Frogmouths have another life that few people see: like vampires, they wake at sunset and night-hunt until dawn. These stolid creatures turn into zephyrs that silently swoop, catching prey on the ground and in the air.
I get there, I look and here's this little crocodile swimming around in the water. The sighting occurred at Federal Park in Wallsend, close to a local pool and primary school. Kirsop said she was met with initial disbelief when she contacted the wildlife rescue group Wires, and the Australian Reptile Park.
A tiny critically endangered moth, named after the Avatar films because of the proposed mining activity threatening its primary habitat, has been crowned New Zealand's bug of the year. The Avatar moth won by a wide margin, earning 5,192 of the more than 11,000 total votes cast. It won 2,269 more votes than the runner-up, the mahoenui giant weta, one of the world's largest insects. Other contenders included the wonderfully spiky hellraiser mite, the country's heaviest spider the black tunnelweb and a giant earthworm
Kakapo breed only every two to four years when the native rimu trees mast and produce large numbers of berries, so repopulation is slow. This year a mega-mast is expected, resulting in a bountiful harvest of rimu berries, which could prompt the birds to produce more eggs. The rimu tree produces berries that provide enough nutrition for the birds to raise chicks. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy