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Contributed by Auckland Zoo

A noisy little kiwi named Tīhoihoi (Maori for raucous) is today settling in to life on Rotoroa Island, becoming the 300th kiwi chick that Auckland Zoo has successfully incubated, hatched, reared and released to the wild.

A further 287 Northland brown kiwi chicks have been released since 1996. Some chicks have been released directly onto the mainland in the Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary, but the majority have started life on kiwi crèche, Motuora Island. As adults, these birds have gone on to help re-establish kiwi populations in Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary, Tawharanui, the Brynderwyns and Mataia predator-controlled areas.

“Conservation efforts are always about team work, and when 95% of kiwi chicks die before they reach breeding age in areas without predator control, team work is vital,” says Auckland Zoo field conservation manager, Ian Fraser.

Auckland Zoo has been involved in Operation Nest Egg since the technique was first developed by Department of Conservation (DOC) scientists, funded by the Kiwis for Kiwi (previously) BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust.

“It’s great that through the careful harvest and delivery of eggs by DOC staff and skilled volunteers, combined with the knowledge and dedication of the Zoo’s keepers, we can achieve a 94% success rate from fertile egg to release,” says Mr Fraser. “In protected areas, an Operation Nest Egg kiwi has a 65% chance of reaching adulthood, compared to a 5% survival for chicks toughing it out in unprotected wild areas.”

Mr Fraser says the more recent initiative between the Zoo, its partners Rotoroa Island Trust (RIT) and Thames Coast Kiwi Care (TCKC) to give Coromandel North Island brown kiwi a head start on Rotoroa, is strongly focused on advocacy for our national bird.

“While we’ll help contribute to growing the Coromandel kiwi population, having kiwi on Rotoroa is primarily about raising awareness about kiwi, demonstrating the value of intensive conservation management and inspiring future generations of New Zealanders to care about kiwi and get involved in helping them.”

More kiwi will be released onto Rotoroa over the coming months, and in March/April 2016, a kiwi muster will see a round-up of the kiwi that were first released on the island in late 2014/early 2015. These sub-adult birds will be returned to the 2,500ha protected area on the Thames Coast cared for by TCKC.

“As expected, these nocturnal birds aren’t showing themselves a lot, but we’re delighted that both Zoo and Rotoroa staff are seeing evidence that kiwi are doing well in the Rotoroa environment,” says RIT chairman Barrie Brown.

Kiwi Fast Facts

• There are about 70,000 kiwi left in all of New Zealand, and we are losing 2% of our kiwi every year (27 kiwi each week). Key threats are introduced predators, primarily stoats, dogs, cats and ferrets, and loss of habitat.
• North Island brown kiwi can live for 40-65 years. However, in Northland, where uncontrolled dogs remain a big killer of kiwi, the average life expectancy is just 14 years
• Help kiwi! Always keep your dogs and cats in at night, don’t allow your dogs to be off-lead in areas where kiwi might live (bush, scrub and farmland) and have your dog undergo kiwi avoidance training. You can also find out about volunteer opportunities to help kiwi and about Save Kiwi Month (October) at: www.kiwisforkiwi.org.nz

About Rotoroa Island

• The Rotoroa Island Trust (RIT) and Auckland Zoo formed a partnership in 2012 to create a wildlife reserve on Rotoroa, funded by the Hutton Wilson Charitable Trust ($4m over five years). Visit www.rotoroa.org
• Following extensive planting, monitoring and pest eradication, seven wildlife species have now been introduced to the island – saddleback, whitehead, kiwi, moko and shore skinks,takahē, and pateke. The RIT-Auckland Zoo partnership plans to introduce up to 20 species to Rotoroa Island by 2018

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Contributed by GNS Science

It’s a truism that mathematical relationships are present nearly everywhere in nature, probably more than we realise. The latest place they have turned up is on the underside of glaciers.

A group of international scientists working on Franz Josef Glacier (Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere) in the South Island has found that the rate of glacial erosion is proportional to the square of the glacier’s speed. They describe this as non-linear behaviour.

In other words, fast moving glaciers, or portions of glaciers, erode much more rock than slow moving glaciers. The finding confirms a theoretical model that was first proposed in the 1970s.

