Ngutukākā, or kākābeak, is a popular garden plant in Aotearoa. But in the wild, it is now rarer than kākāpō, with only about 100 individual plants surviving on steep, inaccessible cliffs. The East Coast is one of its remaining strongholds and the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust is on a mission to bring the taonga back. Veronika Meduna joins the inaugural Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Festival to find out more about the community’s efforts to turn State Highway 35 into a Crimson Highway by rewilding this iconic native.

Guests:

• Graeme Atkins, Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust
• Mere Tamanui, Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust
• Hōhepa Waenga, East Coast Myrtle Rust Response Team
• Natalie Robertson, artist and Associate Professor at Auckland University of Technology
• Emma Giesen, Trees That Count
• Stephanie Gardner, Trees That Count
• Tamariki from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mangatuna

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• Visit the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā website
• Graeme Atkins featured in a recent episode of Country Life.
• For more on rare flora, Our Changing World has covered threatened limestone plants and explored what will happen to alpine plants in a warming world.

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Invasive redback spiders are highly venomous, threatening both people and New Zealand’s native species. A team of scientists is developing a cunning tool to trap male redbacks, by concocting an irresistible spiderweb perfume. We visit 800 captive redback spiders in the lab, learn about their wild mating habits, and check out the “spider arena” where the redbacks’ signature scent is put to the test.

Guests:

• Dr Andrew Twidle, Plant & Food Research
• Tom Sullivan, Plant & Food Research

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• Redbacks aren’t the only spiders to engage in a spot of sexual cannibalism. Claire Concannon enters the weird world of spider reproduction on a spider hunt in this episode.
• Back in 2016, Alison Ballance reported on the threat to Cromwell chafer beetles posed by red4KU24B9_Female_Redback_Spider_PFR3471_jpg
  back spiders.
• Coming up with clever ways to lure pests is also a big focus of Predator Free 2050, as Katy Gosset finds out in this 2021 episode.

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The MRI technique advances coming out of the Mātai Medical Research Institute in Gisborne have been described as ‘pioneering’, ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘world leading’. Claire Concannon speaks to chief executive and research director Dr Samantha Holdsworth to learn why, and about their big plans for the future.

Guests:

• Dr Samantha Holdsworth, research director and chief executive of Mātai Medical Research Institute
• Taylor Emsden, MRI technologist at Mātai Medical Research Institute

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• One of the studies underway at Mātai looks at how brains and hearts are damaged by meth use, and also how they can recover.
• One of the pilot research projects that Mātai hosted involved investigating muscle development in children with cerebral palsy.
• The Mātai concussion study involves teen rugby players, learn more about other research on this issue from the University of Canterbury.

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About two hours south of Dunedin, in the Catlins, the Tautuku and Fleming rivers flow into the sea at Tautuku beach. Covered in native bush from headwaters to the ocean, this special catchment is home to many native, and some threatened, plants and animals. But there’s an ongoing battle. Browsing animal such as deer and pigs are destroying the undergrowth, while feral cats and stoats are predating on critters such as the mātātā, the South Island fernbird. We meet some of the people fighting back.

Guests:

• Gavin White, pest control for Forest & Bird
• Francesca Cunninghame, project manager for Forest & Bird

Learn more:

• Watch Fight for the Wild, a documentary series exploring Predator Free Aotearoa 2050.
• Listen to Deer Wars, a podcast telling the story of the 50-year struggle to control red deer.
• Drones are a new tool in the battle against introduced pests, William Ray reports in this Our Changing World episode.
• Find out more about the Tautuku Ecological Restoration Project.

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Every year in New Zealand, recreational hunters shoot more than half a million wild game. Most are shot with lead-based ammunition. Now, researchers are investigating what happens to that lead, and how much of it is getting into the food chains of humans and the endangered kea. Alison Ballance speaks to scientists at Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, and kea conservationists and predator control experts at the Department of Conservation to learn more.

Guests:

• Dr Eric Buenz, biomedical researcher at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
• Professor Gareth Parry, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
• Adjunct Professor Myra Finkelstein, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Tom Brookman, Department of Conservation
• Dr Kerry Weston, Department of Conservation

Learn more:

• Read the web article for this episode.
• In Kea get a helping hand, Alison Ballance joins kea researchers at Arthur’s Pass.
• The kea’s close relative the kaka is also at risk from lead poisoning – check out Alison’s story on The dark side of being an urban parrot - kaka and lead.
• Find out more about the element lead in “Lead – sweet tasting but deadly” from the Elemental podcast series, which investigates the periodic table of chemical elements.
• Read the research mentioned in this episode about X-ray screening, and the latest research about kea and lead.

