World Environment Day 2009

Over 50 members of the public including students and staff from local corporate organisations, supporters and volunteers of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust celebrated World Environment Day and Arbor Day by planting 1300 native trees and shrubs. The planting took place at Okia, a 230 hectare reserve jointly owned by the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and the Dunedin City Council.

The tree planting is a contribution to returning the native bio-diversity to this special part of Dunedin City, home to 20 pairs of yellow-eyed penguins breeding in the reserve. Read the rest of this entry »

Annual Yellow-eyed Penguin Symposium

The Yellow-eyed penguin Consultative Group supported by the Trust and the Department of Conservation is holding its annual symposium on Saturday 1st August 2009 at ground floor meeting room at University College (same place as last year).

The format will be the same as previous years with report backs during the morning. The afternoon session’s topic is still to be confirmed.

For further information and registrations, contact the Trust Office or Bruce McKinlay, Secretary of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Consultative Group. You can also download the registration form here.

Breeding on Trust Reserves ’08-09

The 2008-09 breeding season on Trust reserves, was very average, characterised by lighter weight chicks, and an unexpected series of egg and chick deaths and abnormalities at one Otago Peninsula reserve.

This reflected a general pattern on the Otago/Southland coast. As DOC Coastal Otago, Biodiversity Programme Manager David Agnew commented; “the breeding season got off to a promising start with high nest numbers, but took a dramatic turn in early November when young chicks started dying in the nest from Green Island to North Otago. At some sites over half the chicks were lost. Then later in the summer, many of the surviving chicks seemed to be very light, indicating some sort of food shortage for the adults.”

Nest searching took place as usual in late October / early November, although Trust staff had to endure some unique nest searching conditions in the Catlins. On the 4^th November, falling snow made searching conditions fairly miserable at Cosgrove Creek, with searchers sheltering behind flax clumps as the southerly squalls roared through. One penguin nest in particular was more sheltered than others, located 2 metres down a narrow tunnel, opening out into a cave that would have been quite dingy at the best of times, but made virtually pitch black by the searchers body jammed in the opening. The small LED torch on the searchers cell phone was very useful in illuminating the interior and counting the eggs!

At Otapahi reserve, nest numbers were up (32 c:f 22 in 2007/08) as were the number of chicks fledging (29 c:f 22) although fledging weights were significantly lighter than in 2007/08.  The average weight was only 4.7kg, well down from the 5.21kg the previous year. Fledging weight is an important indicator of subsequent survival, so the lighter weights may very well have an impact later.

Several underweight chicks were brought back from the Catlins, and reserves on Otago Peninsula for feeding at Penguin Place and with Sue Downton and Colin Wolverson at Bushy Beach (Oamaru), to improve their weights before releasing.

The breeding season at Okia Reserve on Otago Peninsula began promisingly, with 18 nests recorded, up one from 2007/08. However there was an unexpected and so far unexplained cluster of 6 chicks with craniofacial defects, including mandible deformities, and this along with egg deaths and dead chicks in nests, dramatically reduced the number of chicks fledging from 20 in 2007/08 to just three in 2008/09.   Long time penguin researcher, and retired YEPT trustee John Darby monitored yeps at Okia in the 1980s and could not recall a similar occurrence.

The Trust has been supporting an investigation into the chick deformities led by Maurice Alley at the New Zealand Wildlife Health Centre at Massey University and the Department of Conservation. Many possible causes are being considered including inbreeding, trauma, hyperthermia during incubation, heavy metal or synthetic chemical intoxication and nutritional deficiency.  Hopefully in the next edition of this newsletter there will some conclusions from Massey.

YEPs Backyard

YEP’s Backyard - a term 4, 2009 interactive, online project for schools

New Zealand school students, from year 1 to 10, are invited to design a yellow-eyed penguin-friendly habitat restoration plan for an online New Zealand Science Festival and Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, Science and Technology Education project.

YEP’s Backyard (http://www.megabright.co.nz/YEP/home.html) uses Edward de Bono’s Other People’s Views to look at yellow-eyed penguin issues from a dog’s, fisherman’s, farmer’s etc points of view. Using this information the group creates a habitat restoration plan to submit to experts for feedback. Students also assist the project by providing student-friendly information for their peers on the website.

To register contact: monika@megabright.co.nz

Dog Attacks on Penguins

Press release from DOC 1/5/2009:

DOG ATTACKS ON PENGUINS UNACCEPTABLE AND PREVENTABLE

The latest in a spate of yellow-eyed penguin fatalities was reported to the Department of Conservation this week.  Today it was confirmed by autopsy that the death was caused by yet another dog attack.

Four yellow-eyed penguins have died following dog attacks along Otago’s coast in the last 6 months.  An additional two penguin fatalities have occurred following suspected, but unconfirmed, dog attacks since October.

David Agnew (Programme Manager – Biodiversity Assets) and his staff are disappointed and frustrated by the increase in preventable fatalities, and the continuing disturbance caused to wildlife on beaches by dogs that are not under control. Read the rest of this entry »

New Website!

The new Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust website was launched today. The reason for upgrading it was to:

• Make it easier to update by using WordPress thereby making it more dynamic.
• Make it more interactive – with slideshows, videos etc. We may open it up to enable comments in the future too!
• Give it additional functionality e.g. Searching, RSS, e-commerce (future possibility for an online shop??) etc.

We hope you enjoy it!  If you have any comments or come across any issues – please let us know via e-mail (click on the mail link on the top right hand corner of the site).

Note that we will constantly be adding more stuff so come back and check it out on a regular basis!

Cadbury Chocolate Carnival Go Wild!

Join the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust on an exclusive tour to a private reserve (rarely open to the public). View yellow-eyed penguins in their natural habitat, from a stunning location and chocolate to share! Learn about our conservation efforts and what the future holds for this endangered species. Accompanied by Trust representatives. Come and visit our stand at the Portobello Farmer’s Markets.

Maximum 40 people, bookings essential. Not suitable for young children or anyone unable to walk on hilly terrain. Suitable outdoor footwear and wet weather gear recommended. Binoculars also recommended – Trust will have some available to share.

• When: Sunday 12th July 2009 at 3pm
• Entry: $10 adult (1 child free) $2 each extra child (Child 5 – 12 yrs)
• Reservations Essential. Subject to availability Ph: (03) 479 0011

For more information about the Cadbury Chocolate Carnival Week 11-17 July 2009, visit www.chocolatecarnival.co.nz