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Wilding pine cone

Winning against Wildings – an update

Introduced conifers are the backbone of commercial forestry in New Zealand, worth around $5 billion a year. However, invasion of land by ...

Common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)

Next-level possum control

The Australian common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) has invaded most New Zealand landscapes and has established itself as a ra...

Grant Norbury sets a camera trap near Tekapo

Fake clues: using misinformation about odour to protect rare bird species

Mammalian predators primarily rely on smell as their main cue, enabling them to detect food from a distance. Smell is – usually – a relia...

Field site on the west coast

An update on Eradication Science

Invasive species control routinely removes roughly 95% of a target population. However, as part of the Predator Free 2050 initiative, con...

  1. Tucking into Tongariro heather

    Heather (Calluna vulgaris) was deliberately introduced into New Zealand, on the Central Plateau of the North Island, from 1912 to 1923 in an attempt to re-create Scottish grouse moors. By the 1990s it had spread to cover around 60,000 hectares of land in what is now Tongariro National Park.

  2. New biocontrol tools for wasp pests

    Introduced Vespula wasps – the German wasp (Vespula germanica) and the common wasp (V. vulgaris) – are generalist predators that attack a wide variety of arthropods, including honeybees, butterflies, flies, and spiders. Where they are invasive, these wasps have detrimental effects on normal ecosyste...

  3. Tracking lake snow across Aotearoa

    Lake snow is a sticky, mucus-like substance extruded like threads from cells of the alga Lindavia intermedia. Suspended in water, it sticks to fishing gear, boats, motors and people, and if it gets into residential water supplies it can clog filters in household appliances. First noticed in Lake Wān...

  4. Building social licence to operate

    Social licence to operate (SLO) is an essential ingredient in successful applied research, and is sought after by groups and organisations wishing to bring about environmental change. For example, if New Zealand’s ambitious predator-free goals are to be realised, SLO will need to be built around the...

  5. Modelling the nation’s COVID-19 response

    Test, trace, and isolate is a strategy used widely in the fight against COVID-19. On its own, contact tracing is unlikely to contain a COVID-19 outbreak, but it may reduce transmission enough to allow population-wide social distancing measures, including lockdowns, to be relaxed. Our researchers hav...

  6. Te Reo o Te Repo cultural wetland handbook launched

    A new cultural repo (wetland) handbook has been launched to help give a voice to repo throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Te Reo o Te Repo – Kei konei tonu au | The voice of the wetland – I am still here is the second volume of the Te Reo o Te Repo cultural wetland handbook series published by Manaaki ...

  7. Exploring the impact of climate change on Māori

    Māori governance institutions are increasingly asserting their rangatiratanga (autonomy) to manage climate change risks and meet the well-being of whānau, hapū, and iwi. However, there is a shortage of guidance and understanding on how to prepare for and respond to this changing environment, and how...

  8. An update on our Better Border Biosecurity work

    Darren Ward and Quentin Paynter have been funded through Better Border Biosecurity (B3) to assess the non-target impact of biocontrol agents used in New Zealand over the past 100 years to control insect pests. The work will provide the EPA with information when assessing future applications for the ...

  9. Celebrating our achievements

    Jo Carpenter

    Jo Carpenter was awarded the 2020 New Zealand Ecological Society award for Outstanding Publication on New Zealand Ecology. Her paper, ‘An avian seed dispersal paradox: New Zealand’s extinct megafaunal birds did not disperse large seeds’, was published in Proceedings of the Royal Societ...

  10. Space invaders – revising the management of weeds

    Weed management efforts often focus on single, ‘priority’ plant species because they have known, substantial and detrimental ecosystem impacts. However, globally, most ecosystems have been invaded by multiple non-native plant species.
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