New Zealand Geographic

16/12/2025

Like last year, we are presented with a stark set of choices: survive, grow, or die.

15/12/2025

“You think that they’re dead,” says Frances McClure, one of a team of volunteers helping hammer invasive African tulip trees on Niue. She pulls back a vine, revealing a cheeky sapling. “But look at this: Fresh! Vibrant!” Seconds later, she attacks with a chainsaw.

“You think that they’re dead,” says Frances McClure, one of a team of volunteers helping hammer invasive African tulip trees on Niue. She pulls back a vine, revealing a cheeky sapling. “But look at this: Fresh! Vibrant!” Seconds later, she attacks with a chainsaw. The 12-strong group, call...

12/12/2025

From fossils to boulders, heritage precincts to glacial moraines, the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark rocks.

08/12/2025

While most of the world’s new settlements are slowly shifting inland, in New Zealand we’re largely staying put—or edging closer to the sea, according to research published in Nature.

While most of the world’s new settlements are slowly shifting inland, in New Zealand we’re largely staying put—or edging closer to the sea, according to research published in Nature. The work tracks artificial light between 1992 and 2019 and finds that globally, settling close to the coast is ...

04/12/2025

Teeth are extreme: they evolved at roughly the same time as bones, and they’re the hardest thing in the human body. So why are our choppers so sensitive—and expensive?

📷 Giselle Clarkson

Teeth are extreme: they evolved at roughly the same time as bones, and they’re the hardest thing in the human body. So why are our choppers so sensitive—and expensive?

01/12/2025

A year ago, we reported on preparations for the arrival of the highly pathogenic avian flu that has ripped through poultry, sea birds, mammals and a host of other species overseas (see ‘Skyfall’, Issue 190).

📷 Craig Mckenzie

A year ago, we reported on preparations for the arrival of the highly pathogenic avian flu that has ripped through poultry, sea birds, mammals and a host of other species overseas (see ‘Skyfall’, Issue 190). At that time, the Department of Conservation was trialling vaccinations in five of our m...

28/11/2025

Pollen can survive millions of years in certain conditions. That’s because each tiny grain is protected by a hard shell of sporopollenin, a UV-absorbing substance that can handle high temperatures as well as a wild pH range.

📷 Alamy

Pollen can survive millions of years in certain conditions. That’s because each tiny grain is protected by a hard shell of sporopollenin, a UV-absorbing substance that can handle high temperatures as well as a wild pH range. Scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have found ...

26/11/2025

A new assessment of Aotearoa’s mosses shows about a third of our 560-odd species are classified as at risk or threatened, with 16 deemed “nationally critical”.

📷 Adrian Malloch

A new assessment of Aotearoa’s mosses shows about a third of our 560-odd species are classified as at risk or threatened, with 16 deemed “nationally critical”. One of the most precarious is Lindbergia maritima, thought to live in only one spot: particular rocks at Auckland’s Piha Beach. Pict...

23/11/2025

These lustrous pieces of agate were found on Rangiatea Station in Canterbury, home to Sara and Bill Gallagher. The farm is rich in agates, and the couple use some of it to run a small jewellery business on the side. But the agates shown here weren’t split and polished by jewellers, or rockhounds—instead, more than half a century ago, they were swallowed by moa, and rubbed smooth as they jumbled together in the birds’ gizzards.

📷 Paul Daly

These lustrous pieces of agate were found on Rangiatea Station in Canterbury, home to Sara and Bill Gallagher. The farm is rich in agates, and the couple use some of it to run a small jewellery business on the side. But the agates shown here weren’t split and polished by jewellers, or rockhounds.....