This newsletter was sent out while New Zealand is in COVID-19 Alert Level 4, however, stories of work completed before the lockdown are included.
Image: Dirk Scheuble | Creative Commons
How are you letting nature in?
Mā te taiao, kia whakapakari tōu oranga. Let nature in, strengthen your wellbeing.
Even while at home due to COVID-19, there are ways to improve health and wellbeing and let nature into our lives. Research shows it boosts our immune system and reduces stress and anxiety.
Find your own space in your back garden and indoors and let nature be part of your day.
Click the button below for nature activities such as colour bingo with Benji, learning from home resources, 50 things to do in your bubble, plus much more.
Takahēawareness month
April is Takahē Awareness Month. You can join in the fun and learn about making more takahē with the Takahē Recovery Programme
Or learn to tell the difference, is it a takahē or a pūkeko
Image: Danilo Hegg | ©
DOC’s response to COVID-19
DOC’s priority is to support New Zealand in stopping the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives.
Check our COVID-19 webpage regularly for updates
Image: Unite Against COVID-19
Recreation
Lessons in social isolation from a DOC ranger in the Northern Coromandel
Ranger Sierra shares her tips for surviving lockdown, reflecting on what she learned as a summer campground ranger at remote Fletcher Bay
Image: DOC
Bookable huts: A summer success
Two huts on the Mount Somers Track, Canterbury were often victim to the ‘weekend surge’ of trampers, resulting in overcrowding with many sleeping on the floor.
To manage this, the huts were added to the booking system in October 2019 and have had great success
Image: Becs Crilly | DOC
Trail Angels lend a helping hand
Murray and Judy Bramald – New Plymouth residents in their early 70s – are the driving force of the Trail Angels.
This is a small but enthusiastic group supporting our work along the Timber Trail, to keep the Pureora Forest Park cycling trail safe and clear
Image: Kina Campbell | DOC
International Forests Day
Did you know that new research suggests that trees are in fact far more alert, social and sophisticated than we thought?
Join us as we celebrate the diversity and importance of our forests – some strange, others ancient, many young, and one commemorative – found in and around the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park
Image: DOC
Get involved
Let nature in with Royal Cam
Royal Cam is a great way to bring nature into your home by watching this season’s cute and fluffy albatross chick.
Royal Cam is a 24-hour live stream of a northern royal albatross nest in Dunedin during the breeding season.
Video: DOC
A simple start to cleaning our waterways
Adam, Senior Healthy Waters Specialist at Auckland Council, joins us for a guest blog.
He explores how we can individually and collectively reduce the impact of climate change by protecting the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park
Image: DOC
Sharing our stories competition
To celebrate New Zealand Archaeology Week we are asking young people of Aotearoa to share their stories of a favourite historic place.
Competition is open till 24 May 2020
Image: Benhi Dixon | Creative Commons
Wash your hands
Advice from the team at Unite Against COVID-19 is: wash your hands often. Use soap. 20 seconds. Then dry. This kills the virus by bursting its protective bubble.
Here’s a video of birds washing themselves as inspiration
Video: DOC, Vandy Pollard and Lynne Irving
Our work
Essential travel helps secure future of shore plover
On 11 April five rare shore plovers/ tūturuatu were given permission to undertake essential travel, supporting a critical conservation programme to establish a new population
Image: DOC
Snail care continues over lockdown
1400 rare powelliphanta augusta snails in Hokitika continue to be fed and cared for over the lockdown period by DOC rangers working in isolation
Image: Stefan Marks & Kathrin Marks | ©
The Call of the Lizard Hunter
Gaaaaaaaaah! [g-aaarh!] Interjection
An exclamation used to express disappointment after you think you’ve found a lizard under a rock, but it is just a stick.
Follow along with the team of lizard experts as they search for the ‘data deficient’ cupola gecko
Image: DOC
All things whio
Last month was Whio Awareness Month and some great content was shared. Here’s some of the favourites:
Image: Sabine Bernert | ©
Nature
New Zealand’s predator control programme a success
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced recently that kākā and other threatened native birds and wildlife are thriving due to Tiakina Ngā Manu – the largest ever predator control programme in DOC’s history.
Image: Sabine Bernert | ©
Young kiwi flouts social distancing rules
This photo was taken by resident rangers on Te Hauturu-o-Toi / Little Barrier Island Nature Reserve of a teenage kiwi that invited himself in to have a little nosy around their home!
Someone didn’t pass the memo onto this kiwi about social distancing
Image: Richard Walle, Dr Leigh Joyce | DOC
Keas’ moment of TV fame
The world’s only alpine parrot, the kea, got some airtime recently on TVNZ’s Sunday show.
For some cheeky in your face fun, be sure to watch the clip here
Video: TVNZ | ©
Prehistoric-looking wetland critters
Learn about one of New Zealand’s strangest invertebrates – the tadpole shrimp
These tiny wetland critters look like an extinct trilobite and a horseshoe crab traversed the bounds of time to have a teeny tiny baby.
Image: DOC
Image: DOC
Photo of the month
Ranger Tama has been busy constructing over 110 traps while working from home during the lockdown.
They will add to the 4,700 traps already within Egmont National Park, contributing to the ongoing protection of our precious species.
Read more about his work.