Alison Ballance has her first day at New Zealand's Antarctic station, Scott Base, and visits the historic Hillary's Hut.
To see images and read more about this episode, visit the RNZ website here: Voices from Antarctica: Scott Base
Alison Ballance dons her extreme cold weather clothing for a trip to Antarctica - but getting to the frozen continent can take time.
To see images and read more about this episode, visit the RNZ website here: Voices from Antarctica: Ice Flight
Alison Ballance finds out what it takes to live in and do science in Antarctica, in a podcast series recorded on the frozen continent in November 2019.
To see images and read more about the series, visit the RNZ website here: Voices from Antarctica
In the series finale, Hope, we get a glimpse of what a predator-free Aotearoa could look like, and look at the breakthrough technologies and innovations taking us towards that goal. This episode was first published in May 2021.
Watch the video version of the episode here.
The final podcast in the series, What's in it for us?, counts both the costs and benefits of Predator Free.
It explores the costs of not doing it, before setting out a range of possible, positive outcomes for the economy, our exports, for Aotearoa's standing on the world stage - and most importantly, for ourselves and those who will follow.
In one of the last interviews Sir Rob Fenwick gave before his death in March 2020, he talks about what Predator Free meant to him, and estimates our chances of success.
Community-led projects are leading the charge to halt biodiversity decline, while researchers make break-throughs in their quest to remove predators and protect borders from reinvasion. This episode was first published in May 2021.
Watch the video version of the episode here.
Episode Three explores the deep relationship between Māori and the natural world.
Predator Free 2050 and Māori looks at the vital contribution of Māori towards achieving Predator Free. It begins by exploring the deep relationship between Māori and the natural world, and the ways in which the loss of biodiversity impact on the identity and well-being of Māori, and on the very culture itself.
Commentators set out their expectations around Predator Free, and we explore the chance it offers for tino rangatiratanga, and a genuine bicultural partnership. They talk too, about how, by healing Nature, people can themselves be healed.
New Zealander's have drawn a line in the sand, announcing they will rid the nation of rats, stoats and possums by 2050, but what will it take to get there? This episode was first published in May 2021.
Watch the video version of the episode here.
Remove and Protect reveals what Aotearoa means to do about the losing battle for our wildlife.
It sets out the critical distinction between business-as-usual pest control - simply holding a line - and the step change, and monumental challenge, that is eradication.
It looks at some ingenious new tools - smart, autonomous devices that are already changing our idea of what's possible and what's affordable.
Host Dave Hansford and the experts then tell listeners the plan, the nuts-and-bolts detail of exactly how we mean to find and catch that last rat.
Loss looks at the devastating effect introduced mammals have had on New Zealand's unique wildlife. This episode was first published in May 2021.
Watch the video version of the episode here.
Dealing with Loss takes listeners back to Gondwana, to explore just why our native birds are so tragically vulnerable to predation by mammals from another hemisphere.
Host Dave Hansford then presents a series of "criminal profiles" introducing listeners to the Predator Free target species: the brushtail possum, the stoat, the kiore, and the ship and Norway rats, through accounts from the country's leading experts.
The podcast then quantifies the loss - one of the worst extinction episodes on the planet - before relating the peril that continues today, with commentary from field experts on the impacts of this suite of predators.
Takes you into the wild heart of Aotearoa, documenting the desperate battle to protect it and exploring the notion of Predator Free 2050. This series was first published in May 2021.
Fight for the Wild is a four-part video series that takes viewers into the wild heart of Aotearoa and documents the desperate battle to protect it. It explores the notion of Predator Free 2050 and asks whether this big, bold initiative is achievable and if so, how?
In the complementary Fight for the Wild podcast series, conservation writer Dave Hansford investigates how and why New Zealand plans to become predator-free.
Encounters with blue ice and wildlife prove to be life-changing adventures, when photographer Joseph Michael and his companions venture into the crevasse field of a giant glacier, to capture the blue heart of an Antarctic iceberg. This episode was first published in February 2017.
Joseph Michael and his film-making companions come face-to-face with the heaving splendour of giant icebergs in the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. Back in New Zealand, they grapple with how to projection map an 'urban iceberg' onto the exterior of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and how to create a soundscape that blends music with the voices of the icebergs. This episode was first published in February 2017.
