When birds get sick

In February, James Chatterton placed his stethoscope among the green, fragrant feathers of Margaret-Maree and listened to her breathing. Up close, kākāpō have an unusual, pleasant smell, a mix of soft perfume and forest floor.

The New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine at Auckland Zoo had temporarily become a kākāpō hospital. Sick birds convalesced in tall, dimly lit cages stuffed with native plants. As lead vet, it was Chatterton’s job to decide whether they were well enough to go home to Whenua Hou/Codfish Island.

Diseases can take a huge toll on wild animals and hasten rare species towards extinction. Scientists, vets and conservation volunteers are teaming up to try to beat the viruses, parasites and fungi threatening some of our rarest birds. Keep reading...

The board game for birders

On the eve of the first COVID-19 lockdown, New Zealand Geographic journalist Kate Evans started playing the board game Wingspan with members of her bubble. "The other board game I’d bought for Christmas, Pandemic, was losing its appeal," she writes. "Wingspan, however, was perfect."

The aim is to attract a diversity of bird species to your nature reserve and obtain the most points by winning different challenges. It’s complex and strategic enough to be incredibly absorbing, and with hundreds of cards it’s different every time you play. Keep reading...

Hoiho need to eat better

A study of penguin poo suggests Otago’s declining hoiho are struggling to find food in their hunting grounds off the South Island coast.

The poo also revealed that what the penguins eat has changed significantly since the 1980s, the last time their diet was studied. Back then, the birds ate a varied diet of squid and small fish, including red cod, blue cod, āhuru, and opalfish.

The new study showed the hoiho diet is now dominated by blue cod, and that many of those other fish, once common, are now gone. Keep reading...