Studies have shown that mirrors can improve the lives of a variety of laboratory, zoo, farm, and companion animals.

Free laser therapy is a heaven-sent gift for badly burnt dog Demon.

Steamy extra-marital liaisons with the big-shot bloke next door. A love child or two. No it's not Fifty Shades of Grey, it's the secret life of the tui.

The National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC) says its pleased to see a drop in the number of animals used for testing and research.

New research, which measures the positive and negative emotional states in dogs, shows that man’s best friend can now be defined as a ‘pessimist’ or as an ‘optimist’.

A live scorpion has been destroyed after being found in the tent of a traveller returning to Auckland from Mexico.

Skinks might not be as ''sexy'' as other endangered wildlife but giving $146,000 to support the work of a community group focusing on boosting the Otago skink population is money well spent, Conservation Minister Nick Smith says.

Scientists yesterday discovered the eyes were 35cm wide, at least 8cm bigger than the last one.

The world is a step closer to a low-emission sheep, thanks to leading work by Kiwi and US researchers.

New research has confirmed waters off Auckland are crucial breeding grounds for a keystone shark species.

From pandas pretending to be pregnant to birds that steal food, animals are sometimes just as deceptive than humans.

The world's leading expert on the poisoning of the oceans has described how he was "utterly shocked" by the true amount of plastic floating on the sea, warning that it potentially posed a bigger threat to the planet than climate change.

Half the planet should be set aside solely for the protection of wildlife to prevent the "mass extinction" of species, according to one of the world's leading biologists.

There are 462 more species of bird in the world than previously thought.

Dr Ian Singleton, the British conservationist, world-renowned orang-utan expert and director of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme was hanging out at the Auckland Zoo this week.

Aussie cities are breeding bigger spiders - spiders that are watching you right now and probably planning to jump onto the back of your neck.

The ocean is home to some weird and wonderful creatures. Here are some of the strangest.

A treasure trove of the remains of hundreds of mammals from the Ice Age has been discovered in a cave in Wyoming.

With a face only a mother could love - a baby tuatara was captured on film as it hatched out of its egg at Victoria University of Wellington.

The bizarre lives of some of our garden-variety creatures have been revealed in a book by two leading Kiwi biologists.

Spectacular transitional fossils, many from northern China, provide overwhelming evidence that dinosaurs evolved into birds.

This is extremely rare footage of a tuatara hatching, filmed at Victoria University of Wellington. The egg was one of 23 being incubated in captivity as part of a joint initiative with the Department of Conservation and Ngati Manuhiri that has saved a threatened population of tuatara from extinction.

Scientists in western Canada have discovered the fossilised footprints of three tyrannosaurs that suggest these fearsome predators may have hunted in packs.

Intensive and sometimes controversial forms of threatened species management may be needed to reverse the increasing rate of global biodiversity losses, a University of Otago zoologist says.

Not all chimpanzees are created equal. Not only are some more intelligent than others, but about half of this variation is genetically inherited.

The largest flying bird in history had a 24 feet wingspan - more than twice that of the biggest living albatross - and dined on fish probably caught in mid-flight over the open ocean, a study has found.