Wild Life: An Animal History of Aotearoa

Oratia, 2026
Series: The NZ Series (Part 9)
ISBN 978-1-99-004298-0

Wild Life: An Animal History of Aotearoa tells the story of the fascinating creatures that live here, or have done in the past and are now extinct. How and when did they arrive here? What is unique about our species, how have they adapted over time and what is their future in a time of climate change? It covers dinosaurs and fossils, amazing survivors like the tuatara and others that didn’t survive like giant penguins, Haast’s eagle and huia, introduced pests, livestock and domestic pets, conservation efforts, zoos and animal celebrities.

The NZ Series from Oratia Books is a valuable non-fiction resource for general readers and schools, introducing complex subjects in simple, concise terms. This ninth volume in the series will make an excellent introduction for understanding bird, fish and animal life, both native and introduced, in a historical context. This book brings you stories of wildlife both big and small, famous and little-known, and it’s crammed full of fascinating pictures and images as well.

Excerpt

Aotearoa New Zealand was once covered with forests, ferns, wetlands and grasslands. Birds were everywhere and the forest floor crawled with insects, lizards and worms.

Today we still have some of those creatures, but we also have pets in our houses, livestock on our farms, non-native birds like blackbirds, thrushes and sparrows in our trees and non-native fish like trout in our rivers. We have pests and predators like rabbits and hedgehogs, rats, possums, stoats, ferrets and weasels, nibbling foliage and killing native wildlife.

This book contains stories of arrival of the animals, birds and insects that live here now, or once did but are now extinct. How and when did they get here, how did they survive and thrive — or not — how did they change the environment and what is their future?

The story behind the book

Like many of my non-fiction titles, this one grew out of other books I’ve worked on.

To give just a few examples, while researching for Antarctic Journeys, I learnt about Mrs Chippy, the cat on board Shackleton’s ill-fated Endurance, and why her statue sits on a grave in Karori cemetery. For Our incredible dogs, I unearthed lots of great dog stories. But most of all, in writing New Zealand Migration (stories of how people came to this country, also in the Oratia NZ Series), I started to wonder about how our wildlife came to be here, and why we have the amazing creatures we do – but don’t have others, like snakes. We are an island nation, so everyone who came here had to travel from somewhere else. The first humans reached New Zealand about 1000 years ago, but animals and birds had already been here for millions of years before that.

Writing this book has taught me so much about the wildlife and the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. I hope you find the story of our wildlife as fascinating as I do!

Artist’s rendtion of Giant Haast’s eagle attacking New Zealand moa (Wikipedia)

Media Interviews

See Wild Life featured on writer, bookseller (and Good Sort!) Adele Broadbent’s desk in this video clip of her wonderful young people’s book club at Wardini Books – watch the whole thing because it’s a great story!

Reviews

“There’s a phenomenal amount of information packed into this, the ninth title in Oratia’s NZ Series, beginning in Gondwanaland and covering just about every aspect of our fauna, from endemic species (including some now extinct) to introduced critters, stowaways and Aussie invaders.”
Ann Packer rounds up a midsummer miscellany of notable new books for younger people in NZ Listener, 31 January 2026

“Philippa Werry‘s new book is a storehouse of fascinations…. I am always drawn to nonfiction books that raise vital questions and then embark upon multiple research and discovery roads to respond to them. And that is what Philippa’s book does!”… read more
Paula Green on Poetry Box

“I was very impressed by this book… ideal as a source for student research into New Zealand/Aotearoa wild life, but also for those who have a general interest in animals and insects”‘… read more
Stacey Ross on Read NZ Te Pou Muramura

“Where would we be without Philippa Werry? For years she has provided New Zealand children with story books, picture books and, above all, history books” … read more
Trevor Agnew in Agnew Reading, 8 May 2026

“Filled with photographs and historical images, this book explores the extraordinary creatures that have shaped our natural world” … read more
Celebrating Local Children’s Authors, 17 March 2026 at Wellington City Libraries: “To celebrate the opening of our new (old) Central Library, Te Matapihi, we’re shining a spotlight on a few of the wonderful books created right here in our city!”

“Philippa Werry’s Wild Life is ostensibly a wide-ranging ‘animal history of Aotearoa’ for tween-something readers, but Werry’s dry taste in anecdotes make this not just a guide to native and introduced fauna, but a handy compendium of eye-popping human interactions with the natural world, guaranteed to fuel many interesting dinner table chats” … read more
Tom Davis reviews six new books that reflect the real world for young readers in The Sapling, 17 June 2026

Teacher notes for Wild Life are available here.