A silver-backed gorilla laying in the grass, on his stomach.
A gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo, captured on a web cam livestreaming to the world

InternetMay 2, 2025

Wildwatch: The best animal webcams from Aotearoa and around the world

Books editor
A silver-backed gorilla laying in the grass, on his stomach.
A gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo, captured on a web cam livestreaming to the world

Human world getting you down? Here’s a curated list of animal webcams to soothe, entertain and sometimes, unfortunately, remind you of how much help nature needs.

In a chaotic world there is nothing more spiritually refreshing than sinking your eyes into the wilderness. From the gentle sloshing of moose padding through a slow-moving river; to albatross chicks resting fatly in their nests; to a lone egg in a bald eagle’s nest. 

Webcams are nestled in prime locations all around the world, allowing us to spy on animals and their wild ways and their wild homes. From the comfort of your office chair you can surveil nature at your leisure and remind yourself of the cute, the curious and the courageous trying to exist out there, beyond you. 

A warning that not all livestreams will soothe, exactly: some will remind you just how precarious our wild creatures are and how much support they now need to simply to carry on as they have done for so many generations.

Here is a list of webcams from Aotearoa and abroad for your dose of vicarious wilderness.

Royal Cam – Albatross Livestream

One of the most magnificent examples of the animal webcam is this 24/7 livestream of the albatross at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head in Ōtepoti, Dunedin where the albatross colony is watched over by scientists who help ensure their survival. Even if there were no birds in sight it is magnificent to feast your eyes upon the wind-blown grasses waving between a changeable sea and sky. The camera angle does seem to change quite regularly (or there is more than one camera) so you’re guaranteed a change of scene even if the chicks aren’t so active.

The camera is currently trained on a female chick (poetically named A85) who looks like a fluffy soft toy nestled there in her nest. If you’re lucky you’ll see parents gliding over the head with their huge wings, or even getting up close to the camera. 

You can also join the Royal Cam community discussion where watchers post screenshots and other observations: so wholesome. 

A screenshot showing land and see with mountains beyond and a single albatross chick in the centre, in the grass.
A screen shot from Royal Cam.

Orokonui Live Cams – Kākā Cam and Orokonui Valley

Orokonui Sanctuary is nestled between Waitati and Pūrākaunui, about 20km north of Dunedin. The Kākā Cam has its eye trained on a feeding station which is surrounded by forest. To be honest I’m yet to see a kākā but I have spent long, long minutes gazing into the foliage swaying in strong winds and that is better than any lullaby or meditation I have tried yet. 

The Valley Cam gazes out towards Māpounui maunga so you look over tī kouka trees, toetoe and other mountainous plants towards a sometimes misty, other times crystal clear rise in the land. Just beautiful.

Kororā Little Blue Penguin nest cam – NIWA

This live cam by the Urban Wildlife Trust is an eye to the inside of the NIWA (The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research) kororā nest in Evans Bay, Wellington. You’ll see feathers and twigs, winged bugs, and cockroaches. The latest update below the livestream is from October 2024 and it says:

“Hi All – Firstly thank you so much for watching our Live Kororā Cam. You may already be aware the eggs are now past the max hatch date. Sadly, it looks like another case of infertile eggs, which is becoming more common for this colony. Unfortunately, this just shines a light on the enormity of the adverse environmental impacts these birds are up against. Extreme weather conditions, heavy sediment, lack of food, man-made pollutants and predators are all challenges that the world’s smallest penguin has to contend with every day to survive, let alone successfully bring another generation into the world.”

You might not see any little blue penguins but the empty nest, buzzing with insects, might just remind you that our tiny kororā need all the help we can give them. 

Orana Park – Zoolife 

To view these you do have to create a Zoolife account (very simple, two-step situation, and free) but once you’re in, oh boy, has the door to spying on zoo animals been well and truly opened. 

You can select three zoo cams to watch anytime you like for free – I chose the Siamangs at Orana Park, and the Snow Leopards and Livingstone’s fruit bats at Northumberland Zoo. 

What’s nifty about Zoolife is that you can move your camera view around and zoom in and out. I zoomed in on a sleeping Snow Leopard and found the experience both magical and also shocking. For such a famously elusive creature, there she was, on my computer screen, live and totally unaware that me and a bunch of other Zoolife creeps were watching her take a nap. 

The Orana Park Siamangs were all hanging out at the opposite end of their playground and the camera was quite slow to zoom in on them. But once it did I was treated to that particularly sly way that primates like to hassle each other. With coy looks and then a random smack on the arm. Delightful. (Also kind of odd sensation to also watch the people at Orana watching the Siamangs, too.)

