They may be hated pests that love eating our cherished native birds, but pesky introduced stoats have just become a little more interesting to scientists overseas.

After 20 years, but family members of the 14 young people who died in the Cave Creek disaster marked the anniversary today by acknowledging that they were ready to move on.

Footage has emerged of the terrifying moment a 6m great white shark lunged at a dinghy carrying an international film crew off Stewart Island.

An enormous effort to save native birds from a tide of pests has delivered some promising results in the South Island, following 1080 drops across vast swathes of beech forest.

The dead oarfish washed up at Aramoana last week has disappeared and marine experts are warning against eating its 3m-long fillets.

Otago Peninsula jewelled geckos smuggled to Germany are the first to return to New Zealand under strengthened rules to crack down on poaching.

A bizarre, self-amputating, vertical swimming, serpent-like marine specimen has washed up on the salt marsh at Aramoana in Dunedin.

Solutions are critical in their own way for the challenge that is turning the tide on the loss of nature in New Zealand, writes Marie Brown.

In the first of a two-part series on New Zealand’s ‘vanishing nature’, author Marie Brown explains the country’s biodiversity crisis - and why things are getting worse.

A real estate agent has been fined after a buyer wasn't told that 112sq m of public land was included within the property boundary fence.

Nearly 10 per cent of our coastal marine area is now safeguarded by reserves. But are we really doing enough? Science reporter Jamie Morton poses five key questions.

A devastated dog owner says he has himself to blame for the canine's slaying of a protected fur seal.

If your stance on foreign ownership of prized New Zealand countryside is black or white, the case of Robert "Mutt" Lange reveals issues that are far from clear-cut.

Check Ditch Keeling's voicemail announcement. "I'm in the middle of killing something right now," it says. "Leave a message and I'll get back to you just as soon as it's dead.

Around 100 volunteers are working frantically to save what is left of a pod of stranded pilot whales near Nelson this morning.

More stranded pilot whales are expected to die as weather conditions and nightfall hamper efforts to save 174 pilot whales that ran into trouble today.

A desperate plea by 15 bystanders for passing jetboats to rescue a 30-year-old struggling in the chilly waters of the Hokitika Gorge were ignored by the boaties.

She's shown the slick skills of famed prison escaper George Wilder in repeatedly busting out of her sanctuary - so now it's off to Alcatraz for Peti the trouble-making takahe.

A woman was winched off Mt Sebastopol yesterday after becoming stuck on the mountain during a day hike.

Claims that the high-profile pest control campaign "Battle For Our Birds" wiped out a group of nationally endangered birds are unfounded, the Department of Conservation says.

Stunned staff and some 100 swimmers watched in disbelief as a fun-loving sea lion waddled through reception and cafe to "swim laps" in a public pool yesterday.

A German tourist is the first person to be caught breaking new marine reserve rules after a ranger spotted him taking mussels at a popular tourist beach at Punakaiki.

Summer is the season for Jandals and chilly bins and it's also when a host of shark species make an appearance.

Losing our native species is not an inevitability but a choice - and one that could hurt New Zealand in more ways than we realise.