All right, everybody. It is me and Christian here with our very good buddy, Thomas Realstone,

from the history of Otero. Did I pronounce it right? That was pretty good, actually. Yeah,

that was pretty good. That was pretty good. History of New Zealand podcast. And so tell us a little bit about your projects and what you've been working on and what we're going to be talking about today.

Sure. So, Keora, my name is Thomas and I, as you've just heard, I am the bloke behind the history of Ultero and New Zealand podcast, which is very much a does what it says on the tin podcast.

It's a chronological narrative retelling of the history of Ultero in New Zealand,

which by my accent and stuff, you probably gather that's where I'm from.

However, you've also probably gathered that that is a history podcast, as I've just explained, and you're wondering, what are they doing on this podcast about animals?

What's that?

How's that related?

It's all part of the plan, baby.

It's all part of the plan.

So there is a, there is a connection. One of the connections is that New Zealand is a very unique place in that about

50% of the animals here are endemic or they're not found anywhere else in the world.

So that makes it very, very special and it's sometimes called a biological arc because

a lot of our animals are very, very, very old have been here for a very, very long time and haven't really evolved a hell of a lot and that kind of stuff.

And the other part of it is why I specifically am here when I run a history podcast is that although history is kind of a passion, and I do really, really enjoy that,

I actually work in the conservation field.

I work in conservation for a living.

So my job, a lot of it entails, or a lot of it is around trying to get rid of introduced

mammalian pests.

Things like rats, musterlids, which are stoats, weasels and ferrets, as well as possums

and hedgehogs and whatever else people decided to bring over to New Zealand that weren't

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