A wrap of the biggest stories and best writing about the outdoors from New Zealand and around the world.

A climber has posted an extraordinary video of the moment he was attacked by a bear.

The unnamed climber was descending from a summit in Mount Futago National Park, and was on steep rocky terrain, when the creature launched at him from above.

He managed to dodge it, and when it approached him again from below he was able to fend it off with his fists and feet while clinging onto the rock.

The climber believes he’d entered the animal’s territory and it was probably trying to defend its cub (also visible in the video). “Instead of fear, I switched to the feeling that if it was coming, I had no choice but to face it,” he posted.

Read the story and watch the YouTube video of the incident here. 

Physical inactivity costs the world $47 billion a year, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published its first ever global report which shows that getting outdoors and active is so much more than an enjoyable pastime.

The report says that, between 2020 and 2030, nearly 500 million people will develop heart disease, diabetes, obesity or other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) attributable to physical inactivity.

It adds that governments are not working quickly enough – if at all – to get their populations more active.

“We need more countries to scale up implementation of policies to support people to be more active through walking, cycling, sport, and other physical activity,” says WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The benefits are huge, not only for the physical and mental health of individuals, but also for societies, environments, and economies…” Read more here. 

‘Aerial 1080 can kill individual kea, but it benefits their population’

That’s the assessment of DOC’s Western South Island national predator control programme regional leader Tom Belton from extensive species studies after predator control operations.

Belton has admitted that kea eating 1080-laced baits is a major challenge, but says the benefits far outweigh this. “What the science says, that even though a few die, the benefits last for at least two seasons.”

He adds that there’s research being carried out at the moment to try and further reduce the risk to the alpine parrot and that other species are also benefitting hugely from the aerial drops.

These include whio at a site at Oparara, near Karamea, where numbers have increased from 23 pairs in 2012 to 71 pairs in 2021; and kākā in South Westland, where there’s a two-percent successful nesting rate when 1080 isn’t used, compared to 55 percent when it is used. Read more at RNZ. 

A Government bailout is the only way

Ruapehu district mayor Weston Kirton says the only way to save Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) is for the Government to bail it out.

The not-for-profit company manages Whakapapa and Tūroa ski fields, but its board put it into voluntary administration, as border closures, lockdowns and a terrible ski season have seen it plunge into almost $40 million debt.

“From what I understand the banks are honing in, and it’s more serious than we first thought,” said Kirton. “A focus has been on getting urgent meetings with ministers to keep the business afloat.

“There’s a $100m business at stake here … and it’s too much of a risk for it to just close. We are all trying to find a way forward and keep the wolves at bay.” Read more at Stuff. 

Anyone fancy $90k a year looking after West Coast wilderness? … apparently not!

DOC are advertising for a role that involves looking after endangered kiwi, penguins and lizards in one of the most spectacular landscapes in New Zealand. Yet no one seems to want it.

The department has had very little response from its ads for a biodiversity supervisor among the rainforests, glaciers and mountain ranges of the Haast region. It’s, therefore, now also looking overseas in the hope of finding the right candidate.

DOC’s Wayne Costello says it’s an amazing place to work, but wouldn’t suit all tastes. “It’s just spectacular. But it is not for everyone. You’d have to be self-reliant and be able to work in the outdoors. If you’re interested in opera and theatre, it’s probably not for you.”

Surely there’s one Wilderness reader for whom this ticks all the right boxes! Read more about the job here.