Taylor Davies-Colley, Master's student in the Department of Botany.
Northland is such a unique place with Kauri forest, gumlands, giant sand dunes and incredible beaches, and growing up there gave me no limit of inspiration for my passion for the natural world. When I was younger I wanted to be Steve Irwin, but later I realised there were very few 'Steve Irwin' jobs, but there is certainly a need for people to study and promote the rare and weird flora and fauna of New Zealand. And as my parents are serious gardeners it's hardly surprising I ended up studying plants. It's well recognised that people tend to care more about the soft and cuddly things, and in NZ birds get a lot of coverage and conservation efforts. But there are so many other amazing things that most people have never heard of, and most have almost certainly never seen. If only people knew about them they would be really interested I reckon.
My masters' research is on a rare species of carnivorous plant called a bladderwort that lives in northern NZ. It's as rare as the rarest kiwi but it traps prey in an incredible 9 milliseconds (It takes between 300–400 milliseconds to blink). This species is in massive decline and I have hardly met a person who knows it exists before I talk to them about it. Outside of that I also love getting involved with programmes developing youth such as Dunedin's town belt kaitiaki project, giving school and early childcare students the opportunity to take leadership through environmental action to restore a unique part of our city. Kids are awesome to work with; they have heaps of fresh ideas and unlimited curiosity and are really just mini scientists who don't get paid to be excited about the natural world – yet!