Environmental and Animal Sciences - Unitec

Biosecurity Week 27-31 July 2026

The New Zealand Biosecurity Institute (NZBI) supports Biosecurity Week, which runs every year at the end of July. As stated by the NZBI, 'Biosecurity is vital to protect New Zealand’s ability to grow primary products, stay healthy, and preserve our natural heritage – our unique thumb print on the world.

New Zealand is fortunate to have a world class biosecurity system, driven by primary producers and people who care about our biodiversity, and assisted by central and local government with legislation that enables effective management of those pests inside New Zealand, and a border and pre-border surveillance system second to none, and supported by world class research from a variety of science institutions.'

For more information go to Biosecurity Week • NZBI.

The chevron skink translocation as reported by Jaxton McGregor for Kea Kids. In this video you can see Meesha and Ben collecting samples for Meesha's gut microbiome project.

Biggest skinks in NZ go home! Reporter Jaxton is headed to Aotea on a very special mission, to br...

Helping restore niho taniwha (Oligosoma homalonotum) to the wild on Aotea / Great Barrier Island.

On 9th July 2026, 10 endemic endangered chevron skinks / niho taniwha (Oligosoma homalonotum) skinks from Auckland Zoo were returned to Aotea / Great Barrier Island. Unitec MASCI students, Sophie Whittall and Meesha Anderson, were present as part of their thesis projects. This mix of wild- and captive-born skinks was released as part of the Matariki celebrations. Sophie’s project (supervisor: Assoc Prof Marleen Baling; co-supervisor: Dr Jo Monks, University of Otago) will involve monitoring the post-release movements of the skinks using radio-transmitters to document their behavioural movement, home range, and habitat use as they establish themselves at the release site. Meesha (Tuhoe, Ngāti Manawa & Ngāti Pikiao) (supervisor: Assoc Prof Marleen Baling; co-supervisor: Prof Mike Taylor, University of Auckland) is interested in documenting the mātauranga Māori about the native skinks, and she is also investigating the changes in gut microbiome for the translocated skinks over time.

To start off the release celebrations, DOC (Department of Conservation) and Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust held a pōwhiri to welcome the niho taniwha home, which included whakōrero, waiata and karakia. Whaikōrero spoke of the importance of the skinks being native to Aotea, the original individuals removed from the island for rehabilitation, and the breeding programme that followed their stay at Auckland Zoo. Children and their caregivers from three local schools (Kaitoke School, Mulberry Grove School, Okiwi School), members of iwi, DOC and Auckland Zoo staff and Glenfern Sanctuary management joined in the release of the niho taniwha. Rodney Taiaha Ngawaka, a member of the Glenfern Sanctuary Trust and Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust gave a speech detailing the importance of this historic day. As traditional knowledge is often shared orally, tamariki present had the opportunity to witness and learn the importance of the return of their native species, which they referred to as their ancestors.

Meesha was fortunate to be hosted by Paula Williams and joined the Matariki celebrations. Matariki celebrations began with a hautapu at Moanauriuri Bay. A bonfire was lit with a pot of food that held an offering to the stars. Four stars, Tupuanuku (food from the ground), Tupuārangi (food from above, Waitī [fresh water] and Waitā [ocean], represent the stars associated with the kai in the pot. With a piece of food to associate each star, this offering is done with the hopes of bringing a bountiful and plentiful harvesting year. The more steam from the pot, the greater the offering. Once this is done, they honoured Pōhutukawa, a star for remembrance, which gave every person a chance to speak a recently lost loved ones’ name into the fire as a remembrance. When this ceremony was complete, the attendees were welcomed onto the Marae with a pōwhiri, and the morning concluded with breakfast prepared by the Kawa Mārae.

Sophie, Meesha and their team were at Aotea a couple of weeks before the release to capture and monitor resident niho taniwha. Sophie stayed on the island post-release and is continuing to monitor the skinks until the end of July, then will return next season in October to check on them again. These MASCI projects are done in collaboration with Auckland Zoo, Department of Conservation, Auckland Council, Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki te Aotea, and Glenfern Sanctuary Trust. In particular, we thank Richard Gibson, Julie Underwood, Don McFarlane, Fletcher Beazley, Paula Williams, Lynn Adams, Miranda Bennett, Aimee Hoeberigs, Sabine Melzer, Christine Clemow, Lorne Roberts and Laura Harvey for their support on these MASCI projects.

Help your students discover careers in animal and environmental sciences.

We invite careers advisors and science teachers to attend Unitec's Environmental & Animal Sciences Careers Information Day.

This is an opportunity to explore study and career pathways across animal care, veterinary nursing, zookeeping, conservation, biodiversity management, and animal behaviour.

Visitors will be able to:
✅ Meet teaching staff
✅ Tour specialist facilities
✅ Learn about programme pathways and entry requirements
✅ Explore career opportunities in growing animal and environmental sectors
✅ See student and staff research in action

📅 Thursday 20 August 2026
🕤 9:30am - 2:30pm
📍 Building 115, Room 3015, Mt Albert Campus

We'd love to welcome careers advisors and science educators looking to better support students considering a future in the environmental and animal sciences.

Invitations have been sent to Auckland schools. If you haven't received it and would like to attend, please email us at [email protected]

Daying Wen, Senior Laboratory Technician at the School of Environmental and Animal Sciences, Mt Albert Campus reached out to the team who launched the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme to see how he could be involved.

Then, when a learner had an allergic reaction to the laboratory gloves, he and his technical support team felt empowered to act.

