DOC Sounds of Science Podcast

36: Bird nerding with Graeme Elliott

Conservation scientist Graeme Elliott is an ultimate bird nerd. With a career spanning over 50 years, Graeme has studied and worked with a range of native bird species, i

35: A Flipping Good Time with Dr. Jody Weir

Marine biologist and primatologist Dr Jody Weir has extensive expertise on marine animals, specifically: fur seals, dolphins and turtles – all things finned and beautiful

34: Better unguLATE than never with George Ledgard

George knows everything there is to know about hooved creatures that walk on their toes—ungulates, for those in the know—and he’s a keen hunter as well as a technical adv

33: Pen(guin) pals with Cassie Mealey

Cassie has the most interesting answer possible to the question ‘what do you do for fun?’ She rehabilitates penguins. As one of our technical advisors specialising in fa

32: Parrot patter

Terry is an expert in all kinds of parrots, specifically kākā, kākāriki karaka/NZ parakeet and kākāpō. He’s spent a lot of time catching and monitoring birds, studying t

31: All things kākāpō part 2

Part 2 of our special with kākāpō scientist, Dr. Andrew Digby. We ask listeners’ questions about kākāpō, talk about some of the biggest wins and disappointments in kākāpō

30: All things kākāpō part 1

Dr. Andrew Digby does a deep dive on the science of kākāpō management, recalls weird behaviour he’s observed from them in the field, and explains some of the big challeng

29: Summer supercut

To celebrate summer in Aotearoa, we’ve put together a supercut, packed to the brim with all the best bits from previous episodes.  From cryptic species to sharks to seal

28: Volcanology

Volcanologist Hollei Gabrielsen (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whitikaupeka) on providing advice about volcanoes, particularly in Tongariro National Park; and how her whakapapa

27: In a galaxiid far, far away

Freshwater scientist Nixie Boddy on researching non-migratory galaxiids, native fish, and her adventures in the field—some of which involve costumes. Nixie has a huge am

#26 Field yarns with Tim part 2

Kiwi ranger Tim Raemaekers on the tokoeka kiwi monitoring programme in Fiordland, the predator control challenges at Shy Lake, and the emotional roller-coaster of starrin

#25 Field yarns with Tim part 1

Ranger and Biodiversity Project lead Tim Raemaekers on handling rare species, becoming a kiwi ranger, and the incredible things he’s seen robin/toutouwai, kākāpō and kiwi

#24 Kiwi as

Ranger Chris Dodd (Doddy) on what it’s like to track and monitor rare kiwi birds in Aotearoa New Zealand. Doddy is a passionate kiwi conservationist who started his care

#23 Deals with seals

Marine biologist Laura Boren dives into her favourite topic, seals, and shares some on-the-job stories about this mischievous species. Laura grew up in the landlocked st

#22 Kaitiaki kauri, protecting the mighty kauri

Ranger Hana Harris explains how we can help protect kauri from the notorious pathogen threatening our forests. Hana hails from the beautiful Northland region. In this ep

#21 Banding banter

Ecologist Michelle Bradshaw discusses what we can learn from the data we get from banded birds and shares some cautionary tales about on the fly identification. Michelle

DOC Sounds of Science bonus episode, the trailer

The DOC Sounds of Science podcast is a behind-scenes-look at conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand. Every episode we chat with one of our experts about their greatest achi

#20 Conservation and culture

In this episode we’re talking about how our conservation past intersects with both our present and our future, and how our treaty commitments need to be at the heart of t

#19: Wildlife warrior

CITES is an international agreement regulating the import and export of endangered animals and plants. What’s this? And why is it important? CITES officer Avi Narula is g

#18 Cryptic critters

Stories about velvet worms, tiny frogs, crooning bats and more from ecologist Jess Scrimgeour.  Jess knows that the Fab Five—in this case we mean kākāpō, kiwi, whio, tak