Warning: one could spend many hours touring Zoolife and the portals into the private (and public) lives of zoo captives.

A close up of a snow leopard asleep on some straw.
A snow leopard at Northumberland Zoo, napping. Screenshot from Zoolife webcam

Auckland Zoo webcams

These videos are not actually live but are highlights taken from past live webcams. So the thrill of the present is not there but I would still highly recommend the meerkat video which opens right on feeding time and there is nothing like a dozen tiny meers, sprinting for the disembodied hand of their keeper, to make your morning.

Puffin Bank Cam – Skomer Island Livestream

Thanks to a hi-tech camera you can now spy on a colony of one of quaintest species of seabird there ever was. Skomer Island is way over in Wales, off the coast of Pembrokeshire. For us down here in Aotearoa the Puffin Bank Cam will largely be on nightwatch. But if you care to tune in early in the morning or later at night you’ll be treated to the small suited birds with bright beaks, severe eyebrows and a fabulous waddle. 

Badger Cam – Cumbria Wildlife Trust

What I love about this particular Badger Cam (located in Cumbria, England) is that they’re wild badgers but they’re fed by the staff of a local bar called the Badger Bar & Restaurant.

I’ve never not seen an animal when I’ve tuned into this badger cam. First few times I saw badgers, after that, I saw rats. Great big rats. 

Decorah North Bald Eagle cam – Raptor Resource Project

Decorah is in Iowa, and the pair of eagles you’ll see (hopefully) are nesting on a private property that has allowed a 24/7 camera watch over the nest. We just missed fledgling season (March – April) but if you tune in right now you might just see what I see: an egg! A late bloomer? The egg looks a bit smaller than I’d assume for an eagle and there’s no eagle currently sitting on it … but this viewer will be checking in on progress and hoping to see a new baby baldie very soon.

Update: there appears to be more than one camera view. You may also tune in to find a wider angle view of the nest against the rural backdrop which may hopefully reveal the eagles flying in and out. At the very least you’ll be able to gaze a while at a thick blanket of cloud racing above the land.

A gorilla lying on its back in the grass.
A gorilla having a nap: screenshot from Gorilla Forest Corridor cam. Image: Claire Mabey.

Gorilla Forest Corridor – GRACE Gorillas

Prepare to have your breath taken away. Turn it on, turn it on right now and see a huge, beautiful gorilla right in the middle of your screen! Maybe even more than one! The gorillas you’ll see on this cam are in The Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The corridor is a strip of land that links the spot where the gorillas sleep at night with the GRACE forest habitat. The live cam captures afternoon naps, grazing, grooming circles, and general gorilla-ing around.

Den stora älgvandringen (Great Moose Migration)

Every year keen Moose-admiring Swedes tune into the great moose migration and watch the Christmassy beasts walk through forest and river from Kullberg in the north of Sweden to their summer pastures. The website is mostly in Swedish but thanks to the universal language of play buttons you’ll soon find you can explore both the livestream and the recorded videos of the lovely moose, mooching across Sweden, not a human in sight. 

A screenshoot taken of a video of a herd of moose standing between forest and river.
Swedish moose, migrating. Screenshot from the great moose migration livestream highlights.
Keep going!
screenshots of people participating in the ice buckt challenge, mostly young people looking wet and a hand holding a cellphone
On social media, there are endless videos of people participating in the new version of the trend. (Image: supplied)

InternetMay 2, 2025

The ice bucket challenge is back. Did we learn anything the first time it went viral?

Contributing writer
screenshots of people participating in the ice buckt challenge, mostly young people looking wet and a hand holding a cellphone
On social media, there are endless videos of people participating in the new version of the trend. (Image: supplied)

With a new cause to support, the ice bucket challenge is back. But what are the pitfalls of attempting to raise money through social media? 

I was waiting for a friend when I first heard about the ice bucket challenge. “Can you help me with this?” her younger brother asked. I followed him outside, holding a camera while two others poured water over his head. None of us had anything else to do, because we were 14. The year was 2014.

Soon enough, it was my turn. A friend from our cross-country running club posted a video to Facebook of water being poured over her head. She tagged my sister and me. We duly traipsed out to the courtyard carrying a bucket of water filled with ice cubes, and came back inside dripping. I had the faint notion that this challenge was being done by celebrities, and an even vaguer idea that it was to raise money for ALS, a type of motor neuron disease (MND). I had no money to give – I didn’t even have a debit card – and it seemed like all my friends had been tagged already. I never put the video online, and can say with confidence that my efforts made absolutely no impact on people with motor neuron disease. 

