Massey researchers help to reintroduce Robins to Turitea Reserve
The translocation took place in late April at Bushy Park Tarapuruhi Forest sanctuary near Whanganui.
Dr Kevin Parker
Dr Zoe Stone and Professor Doug Armstrong
Toutouwai, North Island robin, are locally extinct in most of their original range but thanks to a collective community effort including several Massey University researchers, a successful translocation has taken place to reintroduce the bird in the Manawatū Turitea Reserve.
Professor in Conservation Biology Doug Armstrong, postdoctoral fellows Zoe Stone and Liz Parlato and Massey PhD graduate Kevin Parker led the translocation in late April, which resulted in the capture of 40 robins from Bushy Park Tarapuruhi Forest sanctuary near Whanganui and transportation to the reserve, north of Massey’s Manawatū campus.
Manawatū Library project receives sustainability funding
A concept design of the new Manawatū library façade.
Massey University will receive $2m from the State Sector Decarbonisation Fund (SSDF) for capital funding towards upgrading to a more energy efficient façade as part of the Manawatū library renovations.
The façade replacement is part of Massey’s Manawatū Library Transformation Project which was announced in December. The project will seismically strengthen the building and transform the library into a welcoming, vibrant and modern learning space with a particular focus on providing more flexible spaces for individual and collaborative study.
The SSDF funding enables the replacement of the front north facing façade with a higher performing thermally broken curtain wall and solar fins. The remaining building façade will be insulated and double-glazed.
Dr Laura Jean McKay with her prize-winning novel about a pandemic (photo/Dr Kyra Clarke)
Now teaching creative writing at Massey’s Manawatū campus, Dr McKay is coming to grips with the “life-changing” success of winning the AU$100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, as well as the AU$25,000 Fiction Award, announced in early February.
Her novel, in which a rogue virus gives infected humans the ability to understand animals, was up against shortlisted celebrated writers such as Richard Flanagan. While she defines the book – her first published novel – as “speculative fiction”, aspects of the pandemic theme turned out to be scarily accurate.
Source: Massey University
New students being led onto Te PÅ«tahi-a-Toi, Masseyâs School of MÄori Knowledge, for their pÅwhiri.
Te Utangakiwhangaparaoa Tautuhi
Ana-Marie Kawana
A record number of students have risen to the challenge to increase the number of Kura Kaupapa MÄori teachers in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Massey University says this is the largest first year intake to its Kura Kaupapa teaching programmes since they began in 2012. Massey runs, the countryâs only post graduate Te Aho Matua initial teacher education programme, Te Aho Paerewa, and the countryâs first undergraduate degree, Te Aho TÄtairangi. Â