It means that as the Earth gets warmer and glaciers accelerate, the rate of glacial erosion will increase. A result will be more rapid carving of our landscape by glaciers with a corresponding increase in levels of sediment and mud carried in alpine streams and rivers.

The finding applies to faster-moving glaciers in mountainous mid-latitude regions, but may not apply to polar glaciers that move more slowly.

The research is the cover story in this week’s issue of the prestigious journal Science, and involved a collaboration of scientists from Switzerland, France, the United States, and New Zealand.

Co-author on the paper, geologist Simon Cox of GNS Science, said non-linear behaviour explained the wide range of observed glacial erosion rates and also the profound impact of glaciation on mountainous landscapes during the past few millions years.

“The erosive power of glaciers varies considerably, with some of the most rapid glacial erosion happening in mid-latitude climates,” Dr Cox said.

“This research confirms that fast glaciers are more effective at gouging landscapes than slow-moving ones.”

Although the process of glaciation is widespread in the landscape, scientists don’t fully understand it, partly because of the great difficulty accessing the ice-bedrock interface underneath glaciers.

In the study of the Franz Josef Glacier, which took place over a five-month period in 2013 and 2014, the scientists used a combination of two techniques to shed light on the glacier’s behaviour.

First they used satellite imagery to measure the speed of the glacier at its surface, which reaches up to 3m-a-day. At the same time, they analysed the crystalline structure of carbon-bearing particles – mostly graphite
– collected from the meltwater river below the glacier.

To do this they used a method called Raman spectroscopy, which involves measuring the way light is scattered when it interacts with carbonaceous particles. They then used the ‘Raman signature’ to track particles back to the bands of Alpine Schist rocks from where each particle was eroded.

This enabled them to quantify erosion rates beneath the glacier. From the results, they have developed a law forglacial erosion that captures the variability seen globally, in different climate zones.

Their work shows erosion is highly sensitive to small variations in topographic slope and rainfall.

Dr Cox said the power demonstrated by the combination of techniques will enable scientists to better understand glacial erosion and how this will change as glaciers respond to global warming.

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Contributed by University of Otago

The genetic heritage of New Zealand’s first dog, the now extinct kurī, is being unravelled by University of Otago scientists using state-of-the-art ancient DNA analysis.

University of Otago PhD student Karen Greig has sequenced the complete, or near complete, mitochondrial genomes of 14 kurī represented by bones recovered from Wairau Bar, one on New Zealand’s earliest and most important archaeological sites.

The findings are newly published in the prestigious international journal PLOS ONE and are part of Ms Greig’s PhD research into dog/human relationships in the ancient Pacific world, which is being supervised by Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith (Anatomy) and Professor Richard Walter (Anthropology and Archaeology).

The 14 mitogenomes, which trace the dogs’ maternal line of descent, were sequenced from ancient DNA samples extracted from teeth excavated from an oven feature at Marlborough’s Wairau Bar site by the archaeology team led by Professor Walter. This oven was used sometime between the early 1320s and 1350 AD. Wairau Bar is the site of New Zealand’s first major Polynesian settlement.

Kurī were smallish dogs about the size of cocker spaniels and were brought to New Zealand from East Polynesia in the colonising canoes that arrived in the early fourteenth century AD. They were the only domesticated animal to be successfully introduced by the Polynesian settlers but died out as a distinct breed after interbreeding with European dogs.

The research team was able to identify five distinct maternal lineages, known as haplotypes, in the 14 dogs.

“This represents quite limited genetic diversity, which either suggests that the founding kurī population may have only been a few dogs or that the arriving dogs were closely related,” Ms Greig says.

In the latter instance, the ancestors of these dogs would have likely passed through a series of genetic bottlenecks at times during their movement across the Pacific, she says.

The researchers also discovered that the Wairau Bar dogs are genetically most similar to modern dogs from Indonesia.

Professor Matisoo-Smith says that advances in DNA sequencing technology that enabled the Wairau Bar kurī study can be used in other research to provide deeper insights into ancient origins of Pacific peoples and animals and their migration routes across Oceania.

