Cat-lovers have reacted with scorn and bewilderment to a campaign to rid the country of their pets - although conservationists say it highlights a serious problem.

In the still of the night, a sudden anguished screech shatters the still air. But there's no point investigating - there's a bird clamped tight in the jaws of a killer.

A second beaked whale to be stranded within 24 hours in Southland was euthanised yesterday by the Department of Conservation.

Top New Zealand economist Gareth Morgan is launching a campaign to eradicate domestic cats, calling them sadists that destroy native wildlife.

A Hawkes Bay family got more than they bargained for when they cracked open an unusually large egg laid by their pet chicken recently - another egg.

Almost 20 abandoned animals featured in the Herald's summer papers have found homes.

Auckland Zoo's new “Keeper for a Day” experience allows visitors to work alongside keepers and step into areas of the zoo that are usually out of bounds.

The keepers at Auckland Zoo think they have the best job in the world, so we are trading our office shoes for work boots today to give it a go.

Rhonda Preston-Jones could be forgiven for thinking she was in Australia yesterday morning when she looked out the window and saw three pelicans only metres from her home in Waterview.

New York's Bronx Zoo has welcomed a baby gibbon, the first born at the zoo for 12 years.

An 12 metre-long adult male sperm whale was discovered by locals this morning near the Kapiti Coast Boat Club on Paraparaumu Beach, north of Wellington.

A second sea lion has died in just over a month at Napier's Marineland when 22-year-old Makea failed to recover from a general anaesthetic on Friday.

A dolphin and its calf which were stranded on a Hawkes Bay reef as they fled from hunting orca have been saved by holidaymakers.

White tail spiders come out in search of food during warm summer weather, and their numbers are up, according to some pest controllers.

Children watched as an out-of-work social worker threw his flatmate's cat under the tyres of passing cars to kill it.

It's hard to take a big dog on an international sports tour - but easier to take him on holiday.