"Shaka can be a highly valuable and specialized conservation asset." Highly trained dog primed to play a key role in sniffing down pests in New Zealand: 'Already showing he knows what he's doing' first appeared on The Cool Down.

Three pilot whales died on Sunday, including one euthanised by volunteers, after a group of 30 whales of a range of ages and sizes re-stranded near the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island

Forest & Bird is calling for a ban on mining on public conservation land. Draft legislation was prepared during the previous government following a commitment in the 2017 Speech from the Throne.

Sure, 2024 wasn’t what you’d call a “feel-good” year for the natural world. But if your heart sank at each new blow to conservation (hello fast track bill, goodbye Jobs for Nature funding, looking at you, conservation and science budget cuts), let these despite-the-odds success stories lift your spirits.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand crews have been working hard to contain a large vegetation fire in mixed scrub and wetland on Tiwai Peninsula in Invercargill today. The fire has grown to 1,200 hectares across the centre of the peninsula, with an 18 kilometre perimeter, due to higher temperatures and wind speed this afternoon.

New Zealand plans to introduce legislation before the end of the year that will create a framework to help communities and businesses adapt to the impacts of climate change.

After several recent orca pod sightings in Waikato, the Department of Conservation (DoC) is reminding people to respect the rules around interactions with marine mammals. A family pod of five orcas – part of the resident population off New Zealand’s coasts – has been seen in Raglan and Kāwhia Harbour over the last two weeks.

In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis outlined a new ‘digital nomad visa’ aimed at highly skilled, highly paid workers able to spend up to nine months in New Zealand while working for an overseas employer.

Every day, about 48.5 tons of space rock hurtle towards Earth. Meteorites that fall into the ocean are never recovered. But the ones that crash on land can spark debates about legal ownership. Globally, meteorite hunting has become a lucrative business, with chunks of alien rock traded online and shipped between countries.

A man in New Zealand was slapped with a $6,000 fine for driving through a colony of endangered black-billed gulls and crushing their nests.

Thanks to Matakana’s proximity to the coast, you can easily add a visit to Omaha Beach, Tawaharanui Regional Park, or Goat Island Marine Reserve, New Zealand’s oldest protected ecological area, which families particularly like for snorkeling.

The show's premise is simple: Each season, conservation rangers select an albatross couple as that year's stars. A camera on the remote headland follows the chosen birds as they lay and incubate an egg, before their chick hatches around February, grows to adult size and finally takes flight.