“We usually provide both latex and nitrile gloves to accommodate most students, however, we recently had a student in the animal dissection lab who was allergic to both.

“To manage this, we worked with the student and their GP. We also spoke with the glove suppliers and raised the issue through the lab managers’ network. The best option we found was to get gloves made from other materials—specifically non-latex and non-nitrile options.

“Vinyl (PVC) gloves are now our main alternative. They’re not as durable or chemically resistant as nitrile gloves, but they’re suitable in this case. We’ve arranged for vinyl gloves to be available for lab us with double layering if needed.

“Another option we’re considering is using cotton glove liners under approved gloves to help reduce exposure where appropriate.”

Julie McGregor, Organisation, Development and Equity Manager, says Daying’s actions exemplify two of our values as an organisation -Manaakitanga – we care for others to nurture achievement, and Mahi Kotahitanga – a spirit of generosity and cooperation.

“He has removed a barrier for one of our learners and put in place a solution which will likely help others in the future. It’s an example of how creating a culture of caring and empathy leads to tangible benefits.

“As Disability Pride Month comes to an end, it’s a good opportunity to remind people of MIT and Unitec’s commitment to supporting our disabled and neurodivergent ākonga and kaimahi ‘staff’.

“Across all our campuses we have a range of ākonga support services available through our student success teams. It’s all about inclusion.

“The way kaimahi and ākonga have engaged with the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme has been incredible. So many kaimahi are wearing the ally lanyards across our campuses, which goes to show that people who work here really care.”

An estimated 1.3 billion people in the world experience some form of disability. For many, disability or chronic conditions are not visible and are acquired as we age.

In September last year, MIT and Unitec joined the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme. The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower is here every day of the year to support people living with non-visible disabilities in their communities by raising awareness, training organisations and sharing stories to help create a more inclusive, understanding society.

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Semester 2 Post Graduate Paper Taxonomic Methods has had a 2000% increase in popularity from last year. Today we started the paper with an outline of the assessments and a introduction / refresher in taxonomy and nomenclature from course coordinator Prof. Peter de Lange. Peter got the course lecturers able to attend today (Dr Daniel Thomas, Lilith Fisher) and field technician (Campbell James) to introduce themselves, then after a grueling two hours of talk fest, we took a well earned break.

The final part of the morning's activities was a tour of our Natural History Collections, which include a fossil collection, the UNITEC Herbarium and Galbraith Zoological Collection. Some of the paper participants will be working on these collections, others have already been posted to the Auckland Museum, Allan Herbarium and the BSI Fungorium (PDD).

As part of this tour Daniel Thomas was thrilled to open a surprise bag of bones which included examples of his beloved penguins, and B.A.Sci. undergraduate Olga Levanova explained the work she is doing in curated the UNITEC vault.

Malaysia biodiversity survey
In mid-June, Marleen and her team (Campbell James, Jayden Bradley, Sam McAlister and Joanne Peace) travelled to Borneo to initiate a long-term biodiversity survey in her homeland in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Marleen first contacted and met with potential local collaborators and local authorities at Sarawak Museum, UNIMAS (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) and Sarawak Foresty Corporation (SFC) at the capital state, Kuching. There, they also visited Kubah and Bako National Parks to begin immersing themselves in the local flora and fauna. Some key highlights include finding pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.), seeing proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus), macques (Macaca spp.), Bornean horned frog (Megophrys nasuta), blue-eyed anglehead lizard (Gonocephalus liogaster), gold-spotted mudskippers (Periophthalmus chrysospilos) and bearded pig (Sus barbatus).

Marleen and her team then travelled north to her family longhouse to conduct a pre-survey at their land. The jungle surrounding her longhouse, is part of NCR land (Native Customary Right land) that belongs to the Batu Belah Berawan (Marleen’s tribe). Prior to their visit, the area was flooded due to heavy rain and so in the jungle, the team was also welcomed by mosquitoes. They also had to take alternative routes to avoid the flooded areas, hiking to key sites (water catchments for the villages) to assess potential locations for setting up long-term transect lines. This visit also gave the team the opportunity to meet and form connections with the local residents at the longhouse. After a week at Marleen’s longhouse, the team later travelled via the river to Mulu National Park, another ancestral land area for Berawan. They also walked and noted potential sites for transect lines for future long-term surveys. The team took the opportunity to visit one of the many caves at the National Park and the wildlife residents in it. Some of the highlights in this jungle trip were seeing hornbills, cave racers (Orthriophis taeniurus), slow loris (Nycticebus sp.), thick-spined porcupine (Thercurus crassispinis), moonrat (Echinosorex gymnurus), monitor lizards (Varanus salvator), many other lizards and frogs, and invertebrates.

This pre-survey trip will form baseline information for Marleen and her team to refine the project survey design with collaborators in Malaysia. The next step will be to apply for a long-term research permit in Sarawak.

Environmental and Animal Sciences Connect

Whether you're actively recruiting, looking to network and learn more about our students or checking out some of the projects our students have been working on, we'd love to host you at this event. Students, staff and organisations from the following industry fields will be in attendance:

• Animal Behaviour, Welfare and Management
• Biodiversity and Conservation
• Veterinary Nursing

Your organisation will be provided with a pop-up counter as your own booth, and you are welcome to bring along collateral to display.

EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, 20 August 2026
Time: 3pm - 5pm
Location: Unitec Events Kitchen, Level 1, Te Puna (Building 180), Unitec Mt Albert Campus

REGISTER HERE BY 10 AUGUST: https://survey.zohopublic.com/zs/ObBntb