Luxury Travel Insider · Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Phil Borman shares a surprising ecological fact about New Zealand: it has no native land mammals. He humorously refers to the country as 'the land without teeth,' contrasting it with Australia's diverse and sometimes dangerous wildlife.
“The other thing that comes to mind then I find people always surprised about within the first couple of days when they're in New Zealand and they start learning about New Zealand's, I guess it's um, ecological history, is that New Zealand doesn't have any native land mammals.”
“We like to joke that New Zealand is the land without teeth.”
“So there's nothing here that will really bite.”
“So yeah, New Zealand, New Zealand has no native land mammals and it's mostly birds.”