Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the sixth part of the unfolding story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before (at least in the age of digital media). Colin is a member of the committee advising on the care and rehabilitation ofRead more
Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the fifth part of the unfolding story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before (at least in the age of digital media). Colin accompanied Department of Conservation staff to Peka Peka Beach on the morning ofRead more
It started as a trickle and soon developed into a flood of devastating proportions. On 11 July 2011 I received an email enquiry from a family at Waikanae seeking help with identifying an unusual seabird that they had found dead on their driveway. It was a Salvin’s prion, a not-too-unexpectedRead more
Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the fourth part of the unfolding story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before (at least in the age of digital media). Colin accompanied Department of Conservation staff to Peka Peka Beach on the morning ofRead more
Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the third part of the unfolding story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before (at least in the age of digital media). Colin accompanied Department of Conservation staff to Peka Peka Beach on the morning ofRead more
I know little about fungi, but I can still see that there are plenty around at present. Perhaps they’ve been enjoying the mild start to winter. The following caught my eye during a recent Manawatu Botanical Society field-trip to the Branch Road track in the Pohangina Valley north of PalmerstonRead more
On Tuesday 28 June, the Great White Shark debuted on his first film set, defrosted and ready for action. Andrew Stewart, Collection Manager Fishes managed the team in preparing the shark for its fixing process and dissection with great excitement of what could be discovered. Over the course of theRead more
Here are two striking and (I think) attractive Blechnum hard ferns. Nigrum is Latin for black. Colenso’s hard fern is named after William Colenso – printer, missionary, politician, and naturalist – altogether a very extraordinary person. Biography of William Colenso. The “hard” part of the name comes, I presume, fromRead more
Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the second part of the unfolding story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before (at least in the age of digital media). Colin accompanied Department of Conservation staff to Peka Peka Beach on the morning ofRead more
Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the first part of the unfolding story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before (at least in the age of digital media).Read more
The advent of GPS in cell-phones and car navigation systems has done a lot to render this technology accessible for a variety of users, devices are now only 10-20 g in weight, and can cost as little as $100 a piece. Satellite telemetry was first used to study flying birdsRead more
Te Papa is a collaborative partner with Auckland Museum in this important expedition to intensively sample and survey the fishes of the remote Kermadec Islands. The Te Papa fish team is participating because of their unique specialised skills in collecting and identifying fishes underwater on scuba in the wild, asRead more
A Te Papa expedition, in collaboration with Massey University, is going to study the fish fauna of the Kermadec Islands, some 1000km North of mainland New Zealand. We left Tauranga aboard the MV Tranquil Image yesterday. Loading all the gear on the deck was a bit more of a challengeRead more
The Kermadec Islands’ are the most isolated piece of rock that New Zealand has, some 1,000km North of Tauranga, right in the middle of very deep oceans. The isolation, recent geological origin and predominantly subtropical marine flora and fauna make them unique both nationally and internationally. I often imagine theRead more
We recently rolled out a new feature for those of you in interested seeing where zoological and botanical specimens in Te Papa’s collections were collected from. We’ve been mapping individual specimens for a while now, but we’ve added the ability to see where specimens from a particular family, genus or species wereRead more
