Our Changing World

The summer science series continues with an episode from Tune into Nature, a podcast about New Zealand wildlife and wild places, and the people who look after them. Independent producer Karthic SS visits the Mokomoko Dryland Sanctuary Central Otago. Here, a team is working to bring back endangered lizards – Otago skinks and grand skinks – to the drylands wilderness they once lived in. These species are true wildlife underdogs – so rare and out of sight, not many people know they exist.

The summer science series continues with an episode from RNZ podcast Here Now. A love for tropical plants united Canterbury-based botanists Dr Julie Barcelona and Dr Pieter Pelser in the mid-2000s. The pair are renowned for their work on the large and unusual flower Rafflesia, which smells like a rotting carcass. They have found at least three new species on their adventures in the Philippines. Kadambari Raghukumar learns more about their spectacular discoveries.