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To keep their eggs safe, some birds build simple cup-shaped nests. Others craft elaborate fully enclosed domes, with porches, fake entrances and ledges. But is this intricate construction of nests a set, encoded behaviour? Or can birds adapt in different conditions? Researchers are keen to learn about flexibility in nest design, to better understand how different species might be able to respond as the climate changes.

Guests:

• Dr Iliana Medina Guzman, University of Melbourne
• Kane Fleury, Tūhura Otago Museum

Learn more:

• See nest pictures and read the related article for this episode here.
• Iliana’s colleague Dr Claire Taylor spoke to Nine to Noon about some of this work in July, their work has been written up by the University of Melbourne, and their investigations of the role of climate and the analysis of variation in nest design have been published.
• Some birds use spikes as weapons around their nests, while in Wellington, some kākā might be trying to nest in unhelpful places.
• Explore the Our Changing World bird episodes back catalogue, for heaps more bird and nest stories.

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Almost 40 years on from the first reports of the Antarctic ozone hole, and 35 years since the Montreal Protocol to ban CFCs came into effect, what’s going on with the ozone hole? How does it form? How do we measure it? And having solved the CFC problem, why are we still monitoring ozone so closely? Claire Concannon heads to NIWA's Atmospheric Research Station in Lauder, Central Otago, to find out.

Guests:

• Dr Richard Querel, NIWA
• Dr Ben Liley, NIWA
• Dr Olaf Morgenstern

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• This year’s World Meteorological Organization ozone bulletin was positive about the recovery trend for the ozone layer.
• In Ozone holes & UV radiation Alison Ballance investigates the particularly large ozone hole of 2020, and why New Zealand has such high UV levels.
• The University of Otago researchers who published findings indicating a growth in the ozone hole in some parts of the stratosphere spoke to Morning Report last year.

Thanks to Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision for some recordings from the 1980s and 1990s used in this episode.

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We love our four-legged friends. It’s estimated about a third of New Zealand households share their home with at least one dog, and two thirds of dog owners consider their furry friends to be family members. Some dogs work, others keep us company, make us laugh, get us walking twice a day, and shower us with unconditional affection….. But are we looking after all their needs? Claire Concannon speaks with a dog welfare expert about the science behind how we know our dogs love us, and what to do to make sure we are looking after them.

Guests:

• Dr Mia Cobb, University of Melbourne
• Ellen Rykers, RNZ

Learn more:

• See more cute dog photos in the article that accompanies this episode.
• Mia coordinated on a Map of the Month project to check if Melbourne is a dog-friendly city.
• Listen to what it takes to train a dog to detect cancer, or train a sheepdog, or how to train a puppy and interpret dog signals.

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We all experience anxiety – when our brains look into the future and imagine bad things happening. It’s normal and has helped keep us alive as a species. But levels of anxiety are rising, particularly in young people, and at the severe end of the spectrum clinical anxiety prevents people from going about their lives. This Mental Health Awareness Week we meet a team of researchers at the University of Otago investigating the brain-body connection in anxiety, and how different potential treatments might help. …

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It’s been almost 30 years since a team joined forces to investigate a particularly aggressive form of stomach cancer that was afflicting one Tauranga whānau. Kimi Hauora Health and Research Clinic in Tauranga and University of Otago geneticists together found the cancer-causing genetic change, helping save thousands of lives worldwide. Justine Murray is at Mangatawa Marae with Maybelle McLeod and Erin Gardiner to reflect on that time, and Professor Parry Guilford discusses those first formative years.

Guests:

• Maybelle McLeod, CEO and Nurse at Kimi Hauora Health and Research Clinic
• Erin Gardiner, Nurse at Kimi HauoraHealth and Research Clinic
• Professor Parry Guilford, Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago

Learn more:

• Read the accompanying article, Solving a genetic cancer puzzle.
• Read the press release about the 2023 Prime Minister's Science Prizes
• Read here about the history of Mangatawa Marae
• RNZ interview following the 2023 Prime Ministers Science Prizes

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