A sepia photo of a woman in a swimming costume sitting on a wet sandy beach.

As part of a summer research project, Lucia Adams from Botany and Annie Barnard from Art are working with Te Papa’s collection of Nancy Adams’ works. Annie and Lucia will be digitising botanical specimens that Adams collected, enriching catalogue records of her artworks and archival material, and doing research and writing about her work and influence. They are taking a series of field trips to sites that were important in Nancy’s life and work. Here is the first in a series of blogs documenting these trips.Read more

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A larger bird with a long tail is being fed by a much smaller bird while both of them are sitting on a tree branch.

Between November 2023 and March 2024, Natural History curator Colin Miskelly is walking the length of Aotearoa New Zealand on Te Araroa Trail – counting every bird seen or heard along the way. In this eighth blog in the series, Colin describes birds encountered between Te Kūiti and Taumarunui. TheRead more

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Three people are processing batches of plants on a boat,

In January 2023, Te Papa Botany Curator Heidi Meudt was one of a team of Aotearoa New Zealand botanists and crew who travelled to Motu Maha Auckland Islands to undertake botanical research and make new collections. Here, Heidi and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Ecology Technician Alex Fergus describe some of the scientific collections and observations from the expedition.Read more

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A green bird with yellow markings on its wings is sitting on a branch that is covered in lichen.

Between November 2023 and March 2024, Natural History curator Colin Miskelly is walking the length of Aotearoa New Zealand on Te Araroa Trail – counting every bird seen or heard along the way. In this seventh blog in the series, Colin describes birds encountered between Dinsdale and Te Kūiti.Read more

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Toropapa are some of Aotearoa’s most intriguing plants. This genus of shrubs has been baffling botanists for over 100 years. Not only do they show extreme variation in leaf shape but some of the leaf forms bear an uncanny resemblance to unrelated plant species. Te Papa scientist Lara Shepherd recently led a team that examined the relationships of a selection of leaf forms – could these different forms actually be different species?Read more

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