Kiwi pukupuku / little spotted kiwi will move from Wellington ecosanctuary Zealandia to a new home in a historic first this May — a powerful symbol of success for urban wildlife restoration and species recovery.

How is the trap in your backyard going to help the country become predator-free by 2050? Your backyard trap, baited and checked with care, won’t single-handedly make a dent in the local rat or possum populations. But your trap, your neighbour’s trap, the entire street’s trap? That’s when things start to shift, and the momentum builds.

The 2025 toitoi/common bully translocation is in motion! Alongside the co-management group Rōpū Tiaki, Zealandia completed the third year of collection on 13 April at Kōhangapiripiri in the Parangarahu Lakes. These fish will join the current Zealandia population in a few weeks after they have been quarantined.

This short 10 to 15-minute survey will help us better understand how Wellingtonians feel about pet cats and their place in our homes. We want to help support both the threatened taonga species that call Wellington home and our feline family members' wellbeing—your answers will help us do that!

We all need freshwater to survive, and the health of our freshwater ultimately determines how healthy we are as people. One way we can look after our freshwater is by looking after the whole catchment, including the areas around the water. But what is a catchment?

Over the last few years, we have been focusing on restoring our freshwater ecosystems. We are beginning to see the impacts of this mahi/work with dragonflies and fish in abundance and a reduction in algal blooms in Roto Kawau. This month marks the beginning of our third (and likely final) toitoi/common bully translocation.  

After moving to Kāpiti, wildlife photographer Holly Henderson has filled her garden with native plants and an ever-evolving lizard garden, named Mokomoko Manor, taking over her sunny backyard. We asked Holly to tell us a bit more about how she created her lizard garden and what advice she’d give to others wanting to do the same.

With this current season’s wasp nests starting to be discovered in Zealandia, it feels timely to do a closer dive into one of the ultimate bees in our bonnet: wasps. While the impact of mammalian predators is well known throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, there are also invasive plants, fish, and insects which throw out the balance of our local ecosystems. But there are steps you can take to assist.

“Birdsong is no longer drowned out by traffic”, Al Jazeera English reports on the inspiring recovery of native manu/birds in Wellington.

In 2019, our Bicultural Engagement Lead Ranger Terese McLeod (Taranaki Whānui) was carrying out a rubbish audit in the Kaiwharawhara stream. She noticed that a lot of the rubbish being collected consisted of plastic flowers blown off graves from the nearby cemetery. Since then, Terese has helped enable plastic reduction in cemeteries, including Mākara urupā which is now plastic-free.