Did you know?

New Zealand has three main species of penguins, the yellow-eyed, the little blue and the Fiordland crested. They all lay 2 eggs every year and the little blue is even able to lay 2 clutches of 2 eggs. The Fiordland crested hatches out two chicks but rarely do they both survive a strategy that is not entirely understood.

Yellow-eyed penguins all lay their eggs pretty much at the same time each year and as a consequence about 43 days later, on or around November 9^th their chicks will hatch.

There are about 9000 species of birds and all of them lay eggs, the most prolific is the Grey Partridge, laying and incubating a clutch of over 20 eggs. But you don’t have to be a bird to lay eggs. The Hawksbill turtle will dig a hole in a sandy beach and deposit up to 200 eggs and then swim away, leaving the hatchlings to fend for themselves.

Here on the Otago Peninsula there are birds that lay the least number of eggs. Albatross only lay one egg every two years. At Taiaroa Head a pair of northern royal albatross will take it in turns to sit on their egg for around 80 days. The chick is brooded for a month and is ready to fledge after another 240 days. Both penguins and albatross invest a lot of time and effort caring for their chicks but just because there is only one or two chicks to look after doesn’t always mean the parents are less persevering. The Kiwi lays the largest egg, relative to body size, of any bird. The female leaves the male to incubate the egg for two and a half months. It takes up to three days for the Kiwi chick to break out of the shell. The remaining yolk sack will feed it for a week but after that the chick stays with the parents for only 3 weeks before they are aggressively kicked out of the nesting burrow.

Every species has evolved its own strategy for survival, from huge clutches of eggs to just a few, from a few weeks of incubation to a couple of months. It’s only when humans get in the way that the natural balance is disrupted and conservation efforts are needed to maintain the species.

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