Te Papa’s DNA lab celebrates its fifth anniversary
Our DNA lab, the only museum-based one in New Zealand, celebrated its fifth anniversary last year. Research Scientist Lara Shepherd summarises what we’ve learned so far.Read more
2021-06-24
The final destination for well-travelled eggs
Over the course of many years, a tidy collection of bird eggs has made its way across the world. The collection’s final resting place just so happens to be here at Te Papa, where Natural History intern Isabella Milner has steadily worked through cataloguing it, and packing the eggs away into their forever homes. Here she describes how eggs are identified despite having very little information to go on.Read more
2021-06-21
Searching for rare forget-me-nots with North Island iwi
In December 2020, Te Papa botanists Heidi Meudt and Antony Kusabs were in the field with three North Island iwi: Tamakaimoana, Ngāti Porou, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Worryingly, their search for rare forget-me-nots was unsuccessful. But their collaborative mahi struck a meaningful chord.Read more
2021-06-04
Extreme botany: Southern summer is not for the faint of heart
Neither snow nor rain nor wind nor gloom of night stays these botanists. On a field trip to the South Island in January 2021, botanists Heidi Meudt and Antony Kusabs went to some extreme measures to collect forget-me-nots and other plants for our research and collections.Read more
2021-05-31
Co-collecting climate change in Tokelau: Project IKA
Pacific curator Rachel Yates introduces a co-collecting project that took Te Papa to Tokelau’s three low-lying coral atolls in the South Pacific.Read more
2021-05-03
A fern connection between New Zealand offshore islands and mountains of Borneo and New Guinea
Botany curator Leon Perrie describes how a New Zealand fern’s closest relative has turned up in an unexpected place.Read more
2021-03-22
It’s time we talked about the unpopular 97% of Earth’s animal diversity
Curator of Invertebrates Rodrigo Salvador led the team investigating how science communication of invertebrate animals is done and how the general public feels about it. Here he talks about some of the findings.Read more
2021-03-10
Storm petrels in the spotlight
Five Te Papa staff recently joined Department of Conservation colleagues on a boat-based survey of islands in central and northern Fiordland. One of the species they were hoping to learn more about was the mysterious grey-backed storm petrel. Vertebrates curator Colin Miskelly explains why this tiny bird was on their radar, and what they found.Read more
2020-12-02
He mātauranga huaota o Hikurangi – The botany of Hikurangi
Earlier this year, Te Papa botanists hunted for uncommon forget-me-nots in a very special place: Hikurangi, East Cape.Read more
2020-11-17
New fossil seal species rewrites history
A fossil discovery in New Zealand has revealed a new species of seal that once called Australasia home. Eomonachus belegaerensis is the first monk seal, living or extinct, ever found in the Southern Hemisphere. Its presence in our region turns the evolution of southern seals on its head. Curator Vertebrates Felix Marx talks about what this discovery means.Read more
2020-11-12
The underappreciated lives of New Zealand’s fungus gnats
Assistant researcher Shaun Thompson is working with Curator Julia Kasper studying the lives of fungus gnats, one of the biggest Diptera groups in New Zealand. They aim to provide updated species descriptions and distribution records which may help detect invasive exotic species present in New Zealand, prevent the loss of these gnat species and avert harm to our ecosystem.Read more
2020-11-10
Photo essay: Remote field work collecting forget-me-nots in the South Island
Botany Researcher Heidi Meudt and Collection Manager Antony Kusabs made new collections of forget-me-nots and other plants at some stunning but remote South Island sites in Feb 2020. Take a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to do remote field work, and enjoy some of the rewards of their hard work!Read more
2020-10-14
Finding ‘Data Deficient’ forget-me-nots
Botany Researcher Heidi Meudt is on a mission to find and make new research collections of all native New Zealand forget-me-nots. It can be a challenge to find some of them, particularly if we don’t know a lot about them or where they are to be found. Read more
2020-09-01
Hardship and humour: two Alfred Burton stereoscopes
The struggles and joys of colonial exploration in Fiordland through a pair of stereoscopes. Both are from the Burton Brothers studio, one from the Alexander Turnbull Library and one from Te Papa. Te Papa’s Curator Historical Photography Lissa Mitchell investigates.Read more
2020-08-27
Botanical field work with students
Field work is a key aspect of biodiversity research to locate and collect new specimens to study. Botany Researcher Heidi Meudt took two South Island field trips in Dec 2018 and Jan 2019 with two university students in tow. Combining research and training is often a great way to get scientific research done – but was it successful this time?Read more
2020-08-17