Our Changing World

Claire Concannon heads to Auckland Zoo to meet their resident tuatara. Tuatara are pretty special, the only remaining species of reptile from an order that lived alongside the dinosaurs. And they… Read more Audio

Dive under the Antarctic sea ice near Scott Base into the weird world of cold-water life. Pink sea angels, worms that look like intestines, ocean creepy crawlies that get as big as your hand... and… Read more Audio

For centuries Samoa's traditional healers have harnessed the power of the country's native plants as remedies for village ailments. Now scientists at the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa are… Read more Audio

Ngutukaka, or kakabeak, is a popular garden plant in Aotearoa. But in the wild, it is now rarer than kakapo, with only about 100 individual plants surviving on steep, inaccessible cliffs. The East… Read more Audio

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… Read more Audio

The MRI technique advances coming out of the MÄtai Medical Research Institute in Gisborne have been described as ‘pioneering’, ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘world leading’. Claire Concannon speaks… Read more Audio

A trip into the bush and through a wetland to meet conservationists working to help the forest and its inhabitants. About two hours south of Dunedin, in the Catlins, the Tautuku and Fleming rivers… Read more Audio

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… Read more Audio

To keep their eggs safe some birds build simple cup-shaped nests, others elaborate fully-enclosed domes, with porches, fake entrances and ledges. But is this intricate construction of nests a set… Read more Audio

It’s almost 40 years since the first report of an ozone hole over Antarctica and 35 years since the Montreal Protocol to ban CFCs came into effect. In this week’s Our Changing World, Claire… Read more Audio

The science behind how we know our dogs love us, and how best we can take care of them. Audio

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… Read more Audio