Natural history writer and science broadcaster, zoologist Alison Ballance MNZM, will share stories from her three most recent books, which tell how science is revealing the secrets of some of New Zealand's most charismatic mega-vertebrates. Innovative conservation science and management have brought two iconic flightless giant birds - kakapo, the world's heaviest parrot, and takahe, the world's largest surviving rail - back from the brink of extinction. And cutting-edge technology has helped solve some of the many mysteries about the lives of New Zealand great white shark.