My vague notion of there being a link between asking people to saturate themselves in frigid water and raising money for a degenerative neurological condition was at least correct. “Started by someone with MND, it’s supposed to give a momentary feeling of what living with MND is like,” says Myrddin Gwynedd, a communications specialist at MND New Zealand. While I personally had no way to give money to the cause in 2014, millions of dollars of donations have been made to the American charity behind the challenge, and the foundation was given US$50m last year, an all-time high. 

The social media phenomenon was great for fundraising, Gwynnedd says. “In New Zealand, the ice bucket challenge and the awareness it created have contributed to raising at least $2 million over the past decade. Yet there’s an enduring need for money and research. MND still has no cure and no meaningful treatments. It remains a progressive and fatal condition, and the need for support, awareness and research is as urgent as ever.” 

tiktok icon with cool shades watching a video while youtube and instagram icons look on in ENVY
TikTok is significantly more popular than traditional social media channels among 15-24 year-olds, and as such is the home of the new ice bucket challenger. (Image: Tina Tiller)

But while it was initially for MND awareness and fundraising – and has been used as a tool by MND organisations around the world since – the challenge has now been repurposed. A group of University of Southern Carolina students in the US are using the challenge to raise money for American mental health charity Active Minds, which has reportedly seen a 922% increase in traffic to its website in recent weeks. No longer focused on the out-of-vogue Facebook, as was the case in 2014, the gushes of cold water are being documented on TikTok instead. 

On that platform, it’s easy to find New Zealanders participating in the trend. A person holding the camera squeals as their friend nominates them for the challenge. The Wellington coffee shop/TikTok skit group Kosmos are inundated next to a parked ute. Two young women have a torrent poured on them from a tractor. An AI-generated version of Whangaparāoa College’s principal is swept away in a digital wave. 

There are several key elements that made the ice bucket challenge go viral, whether in 2025 or 2014, says Philippa Smith, a digital media consultant who has used the original version as a teaching example for students at AUT. It’s simple to participate in, requiring minimal equipment or expense. It’s pretty fast – compared to, say, raising money by running a half marathon or participating in World Vision’s 40 Hour Challenge. “It answers a need to participate, and a need [for charities] to raise money,” Smith says. That phone cameras and social media accounts were widespread by 2014 helped, too: the challenge became popular because it could be documented, surely contributing to social media companies’ profit margins along the way. 

“People like a challenge – particularly when celebrities are involved,” Smith says. In its spectacle, the ice bucket challenge reminds her of the Telethon days of old. “People would ring up and say ‘I’ll donate money if a celebrity does 50 push-ups’, or something like that,” she says. Perhaps tagging a celebrity is its modern equivalent, taking place on the formless expanse of the internet rather than the regimented shapes of a TV studio. 

The aspects of the ice bucket challenge that make it appealing can also make it superficial, not engaging substantially with the issues it claims to address – whether that be mental illness or motor neuron disease. Jazz Thornton, a New Zealand mental health advocate, has chosen not to participate in the ice bucket challenge. While the original version of the challenge “created a global conversation about what it was to live with ALS”, she said in a video posted to TikTok this week, “there are other ways I can advocate for mental health.” Instead of tagging people in a video, she suggested something more substantial. “If we’re nominating people, why not check in on three friends, see how they are?”

a photo of a smiling white woman wearing a black tshirt against a background of trees
Philippa Smith has taught the ice bucket challenge as an example to new media students at AUT. (Image: Supplied)

Smith says the challenge is also imported from the US, and might not be suitable for the New Zealand context. “The message is, if you donate to this organisation, they’ll do more for mental health – but is there a real benefit for New Zealand youth?” Awareness can only go so far: for many people, it’s not awareness of mental illness that is lacking, but access to specialist mental health services. 

A similar digital effort in 2019 saw Kiwibank offering to give $50,000 to Mike King’s charity Gumboot Friday for every person who added a frame reading “I Am Hope” to their Facebook profile picture – a way for people to give money to charity without having to open their wallets themselves. While many of the frames remain on unused Facebook accounts to this day, the effort is arguably minimal compared to, say, convincing the government to give your charity millions of dollars. 

Pouring a bucket of water over yourself or a friend is a pretty harmless activity, Smith points out. Off camera, certainly, wet clothes can be exchanged for dry ones, and the American MND charity has said it has no issue with the original ice bucket challenge being used for a new cause. 

“There’s a lot of good intentions – but when it comes to social media, you have to be aware of the bigger context,” Smith says. 

Internet