Zoology Department, University of Otago - new

20/09/2026

Our BIOL112 students had a fantastic visit to OPERA (Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance) on Friday, 18 September. A team of 20 students planted around 1,000 trees and enjoyed a guided tour of the peninsula’s unique landscape, where they encountered sea lions, fur seals, and kororā, and had the opportunity to make some furry friends.

Photo source: Lucy Henderson

13/09/2026

🪺 Tautoko Ecology Teaching Fellow, Manaia Pearmain-Fenton, who has written a great piece for the Otago Daily Times celebrating wins for our manu (birds) and conservation in Aotearoa.

"In an 1894 edition of the Otago Daily Times, Aparata Renata observed of the kakaruai, or native South Island robin: 'nor can any imported bird sing and keep up a morning anthem like the native robin before sunrise, and seldom do they waste their melody to the sluggard'," Manaia writes.

"More than 130 years later, the fact that this song can still be heard at all in parts of Ōtepoti is remarkable."

🦜 You can read Manaia's full piece here 👇

https://www.odt.co.nz/life-and-style/the-mix/wins-for-nature-worth-singing-about-jzbgw7pj

Zoology Department, University of Otago - new Ecology Programme, University of Otago

09/09/2026

07/09/2026

🦤 Radio New Zealand spoke to Colossal Biosciences about its controversial moa de-extinction plans.

🧠 RNZ also spoke to the critics of the plans, including the Prime Minister's science communicator prize winner, our very own Associate Professor Nic Rawlence.

You can read, or listen to, the full story on the RNZ website 👇

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/science-and-technology/1202188/can-we-de-extinct-the-moa-and-more-importantly-should-we

Zoology Department, University of Otago - new

02/09/2026

🐠 Dr Roe Stuart didn’t find a taniwha in the unexplored depths of New Zealand’s lakes – but they may have found a new species of fish.

“We have four lakes in New Zealand that exceed 400m deep, and the deepest records we had of fish life were 90m,” says Roe, who realised while doing post-doctoral work at Lake Champlain in the USA that no one knew what lurked in Aotearoa's lakes.

“I just wondered what would be down there.”

🌄 A depth sounder found Lake Manapōuri and Lake Te Anau to be to be 467m and 430m deep respectively – about the height of Dunedin's Saddle Hill.

🍞 Searching for signs of aquatic life in the untraversed waters required 2km of rope, multiple traps set at different depths, and … a breakfast spread?

“We baited the traps with marmite,” Roe says. “I've had quite a few people ask if vegemite also works, but why risk it?”

You can read the full story here 👇
https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroom/marmite-lures-discovery-from-lake-depths

Zoology Department, University of Otago - new

28/08/2026

🐧 There are just 117 breeding pairs of hoiho remaining in New Zealand, making them the rarest penguin the world.

🪦 The taonga species, only found in Aotearoa, are facing climate change, starvation, disease and fishery by-catch deaths.

🐣 Department of Zoology PhD candidate Thor Ruru-Elley is using on-bird cameras to see what hoiho are facing in the ocean. He is also using GPS trackers on 100-day-old fledgling penguins as they enter the water for the first time, to better understand why 80 per cent never make it back to land.

🎣 His findings show the birds are travelling far beyond the area covered by the Otago Peninsula set net ban – up to hundreds of kilometres along the coast between Kaikōura and Stewart Island-Rakiura.

“It's somewhat confronting in the footage when you go from hoiho foraging in kelp forests and protected areas to places that have been dredged – places that don't have anything on the seafloor anymore,” Thor says.

Visit Stuff to learn more about the fight to save this New Zealand icon before it’s too late 👇

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361021216/samantha-hayes-just-326-hoiho-remain-can-new-zealand-save-its-most-endangered-penguin

Zoology Department, University of Otago - new

14/08/2026

Awesome Zoology happy hour!!

Photo credit - Stephanie Godfrey Steph Kemner

07/08/2026

Another Zoology Board Game Night! ❤️