Auckland Green Gecko

Reptiles > Geckos

The Auckland Green Gecko (Naultinus elegans), known in Maori as moko kakariki, is one of New Zealand’s most charismatic and beautiful native reptiles. Unlike the vast majority of nocturnal, drab-colored geckos worldwide, this arboreal jewel is strictly diurnal,...

Kakabeak

Plants > Legumes & Shrubs

Kakabeak (Clianthus puniceus), known in Maori as Kowhai Ngutukaka, is an internationally celebrated, critically endangered flowering shrub endemic to New Zealand. Renowned for its weeping clusters of dramatic, brilliant scarlet-crimson flowers that curve downward like...

Cook Strait Giant Weta

Invertebrates > Orthoptera

The Cook Strait Giant Weta (Deinacrida rugosa), known in Maori as Weta Punga, is an iconic, dinosaur-like giant insect native to the island ecosystems of New Zealand. Evolving in an ancient archipelago devoid of native land mammals, this monumental, flightless...

Canterbury Knobbled Weevil

Invertebrates > Weevils

The Canterbury Knobbled Weevil (Hadramphus tuberculatus) is a celebrated ‘Lazarus taxon’ and one of the rarest, most heavily specialized insects in New Zealand. Believed to have gone completely extinct in the 1920s following the agricultural transformation...

Hamilton’s Frog

Amphibians > Primitive Frogs

Hamilton’s Frog (Leiopelma hamiltoni) is an extraordinarily ancient and primitive amphibian found only on isolated islands in New Zealand’s Cook Strait. Belonging to the family Leiopelmatidae—a lineage that diverged from all other living frogs over 200...