“One of the most exciting results was the discovery that by using these latest technologies Karen was able to sequence the entire mitochondrial genome as opposed to only a small portion, as done in previous ancient DNA studies of Pacific dogs. This revealed levels of genetic variation which may allow us to ultimately track down the origin of the New Zealand kurī and its relationship to other dogs found across the Pacific and through Island and Mainland Southeast Asia,” says Professor Matisoo-Smith.

This research is the most recent output from the Wairau Bar Research Group, a collaboration between Otago researchers and Rangitane-ki-Wairau and the Canterbury Museum. The Otago research team is led by archaeologist Professor Richard Walter (Department of Anthropology and Archaeology), and biological anthropologists Associate Professor Hallie Buckley and Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith (Department of Anatomy).

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Contributed by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF)

A multinational task group led by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) today handed over a new fuel depot built as part of Exercise Tropic Twilight to Cook Islands officials.

Several schools and hospitals that were repaired by a team comprising of military engineers and skilled tradesmen from China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States were also handed over at an official ceremony in the northern Cook Islands atoll of Penrhyn.

“The past six weeks have been an invaluable opportunity to work alongside and learn from our international peers,” said Captain Andrew Blackburn, Senior National Officer for the New Zealand contingent.

“Tropic Twilight also offered an opportunity to practise the NZDF’s capability to deploy alongside other militaries to provide Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR),” he added.

Major General Tim Gall, Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, said the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) participation in Tropic Twilight for the first time resulted from a decision by China and New Zealand to increase professional cooperation especially in the area of HADR.

“It was agreed that participation by PLA engineers in Tropic Twilight would be a logical next step in developing the relationship,” Major General Gall said.

Exercise Tropic Twilight is a recurring activity conducted this year in the northern Cook Islands’ atoll of Penrhyn and Manihiki from 31 August – 12 October. It is held in partnership with the government of the Cook Islands and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which funded the new fuel depot and the other infrastructure improvements being delivered as part of the exercise. The FAPF (Forces Armees en Polynesie francaise) are also supporting the humanitarian activity.

Nick Hurley, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the Cook Islands said relocating and upgrading the Penrhyn fuel depot has helped avert a potential oil spill.

“The new fuel depot will refuel the Australian-funded Cook Islands Pacific Patrol Boat Te Kukupa, which conducts long-range maritime patrols against illegal fishing in the northern Cooks,” he said.

Around 40 engineers, plumbers, carpenters, and electricians from the NZDF’s 2^nd Engineer Regiment worked alongside 20 military engineers from the PLA, the Royal Regiment, and the US Army Pacific to build the new fuel depot. Schools and hospitals were refurbished to address potential electrical hazards to ensure they can better withstand the cyclones that regularly affect the Pacific Islands.

The handover ceremony was attended by Cook Islands officials led by Deputy Prime Minister Teariki Heather, Brigadier General Stephen Curda of the US Army’s 9^th Mission Support Command, and Brigadier Antony Hayward from the NZDF.

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Contributed by inFact

He is passionate about his work but can be hard to track down because he is always on the move, one step ahead, looking for new innovation opportunities he can design and development to help New Zealand grow.

He has produced Navman accessories, world-first wheelchair remotes, parking meter systems,  world first chip-card devices, a range of tools to find out which pine trees are best for building construction and  was a key figure in Fisher & Paykel’s mechanical design team on the hugely successful Smart Drive washing machine.

Sharplin’s Christchurch company inFact is a finalist in three categories at the New Zealand Innovators Awards to be held at the Cloud in Auckland next week (October 15).

Sharplin was born at Leeston in South Canterbury, grew up in Richmond, Nelson, and attended Waimea College. His father was his mentor and motivation for him to receive his Mechanical Engineering degree with honours at the University of Canterbury.

“My father is a very clever engineer who taught me how to solve problems by thinking.  I always wanted to be a design engineer and run my own business developing innovative products. Engineering has given me the freedom to express my creativity to make real change in the world for good” Sharplin says.

