New Zealand's top fashion designers have donated exclusive items to help the Herald's Viva magazine raise money for animals in need.

Are cats secretly laughing at us? Is all that purring, licking and being available for stroking just an elaborate ruse for food and a warm place to sleep?

The incredible travels of a hefty great white shark named Pip are helping scientists rewrite the book on everything we thought we knew about the feared species.

Frankie, Freddy or Fifi? Or maybe something more home-grown like Frodo or Fauna?

Another seal has shown up Auckland — this time in Campbells Bay on the North Shore.

Chimpanzees have the same types of smiles as humans when laughing and do not even need to make a sound to be understood, according to a new study.

Mike and Gill Godfrey never planned to breed cats but 15 years on from buying their first ragdoll they have almost 90 strutting around their Te Puna property.

Researchers have found seven new species of the miniature frog genus Brachycephalus on seven different mountains in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil.

Walking about Auckland's streets holding up a rather large antenna, Alice Baranyovits isn't surprised some bemused onlookers have asked if she's searching for aliens.

The fifth seal in two weeks has come to shore in South Auckland - this time in Manurewa. Earlier this afternoon a seal had been spotted in Wattle Downs, Manurewa. That seal has since been returned to its natural habitat by the Department of Conservation.

The fifth seal in two weeks has come to shore in South Auckland - this time in Manurewa.

Conservationists say they'll probably never know what caused barracuda to maul dozens of endangered yellow-eyed penguins this year.

A yellow-eyed penguin thought to have had a nasty encounter with a barracuda is today on its way back home.

A woman has been banned from owning animals for ten years after a horse starved to death.

The camera of an American woman mauled to death by a lion in South Africa has been taken by police investigating what prompted the big cat to pounce.

They have already shown that they enjoy tea parties, so it should perhaps come as no surprise they are also intelligent enough to understand cooking.

Kiwi cat lovers rejoice - the country's first cat cafe could open within the next two months.

The festival committee had been preparing for Pentecost Sunday for months, and at last it had come.

Sometimes you just need someone to listen - even if that someone is a ball of fluff that hits snooze for two thirds of its life.

It is not the infamous seal that took over a car wash in the area earlier this week... this time, it's a baby!

A Wellington Zoo staff member has travelled to Colombia to help a local conservation group care for endangered primates.

Benny tries to look innocent but his scruffy mug says a thousand words.

A new warning has sounded for the world’s smallest dolphin, with a New Zealand researcher now reporting there are less than 50 Maui’s dolphins left.

Award-winning film-maker and author Lloyd Spencer Davis, aka 'Professor Penguin', is regarded as a world authority on penguins. He talks to Jennifer Dann.

Danish radio presenter bludgeoned a baby rabbit to death with a bicycle pump whilst debating animal rights live on air.

There were 14 seal-related injury claims last year. One person was even bitten on the bum.

Animal behaviour expert Sally Hibbard lists the ten most annoying things you can say to a vegetarian.

Feel like a cuteness overload? The SPCA is currently live streaming four fuzzy kittens as part of an adoption drive.

What happens when you lock one of New Zealand's most hated predators up with two other notorious killers?

Forget The Bachelor - it's a tiny crab that takes the cake for the ultimate act of courtship.