zealand Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. The two pandas, Fei Fei and Xiao Xiao, are on display until mid-January when they […]...
A green gecko in the Auckland area has the unusual habit of throwing off yellow progeny. Herpetologists describe the yellow offspring as a colour morph—a genetic variant which lacks the ability to produce blue pigment. There are seven varieties of green tree gecko in New Zealand. Opinions vary as to whether they are seven separate […]...
If David Bellamy could have his own way, his new television series on New Zealand natural history would be titled Raiders of the Last Ark. But Stephen Spielberg won’t let him, so he’s had to settle for Moa’s Ark. The Hollywood sci-fi movie producer has apparently threatened to sue Bellamy if he adapts the title […]...
An international celebration of nature, based in Dunedin, is planned for 1990. Television New Zealand’s inaugural Pacific festival of Nature Films, scheduled for the end of November that year, is to coincide with an international bird preservation conference in Hamilton, and in Christchurch, the 20th International Ornithological Congress. The year 1990 will see the Commonwealth […]...
New Zealand Geographic will survive on the strength of its journalism. For that reason we have set exacting standards for our contributors. To encourage them, we intend to acknowledge and applaud the writers, photographers and artists whose work appears in our journal....
From the pure white silica sands of Parengarenga Harbour to the bottles, jars and windows we come into contact with each day, the making of glass is both a science and an art. Louise Callan takes a look at this unique and timeless substance....
