New Zealand’s native species evolved in isolation from other regions for millions of years after the last land bridge to Gondwana was lost. Birds and insects dominated our ecosystems, and the ...
While employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Otago, Dr Kelly Hare looked at how captive management regimes could influence the health of individual skinks to promote more ...
New Zealand has 4 species of native frogs that are all endemic. All 4 are threatened with extinction. A major focus of the amphibian research at the University of Otago is how to save these ...
In this activity, students have the opportunity to create a lizard-friendly habitat in the school grounds. The extension activity involves designing a suitable environment for keeping lizards in ...
In this activity, students discuss how a variety of everyday objects can serve as metaphors for the important characteristics and functions of estuaries. By the end of this activity, students ...
Pitfall traps are simply containers dug into the ground so the top of the container is level with the ground. Sometimes a small roof can be erected over the trap to keep rain out. Insects that ...
FrogID is an Australian app that uses audio of frogs’ unique calls to identify various species and their locations. We can use it in Aotearoa New Zealand to record the location of introduced ...
Be part of a worldwide movement and use Global Earth Challenge to submit or classify photos to help our planet’s environment and human health. Global Earth Challenge is a citizen science campaign ...
Come and visit Aotearoa New Zealand’s underwater world in this online citizen science project. Discover, count and identify unique fish species that live within our marine reserves ...
To most of us, one earthworm resembles another. Although earthworms do have common characteristics, species differ widely in their size, skin colour and in the roles they play in the soil ...
In this recorded professional learning session, Greta Dromgool and Ben Moorhouse from the Department of Conservation unpack conservation education and: introduce some exciting DOC resources aimed ...
In this recorded professional learning session, Greta Dromgool from the Science Learning Hub and Adrienne De Melo and Ben Moorhouse from the Department of Conservation share the many learning ...
Associate Professor Alison Cree, from the University of Otago, talks about the difference between being cold blooded and warm blooded. She discusses why scientists prefer to use the terms ...
Fast skinks are assumed to be more able to escape from predators, find a mate and find food. In this video clip, Dr Kelly Hare, from the University of Otago, talks about measuring the sprint ...
Dr Phil Bishop, from the University of Otago, talks about his research into metabolic bone disease. This disease only affects captive frogs, and the cure involves an elaborate UV tanning booth ...
Explore this interactive to learn more about New Zealand’s unique reptiles and amphibians.
After students have researched an earthworm of their choice they can use this interactive to complete a Wormface profile for their earthworm. You will need the Adobe Flash Player to view this.
Dr Candida Savage explains the clues she collects in estuaries and fiords, to understand how changes in land use affect these environments.