New Zealand’s native species evolved in isolation from other regions for millions of years after the last land bridge to Gondwana was lost. Birds and insects dominated our ecosystems, and the ...
Skinks and geckos are the only 2 native families of lizard found in Aotearoa New Zealand (note that tuatara are not lizards). They are vertebrates and belong to the class Reptilia. All our native ...
In this activity, students discuss the importance of observation in science. They are given the opportunity to observe an image of a native frog and record their observations. By the end of this ...
New Zealand’s endemic tuatara is a very unusual animal. They are the only living representative of a group of reptiles known as Rhynchocephalia (sometimes known in the past as Sphenodontia) that ...
Explore this interactive to learn more about New Zealand’s unique reptiles and amphibians.
Frogs are vertebrates and belong to the class Amphibia. They are the only amphibians naturally occurring in New Zealand. All frogs have delicate, semi-permeable skin that allows them to absorb ...
Associate Professor Alison Cree and Dr Phil Bishop, both from the University of Otago, talk about the importance of observation in science using examples from their research into reptiles and ...
iNaturalist logs hundreds of thousands of photos of flora, fauna and fungi. There are even sound recordings too. Each is described and geo located. iNaturalist is used by citizens and scientists ...
Skink Spotter NZ is interested in weather conditions that best suit skinks to be active. This information will enable the research team to consider how skink activity might change as the climate ...
FrogID is an Australian app that uses audio of frogs’ unique calls to identify various species and their locations. We can use it in Aotearoa New Zealand to record the location of introduced ...
Dr Phil Bishop, from the University of Otago, talks about the threats facing our native frogs. The most significant threat in New Zealand is introduced mammalian predators. Point of interest: ...
Associate Professor Alison Cree, from the University of Otago, talks about the difference between being cold blooded and warm blooded. She discusses why scientists prefer to use the terms ...
Captive management is where animals are kept in captivity in some sort of enclosed space to assist survival of their species. This might be in a university lab, a zoo or a research centre. The ...
In this activity, students have the opportunity to create a lizard-friendly habitat in the school grounds. The extension activity involves designing a suitable environment for keeping lizards in ...
In this activity, students use an interactive or paper-based Venn diagram to illustrate the key similarities and differences between skinks and geckos. By the end of this activity, students ...
Dr Phil Bishop, from the University of Otago, talks about his research into metabolic bone disease. This disease only affects captive frogs, and the cure involves an elaborate UV tanning booth ...
All of our reptiles and amphibians are fully protected by law. It is illegal to collect skinks and geckos, and you need a special permit to keep them in captivity. This includes any skinks and ...
Use this interactive Venn diagram with your students to illustrate the key similarities and differences between skinks and geckos. Place each label where you think it belongs. This activity can ...
Frogs for the future? is a ready-to-use cross curricular teaching resource. It uses the Ministry of Education’s 2019 Connected article Kimihia Kermit by Philippa Werry. Rights: Crown 2019 Frog ...
Aotearoa New Zealand is rich in animal life – from tiny pepeketua and giant wētāpunga to ngā manu a Tānemahuta and ngā ika a Tangaroa. Some of these animals are unique to particular locations ...
Professor Alison Cree is a reproductive biologist, working in the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago. A key focus of her research is the effect of temperature on New Zealand’s ...
This article describes how students and Ngāti Mutunga teamed up with an ecologist to investigate frog populations – kimihia means to look for – in the Ngāti Mutunga rohe. The investigation used a ...
Dr Nic Rawlence tells us about the amazing research by one of his students, who developed a specialised technique that allows scientists to non-destructively extract ancient DNA from various tiny ...
Position: University Professor, University of Otago. Field: Conservation biology. Dr Phil Bishop was a professor and head of the zoology department at the University of Otago. As a herpetologist ...