“After university I loved being a part of the game changing team at Fisher & Paykel which taught me the philosophy and values that drive inFact’s methodology and approach.  Fisher & Paykel set out to change the world of appliances by innovating every aspect of the washing machine except that it washes using water.  Samsung copied it, everybody but Jack Welsh himself from GE visited Fisher & Paykel during the development when they were doing a licensing deal and the technology has become very much the state of the art globally

“After I set up inFact I was invited by GPC Electronics to a meeting in Wellington with Industrial Research Limited and the Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) subsidiary Fibre-gen to help productionise the Hitman HM200 timber testing product.  We did that and it was a great. Fibre-gen then asked us to develop the Hitman ST300 tool which was a complex and expensive development.  We ended up taking a 20 percent stake in the business when they asked if we would complete the development at our cost in exchange for shares.  When Graham Hart bought CHH, management sold Fibre-gen to inFact and director Peter Carter.

“To date my best achievement has been the formation and growth of the inFact design business.  This type of professional practice is essential to the future value of the New Zealand economy.  With a thinking approach to the creation of game-changing innovative new products customers want to buy we can build a strong first world economy here.

“As British inventor and Dyson company founder James Dyson said when he was in New Zealand advising our government: ‘without a high tech manufacturing sector New Zealand cannot create enough wealth to sustain growth and maintain parity with other nations’.  The German manufacturing sector earned $US5000 per capita in 2014 while New Zealand earned $165 her head so we have a long way to go.

“We are currently working on several large product and system development initiatives that will help New Zealand grow faster.  With ZIP Zero Invasive Predators Ltd which is a charity set up by the Department of Conservation, Next and Sam and Gareth Morgan to eradicate rats, stoats and possums, our company inFact has been contracted to; develop new innovative systems for luring these predators to their traps and to support volume production of these for roll out across New Zealand’s native and exotic forests and hinterlands.”

InFact’s designs have been translated into 100’s of millions of dollars of export product for New Zealand.  InFact have delivered internationally successful game-changing products for companies such as Carter Holt Harvey, Navman, Dynamic Controls, Integrated Technology Solutions and Provenco.

Sharplin and fellow director Peter Carter have secured 27 patent registrations for the use of acoustics in the grading of green wood involving their Hitman HM200, ST300 hand tools that have become the gold standard internationally for forest wood assessment.  Hitman PH330 product is Sharplin and Carters latest invention which measures trees automatically while being harvested and sends them to the right mill for processing.  This invention alone will create and estimated $200 million of new value for the forestry sector in New Zealand according to Scion.

The world is waking up to the benefits and opportunity of construction of high rise buildings using engineered wood products such as laminated veneer lumber and cross laminated timber panels which are both manufactured in New Zealand.

“A seven storey timber structure survived the equivalent of nine Kobe earthquakes on a Japanese earthquake simulator platform with no discernible damage.  Wood is the ultimate resilient and renewable resource for construction,” Sharplin says.

The Hitman range of products is how the forest owners segregate the timber for these wood processors.  We must however make decisions at the point of harvest based on the value of the timber and not just the commodity based volume of it.

“Wood processing and manufacturing is New Zealand’s third largest export sector at $2.5 billion a year and if log exports are added it’s almost on a par with second-placed meat exports.  In the central North Island we’ve lost 100,000 hectares of forest land in the last few years to dairy farming.

“This is simply driven by economics as high export log prices drive replanting regimes.  By extracting the highest value wood from our forests and processing this in New Zealand for value added export products we can ensure a strong forest industry.

“Scandinavia has proven countries can sustainably fuel an entire first world economy using wood products.  They just put their minds to the task as nations and made the decision to create a zero emissions economy.  We can do this in New Zealand if we are prepared to make a commitment to achieving this and not be influenced by the traditional concrete, steel and fossil fuel corporations.

“There is a massive 50 percent increase in the volume of plantation wood coming online in 2020.  We need to get organised now to ensure that at the time we harvest this wood we can turn it into high value logs and wood products and not simply sell it to the commodity log market.  We can lift the value of the forest wood sector from $5billion at our current volume and processing regime to $12billion with the increased volumes and if we take on this challenge of enhancing the value of the harvest,” Sharplin says.

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Contributed by The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation

More than 350 “pinked out” motorbikes, from 50cc scooters to 2000cc Harley Davidson and Suzuki cruisers, are expected to take part in the Women’s International Motorcycle Association’s (WIMA) annual Pink Ribbon Ride in Auckland this Sunday October 11, raising funds for the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation.

