At the end of this month four rescue dogs will graduate as fully trained explosive detector dogs after completing an intensive nine weeks of training.

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.

A judge has granted the legal right of habeas corpus to two chimpanzees being held at a biomedical research facility in the US - a decision that animal rights activists hailed as the first time chimps that had been afforded the status of legal "persons".

Puppy farms and dog fighting were topics Labour's animal welfare spokesman Trevor Mallard sank his teeth into at the SPCA Otago in Dunedin yesterday.

They came out of Africa and into Matamata, and brought some exotic friends with them - including Bassoon the American bison and Mr and Mrs Ostrich.

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

Angel wings proved to be the winning ingredient for a pup at a West Auckland dog show yesterday.

Five little hihi - mostly juveniles - were found "sort of paralysed or spasming" at a wildlife park.

Dog owners love their pets in the same way as they do their children, and the feeling is mutual, scientists have found.

New University of Otago research is providing the most comprehensive picture of the nearly 40million-year-long evolutionary history of baleen whales.

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 hunter who has killed dozens of wild animals has been sent death wishes by furious social media users.

A famous local mountain lion who crawled under a Los Angeles home on Tuesday stayed put, despite humans' best efforts to get him out.

In a move more befitting of a feline, a lost pooch has turned up in an elevated position.

Auckland Zoo's new elephant, Anjalee, enjoys a pat while in quarantine on Niue.

A new class action lawsuit has been filed against SeaWorld in Florida which accuses the marine park of keeping its killer whales drugged.

Eight-year-old Anjalee is munching into mountains of coconuts in Niue as she waits for the 90-day quarantine period to pass before entering Auckland.

Eight-year-old Anjalee is spending 90 days in quarantine on Niue as she waits for her boarding pass to Auckland, where she will eventually live in Auckland Zoo.

Dogs have a 98 per cent reliability rate in sniffing out prostate cancer, according to newly-published research.

I'm not sure where in nature a dog would access bacon or cheese or smoked food or indeed the many grains, including corn, which are included in these treats, writes Wendyl Nissen.

A dominant male chimpanzee that launched a ferocious two-minute attack that killed a female newcomer to Hamilton Zoo is back with his troop.

Tuatara have hatched in the wild in the South Island for possibly the first time in several hundred years, experts say.

A rat plague in the picturesque Hunua Ranges is threatening New Zealand's biggest mainland population of the kokako.

Tuatara have hatched in the wild in the South Island for possibly the first time in several hundred years, experts say.

A female chimpanzee died after a horrific two-minute attack by the dominant male at Hamilton Zoo.

It may have taken five years, but Chester the shelter dog has finally found a home - and become a social media sensation at the same time.