A small documentary team that consists of two student film makers from Otago University:
Pete Holmes: Mature student, making a significant career change after working mainly in the computing/finance business for the last 15 years. A Love of Wildlife encouraged working as a part time volunteer at Auckland zoo for 16 months and working on conservation projects on 2 Raleigh International expedition to Zimbabwe and China.
Steve Ting: 24 years old, originally from Hamilton and now living in Dunedin. An avid scientist with an an honors degree in Ecology and Marine Biology and schooled in photography by some of New Zealand’s most talented fine art photographers, Steve now lives a life of a science communicator in waiting.
Both are enrolled on the Film making stream of the Masters in Science Communication, and have already worked with clients on a couple of short films as part of the course.
They have just fnished working on their Masters thesis project – A documentary called ‘1080′ which focuses on the use of 1080 poison in New Zealand. DVD version is now available. Click on the link at the top of the page to order.
Pete and Steve can be contacted via e-mail at badwolffilms@gmail.com
February 4, 2010 at 9:10 pm |
Hello Peter and Steve,
Congratulations on achieving your Masters on a very contentious subject.
1080? When I was young i was very anti 1080 because in those early days native birds would also die. This is because we did not have a good methodology bait disperal, we were using the wrong bait make up (texture) which released a lot of chaff that birds would pick up and baits were not dyed green. However, when I monitored bird populations that were not managed by 1080 control, birds such as robin, kakaiki, kaka, kokako, yellowhead,and kiwi continued to decline or became locally extinct. When these isolated areas were “treated” with 1080 poisoning, our counts showed an increase in bird numbers and recovery in health of the forest ecosytem. I have seen the proof myself (supported by analysis of many pre and post bird counts) and totaly agree that until we can get another cost effective alternative to 1080, we must keep using it or decline and extinction of our indigenous biota will continue – it is as simple as that. Being a former deer stalker, I now know that my fellow hunters are using the anti 1080 issue for selfish reasons – to preserve deer to hunt and not to see recovery and enhancement of our unique biodiversity and ecosystems.
Kia ora,
Peter.