A similar ride will be held in Wellington, also on Sunday.

The Auckland ride departs from the AMI Auckland Netball Centre in St Johns at 10:30am sharp, and finishes at Western Springs Stadium by 11:15. Thanks to a police escort, riders will enjoy a rare uninterrupted ride through Auckland’s streets, with guaranteed green lights.

Anyone, male or female, is welcome to ride their motorcycle in the Pink Ribbon Ride, with a $10 badge purchase the suggested entry fee. Decorating bikes with pink paraphernalia is encouraged. Riders and the public can enjoy a barbecue, coffee vans and raffles at Western Springs Stadium at the end of the ride.

The ride can be watched from anywhere – it’ll be hard to miss – but a good vantage point to take in the whole spectacle is the pedestrian over bridge near Parnell Baths on Tamaki Drive.

This year is the 12^th anniversary of the ride and it still amazes Christine Mudford, WIMA’s National Pink Ribbon Ride Co-ordinator how many riders attend for the first time each year.  “This event has proven to be very successful within the Motorcycle Charity Ride Calendar and the general public. It is a great event and I’m looking forward to a great turnout again this year.  People come from all around the region, often because of their own connection to this disease.”

Since the inaugural ride in 2004, WIMA has raised over $85,000 for The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation through its Auckland and Wellington events. “This is one of my favourite events in the October calendar as it always creates such an amazing atmosphere that brings together women, men and families,” said NZBCF chief executive Van Henderson.   “We so appreciate the money and awareness WIMA raises for us each year.”

Bikes will start arriving at the AMI Auckland Netball Centre, off Morrin Road in St Johns, from 9:00am on Sunday. The ride departs at 10:30am sharp, following Kohimarama Road, St Heliers Bay Rd, Tamaki Drive, Quay Street, Hobson Street, Pitt Street, Karangahape Road, Great North Road to Western Springs Stadium.

Breast Cancer survivors are welcome to join the ride, either as spectators or pillion riders.  Please contact Christine Mudford on 0274 792 660 to register your interest.

High res versions of the following images are attached:

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Contributed by the National Māori Tobacco Control Leadership

According to the latest census, all iwi have seen a significant drop in their numbers of regular smokers with an average decrease of around nine to ten per cent from 2006-2013.

81 per cent of Māori now live in urban areas, at least one-third live outside their tribal influence, more than one-quarter do not know their iwi or do not choose to affiliate with it, and at least 70 per cent live outside the traditional tribal territory.

Ngā Puhi, New Zealand’s largest iwi saw the biggest drop in numbers of regular smokers with a decrease of 9.9% followed closely by Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Tūhoe. Iwi with the smallest numbers of regular smokers include Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngā Puhi. All three of these iwi sit under the national smoking rate for Māori of 32.7%. Conversely, iwi like Tūhoe (38.2%) Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Tuwharetoa currently sit above the Māori national average. The national average is 15%, which means Māori are smoking at just over double the rate of the general population.

Maybe unsurprising, as the number of regular smokers has declined, the number of Māori who identify as “never smokers” or smokefree has increased. Being smokefree and tobacco free is now the norm for all iwi. “A thriving iwi needs thriving descendants. A focus on iwi health will be a major focus” says Naida Glavish spokesperson Whānau Ora Iwi Leaders Forum.

In 2010 Ngāti Kahungunu, the third largest tribe in New Zealand, became the first iwi to develop a comprehensive strategy to rid tobacco from the lives of its people. The Strategy incorporates a blend of both tobacco control strategies such as using cessation services and traditional cultural lore (tikanga) that will remove not only the use of tobacco products but also the carrying of tobacco on to sites such as marae and wāhi tapu (sacred sites). The Ngāti Kahungunu strategy is also included as part of the Hawkes Bay District Health Board’s tobacco free policy.

More recently, in 2014 the Iwi Leaders Forum committed to the Tupeka Kore 2025 goal.  “The networks and relationships that iwi have mean they are able to reach whānau at a level government agencies cannot” says Zoe Martin-Hawke.

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