We love a good animal yarn at RNZ. Here are some of the best from last year.
Do dogs really miss us when we are gone?
Dogs do care about others but don't read too much into their excitement when you get home.
Photo: 123RF
WATCH - The Weedfish
The hunt for a rarely-seen fish sends two marine scientists on a deep underwater dive into New Zealand’s disappearing kelp forests.
An unexpected friendship with a fox
One day, a wild fox turned up at the door of Catherine Raven's remote cabin in Montana. He came again the next afternoon - and the next.
Photo: Sunguk Kim / Unsplash
When nature and people collide
Science journalist Mary Roach is fascinated by how communities all over the world try to protect people and animals when our worlds collide.
Photo: Huseyin Demirci / Anadolu Agency via AFP
Sea lion crashes Dunedin soccer games
Players abandoned the field and parents scattered when a sea lion waddled up from Dunedin's Tomahawk Beach and onto Ocean Grove sports ground
Reuniting an orphan elephant with her mother - using DNA
When a very sick baby elephant wandered into a village in West Africa, the people knew she'd become separated from her herd and needed help. Four years later, Nania the elephant is thriving against the odds and may even be reunited with her mother.
Nania, her keepers and Celine Sissler-Bienvenu, walked 14kms with Nania to her new home. Along the way, the team stopped to feed and give her a mudbath. Photo: IFAW 2019
WATCH - The Zoom Goats of Cronkshaw Fold Farm
For a mere $10, you can have one of Dot McCarthy's goats join your Zoom call.
Sheep: Intelligent, exuberant, and often homosexual
It's true that sheep are followers but they're also very gregarious, says cultural historian Philip Armstrong.
Photo:
The Dogs of Chernobyl
Lucas Hixson cares for the stray dogs of Chernobyl - offspring of pets abandoned when the former Soviet nuclear plant exploded in 1986.
Photo: Clean Futures Fund
Arnold, the purr-fect police officer
The NZ Police have recruited a new "specialist search cat".
Turtles: one shell of a story
Turtles have been around for 250 million years and the current oldest living turtle - Jonathan - is 187.
Photo: Unsplash
Championing the cephalopods
Cephalopods - in particular octopus and squid - are intelligent, gentle and vital to the oceans but often overlooked.
Photo: 123RF
WATCH - Pet Day
Two horse-loving best friends are confused by their step-dads emotional reaction when they bring home a gift from their teacher in this short drama.
How much should be spent on saving wild animals?
The Detail asks why New Zealanders get so invested in saving wild animals that strand themselves.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Henry - the chook who patrols a preschool car park
'Henry' - as the female chicken was dubbed by the children of Newstead Country Preschool - has been bestowed with her very own hi-viz jacket.
The healing power of horses
Horse trek guide Hone Smythe is putting his experience to use with prison inmates.
Photo: Silje Mitgard / Unsplash
WATCH - Night Ride
When a mother of ten returns nightly to the old family home to feed stray cats, her son questions its connection to the death of his brother.
