UPDATE: March 2025

Published: Sunday, 23 March 2025

Hello beautiful people!
Kyle here, touching base to give a little update on Kokiri Biologisk and the tangential nature of this passion project.
Below is more info for those interested in a little read 🌿

TLDR

Some major changes are underway in the background which will begin roll out in the coming months. All sales will be ceasing temporarily until the roll out is complete but the waitlist will continue being updated with new enquiries.

To keep updated, Kokiri’s Instagram and YouTube are where I’m currently most socially active – the links to both are in the footers of this website.

Kokiri Biologisk’s Mission Statement

From inception, Kokiri has been a vehicle through which I’ve sought to consolidate education beyond just standard husbandry/keeping and into the (sometimes gatekeepery) world of academic research.

Freely available information is something which is important to me, having come from a background of law and accounting where I see first-hand with clients the impact a little help in learning can make. Regardless of whether I’m explaining the benefit of investing in superannuation or explaining the legal mechanisms of an Everett Assignment, education is unbelievably important to best navigate the facets of life in which we engage.

This principle stands true for the worlds of keeping invertebrates and growing plants around which Kokiri is involved. To date there have been issues around economic viability and execution logistics which I’ve wanted to ameliorate as balanced as possible, and given the growth this project has seen it’s now at a critical junction of needing some changes to continue that growth, such as what I’ll outline below.

Site Infrastructure Upgrades

To date I’ve utilised certain IT infrastructure to manage things such as this website you’re reading this page on, however there are limitations on customisability. So far I’ve been able to work around these limitations, acknowledging that there will always be pros and cons which requiring balancing to achieve the purpose desired.

In order to roll out changes to accommodate educative content, such as that of the research of both accomplished scientists and my bootleg version of citizen science, there needs to be a major rework of this infrastructure. Most of these reworks are behind-the-scenes which no one other than myself will need to worry about, but it does require a bit of work to implement to my vision, and as such a consequence is investing administrative time into roll out at the expense of issuing updates to this current platform.

As far as end users (ie. you beautiful humans) will see, this site will no longer be receiving new product updates etc, but very soon you’ll have a whole new website to explore and interact with.

Breeding Studio Updates

The breeding room continues to operate as normal, with a continued interest in adapting current processes to allow for further expansion which will accommodate the growing demand of the captive bred invertebrates I’m involved with.

In time, more consistent supply will be available and hopefully begin to make the need to sit on waitlists for indeterminate periods of time redundant.

DNA Barcoding & Taxonomic Research

Taxonomy = the science of describing and categorising organisms.
Taxon = a category to which an organism is classified, such as a genus or family.

I have been unbelievably fortunate to find myself connecting with some very interesting, very passionate, and very accomplished people across Oceania and Europe doing incredible work on the side of taxonomic research.

Taxonomy might sound pretty semantic on the surface, but how we understand and classify organisms is critically important to understanding biodiversity, understanding characteristics of organisms of certain taxa, and allowing for more efficacious conservation efforts.

I have quietly begun my own foray into the world of Oniscidea taxonomy utilising DNA barcoding and dissection techniques which will help contribute to the heavy-hitting research of others, with my focus being on our beautiful land of Australia which is sorely lacking in active research.

I intend to share findings and updates in this realm with those interested via Kokiri, which in turn requires the aforementioned IT infrastructure reworks to be implemented asap.

Supporting Citizen Science

The value of citizen science to the rigorous world of heavy-hitting academia and industry cannot be understated. Whether it’s understanding behavioural traits of subterranean isopods, monitoring the impact of chytrid fungus on vulnerable frog populations, or efforts to eradicate the growing threat of fire ants to Australia’s ecosystems, the insights gained and data collected by citizen scientists on the ground can be hugely helpful to those whom engage in the academic research on which others can lean to further progress other research.

I can’t personally do everything that interests me myself, so I’m increasingly viewing pro bono and philanthropic support I myself can provide to others which engage in efforts I value as something which will have a place in my future.

At present, I’m undecided how such support will be rendered. However, given my increasing awareness of some spectacular people working with inter alia native bee conservation and with fire ant eradication efforts, I do intend to actively support (albeit minor given my one-man-show of a small-scale project) as best I can. While that’s not a direct tangent for Kokiri, it is something which is occupying my own personal time, which in turn impacts resource available for Kokiri.

Kokiri’s Commercial Growth

Both myself via separate entities and Kokiri itself having some tangents currently underway of a commercial nature. These kinds of things are proprietary in nature, and by proxy something which is hush-hush to ensure their economic viability, since the success and sustainability of any project regardless of whether commercial or not-for-profit relies on stable funding.

For customers, this will be visible to the extent of new product lines, some of which I’m unbelievably excited to officially launch. As with anything, this continues to require resource investment in the background, but this will all form part of Kokiri’s expansion and the viability of non-commercial ventures being sustainable for the future ahead.

Content Creation & Accessible Media

Reading tomes of literature isn’t for everyone, and if one wishes to communicate anything effectively then the medium through which that communication occurs needs to be tailored for the audience.

Case in point: the way I communicate with a senior solicitor in my personal work world is radically different to the way I communicate with a client. That principle is equally important for Kokiri as well.

While edutainment media creation is unfamiliar territory for me, it is something I see as important to achieve the freely accessible information ethos I value. This pivot has already begun it’s baby steps on my Instagram and YouTube, so if that’s of interest then please feel free to follow us over there.