The varied sounds and characters of icebergs begin to reveal themselves to a watching team of film-makers. A small iceberg, Yoko, that fizzes and crackles like a soda drink. The dramatic demise of the soaring ice arch, Valentine. This episode was first published in February 2017.
Artist Joseph Michael and a team of eight film-makers head to Antarctica on the yacht Australis, to discover and record the sights and sounds of icebergs. But before they reach the frozen continent and encounter their first bergs they must face the challenge of the notorious Drake Passage. This episode was first released in February 2017.
The next series to join the Wild Sounds feed is Voice of the Iceberg, first published in 2017. Artist Joseph Michael and his team record the characters and sounds of icebergs in Antarctica as he prepares for a major art installation.
The 2019 kākāpō chicks are becoming independent and birds sent to be scanned for aspergillosis are getting clean bills of health. This episode was first released on 19 March 2020.
The 2019 kākāpō breeding season successfully weathered the aspergillosis crisis, with 72 chicks reaching the milestone of 150 days. Seventy of those juveniles are still alive, although two juveniles subsequently died from late cases of aspergillosis.
Since September 2019 the kākāpō population has remained steady at 211 birds.
This is a huge increase from the 148 birds that were alive in December 2018, when kākāpō on Whenua Hou and Anchor Island began their breeding marathon.
One of the juveniles was fathered by the Fiordland male Sinbad, via successful artificial insemination. A further three Fiordland juveniles were fathered by his brother Gulliver, and their sister Kuia also produced three juveniles.
Kākāpō did not breed in 2020. The kākāpō team at the Department of Conservation has just been surveying rimu trees on the southern kākāpō islands and determined that there will be no breeding there in 2021 either.
As each juvenile from the 2019 breeding season reaches its first birthday it receives its new name, which replaces its chick code. Queenie-3-A-19 (Queenie's third egg from her first clutch in 2019) was named Alison, after Alison Ballance (Queenie was named after Alison's mum).
A deadly fungal disease strikes the kākāpō population on Whenua Hou and the Kākāpō Recovery team calls on New Zealand wildlife vets to help. This episode was first released on 17 March 2020.
In April 2019, disaster struck the kākāpō population.
There was an outbreak of the deadly fungal disease aspergillosis, which would eventually kill two adult females and seven chicks.
But against expectations, veterinary experts were able to nurse many birds back to health.
The kākāpō eggs are hatching, and chicks are being hand-reared or returned to their mother's nest... but not every chick is thriving. This episode was first released on 12 March 2020.
The 2019 kākāpō breeding season set many records. It was the earliest, the longest - and of course, the biggest breeding season ever recorded.
Two hundred and fifty two kākāpō eggs were laid over three months, starting on Christmas Day 2018.
They began hatching at the end of January 2019, when Kohitatea became the earliest kākāpō chick ever to hatch.
The last chick to hatch, on 20 April 2019 was Stella's chick Manawanui.
Many chicks were hand-reared, by a team of wildlife experts from many places, including Auckland Zoo.
The tally of infertile eggs is climbing and the kākāpō team is using artificial insemination - and a drone - to try and counter the problem. This episode was first released on 10 March 2020.
The 2019 kākāpō breeding season was one for the record books, but it had more than its fair share of problems, including the fact that more than half of the eggs laid were infertile.
It's an ongoing issue, not helped by the birds' low genetic diversity. The Kākāpō Recovery team are using artificial insemination as part of their genetic matchmaking efforts, and have turned to a drone to speed the process of sperm delivery.
Most of the female kākāpō have bred and the team is carrying precious fertile eggs to the 'egg room' for incubation. Meanwhile, on Anchor Island, the rain is falling. This episode was first released on 5 March 2020.
Kākāpō breeding is in full swing after an early start, and DOC's Deidre Vercoe and Andrew Digby are checking to see if eggs are fertile. This episode was first released on 3 March 2020.
The kākāpō team know all the signs are good for a big kākāpō breeding season - the question is exactly how big and when will it start? This episode was first released on 27 February 2020.
