Saving the Yellow Eyed Penguin (Hoiho)
 

Sharing this short photo essay that appeared in The Guardian newspaper recently. It details efforts to save NZ's endangered, and one of the world's rarest, penguins, whose population has been dropping sharply.
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...P=share_btn_tw

Thanks for sharing Diamantina, a fascinating and concerning essay. I watched the BBC trilogy- New Zealand : Earths Enchanted Islands a couple of years ago. A stunning series which, in part, covered NZ conservation work. Well worth watching on iPlayer is still available
BBC Two - New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands, New Arrivals, Flightless bird on a plane

Particularly like the piece on the NZ Ambassador for Conservation, a Kakapo which was being flown around th country to promote conservation matters and treat like a VIP...


If only other countries were as focussed on conservation...

Thanks so much, Crellston. I really enjoyed the clip. I'll seek it out the series, New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (I think I may have found it for free online!).

I had a chance to see Sirocco when he was at Dunedin's Orokonui Ecosanctuary. He's a charmer. He was entirely focused on the small group that had come to see him, especially the children. I think the flight he's getting on in the BBC clip is the flight from Dunedin to Wellington. That view of the Southern Alps is the view you'd get flying north from Dunedin on a clear day, if you're sitting on the left side of the plane. Sirocco was supposed to return this last spring, but he'd ditched his electronic monitoring bracelet and couldn't be found.

Invercargill's Southland Museum is going to be rebuilding and they're hoping to include a kakapo chick-rearing facility that will be open to the public. Invercargill currently has a temporary facility open to the public when chicks are in residence, but kakapos only have chicks in years when there are plenty of rimu berries to eat. So not often.

Thanks for sharing, Diamantina. I hope to see a hoiho up close when we visit Dunedin. This is the program that one of our Antarctic guides is working on and shared with us.

Crellston, I watched the entire program, New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands, New Arrivals. Fantastic! Thanks so much for the heads-up. Here's a link to it that can be watched online for free (for now). Everyone interested in NZ wildlife would enjoy this.
https://ihavenotv.com/new-arrivals-n...thical-islands

Tripplanner, which hoiho program is it that your Antarctic guide works with? There were at least a couple mentioned in the article, Penguin Place the Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust. When will you visit Dunedin? I highly recommend the Elm Wildlife Peninsula Encounters tour for seeing a wide variety of wildlife. And Penguin Place is a great place to see penguins in rehab; they do great work, without them, sick, injured, underweight and starving penguins would most certainly die. They're funded by those who take their tours and by donations of fish from local fishermen. Unless things have changed, I don't think they get any money from the govt. On one summer day I visited, there were 80 Yellow Eyed Penguins and one Fiordland Crested Penguin being treated in their rehab, which we were allowed to view and photograph without flash. Of the 80, 69 were chicks rescued from the Catlins, south of Dunedin, found starving and severely underweight;11 were juveniles and adults (one was found covered with blood after being attacked by a dog on Dunedin's St. Clair Beach). Their rehab is especially crowded in summer.

Unlike many other penguins species, Yellow Eyed Penguins are solitary and anti-social so you won't see many. There are also very few left on the mainland and their numbers have been steadily dropping for a number of reasons. There are only 250 mating pairs left on the mainland.

Diamantina, she's with the University of Otago. As for my visit, it is now scheduled for December 2019.

Trip planner, I see, thanks. It's a great school. I've met, or heard talks by, many brilliant University of Otago students and faculty researching the past, present and future of NZ's fauna and flora and working hard on conservation. For me, it's one of the perks of living here. The university has the usual strong science departments, but also offers specialized programs in wildlife conservation and science communication, and has marine science field stations on Stewart Island, in Doubtful Sound and on the Otago Peninsula, and has several research boats for oceanic research, including one that makes regular trips to the NZ's sub-antarctic islands.

Dunedin's other tertiary education institution, Otago Polytechnic, houses the city's Wildlife Hospital, which is staffed in part from students of its veterinary nursing program.

Sounds like you'll have lots of time to plan the perfect trip. December's a great time for viewing wildlife.