Around the country, Birds New Zealand branches are trying to motivate their members to fill in one more observation list, while keen birders are ticking off grid squares, aiming for high scores. They’re working on the Bird Atlas, the biggest-ever citizen-science project on our shores.
Finding patterns in cat behaviour would help us to stop feral cats from chewing their way through native bat roosts and bird life. And so a group of New Zealand researchers pored over 36 studies from around the world in an attempt to understand the size of feral cats’ home range—where they hunt, mate, and nurse their young. “Are there similarities between cats?” they asked. Surprising nobody, the answer is no. The study, published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology, found no discernible patterns to the cats’ behaviour, even when taking into account the effects of season, habitat type, cat size, and competitor animals. One male cat roamed 3232 hectares, its home range the area of Gisborne. The most adventurous female cat roamed 2078 hectares; another stayed within 10 hectares. As any cat owner might tell you, every feline has a different idea of home.
Most of us think of catching up with friends as a way of showing care. University of Auckland aerosol chemist Joel Rindelaub sees it somewhat differently. What we’re doing, he says, is shooting a stream of dirty particles at their airways. As we speak, thousands of airborne droplets carrying COVID-19 virions catapult from behind his moustache towards me, then bounce off the Zoom window on his computer screen. He tested positive the previous day. Moreover, the risks of COVID transmission through conversation have been underestimated, according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June 2022. In part, this is because of the words used in experiments. Previous studies have relied on participants counting to 10 in English or cheering on a university mascot, such as the University of Maryland’s Testudo the diamondback terrapin. This experiment tested a wider range of words, and researchers discovered the power of “P” to generate large numbers of spit and mucus droplets, thanks to the film formed between the lips and then broken. Meanwhile, vowel sounds produced continuous airstreams—currents which these droplets can float on. Combining these, the researchers identified a highly infectious word: “popeye”. The bawdy sailor’s name generated a burst of droplets followed by a puff of air to propel them. Volunteers pressed their mouths against a 4.5cm tube, which fed into a 100-litre steel chamber, as they repeated words or exhaled. Laser light scattering measured the size and quantity of droplets produced. The researchers found that saying “popeye” into the chamber four times over the course of an hour created 10 times more droplets than a person breathing over the same period of time. They also found that eating a small apple sharply increased the number of expelled particles. Rindelaub put this down to “a lot of salivating, so your mouth is producing a lot of extra particles”. Eating and talking around people who are also eating and talking could be among the most risky activities—and it’s exactly how Rindelaub contracted COVID himself.
People who wear sunscreen are also more likely to get sunburned—an issue for Aotearoa, which tops the world in deaths from melanoma. An international study of global melanoma rates published in JAMA Dermatology in March 2022 found that Australasia has the highest prevalence of these skin cancers, and in New Zealand, they’re most deadly. Researchers forecast a dramatic increase—50 per cent—in melanoma by 2040. Meanwhile, a study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health in April 2021 found that New Zealanders underestimate the risk of sunburn and are too optimistic about the level of protection that sunscreen provides. People regarding sunscreen as their main—or only—form of protection is the problem, says one of the study’s authors, Otago University senior research fellow Geri McLeod. In addition, a March 2022 report by Consumer found many sunscreens not delivering the protection they promise. Its tests found 13 of 21 sunscreens didn’t meet their SPF label claims. In September 2022, sunscreens will be regulated by a new safety standard, and not meeting it could result in a fine under the Fair Trading Act. But under the new rules, sunscreens will remain classed as cosmetics, so they won’t require regular testing to ensure they make the grade. Consumer NZ and the Cancer Society are calling for more scrutiny, saying sunscreens should instead be classed as therapeutic products under the Medicines Act. So, we may be slopping—but why aren’t we slipping, slapping and wrapping? Bronwen McNoe, who co-directs Otago University’s social and behavioural research unit, says government investment in melanoma prevention is lacking. The government’s Health Promotion Agency (now part of Te Whatu Ora–Health New Zealand) received $500,000 for skin cancer prevention over 2020 and 2021, while Waka Kotahi spent $2.4 million in 2021 on producing and running television and radio advertisements for its Safe Limits road safety campaign. Meanwhile, deaths from melanoma exceed the annual road toll. In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, 503 New Zealanders died from skin cancer while 352 died on our roads.
For one week in May, 21 photographers documented a small town at the confluence of history. What they found was beautiful.
In Aotearoa, this constellation represents the crushed eyes of Tāwhirimātea on the chest of Ranginui. Elsewhere, the star cluster is known as the seven brothers who ran away, the sisters who share a husband, or the six faces of one god.
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