Penguin Hitches a ride

Meet “Larry”, the Fiordland crested penguin who decided to hitch a ride on the Doubtful Sound overnight cruise boat,Navigator, this week.

A Real Journeys spokeswoman said 23 of Larry’s relatives were also seen by the Navigator crew on Seymour Island, proof predator control in the area was working.

“A passenger spotted the penguin waiting patiently at the top of the steps on the kayak deck to be let through the gates,” the spokeswoman said.

“Nature guide Jason Carter was alerted and went down to find the Fiordland crested penguin, ‘happy as Larry’, sitting on the steps.”

From ODT 28/10/11 – see http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/184181/penguin-hitches-ride

Nursery goes on the Road

During conservation week  Room 15 at Tahuna IntermediateSchool invited the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust into their classroom to talk about plant propagation, penguins and to show the Trust what conservation measures their school is doing to save the planet.

Armed with buckets of potting mix, pots and seed trays Nursery Manager Anita Pillai invaded the classroom for action. After a talk with pictures on penguins and the work of the Trust the main business started.  Each pupil learnt how to “prick out” a plant and pot them up. They all took one home to nurture and grow to adult size to plant out where they choose. By the end of session many of these plants had become so precious they had names! Read the rest of this entry »

Port Chalmers Seafood Festival

Yellow-eyed penguins waving donation buckets in their flippers greeted visitors to the Port Chalmers Seafood Festival on 1 October.  Children clamoured to be photographed with their favourite penguin and were invited to visit the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust stand.  Here they could see eye to eye with a real (stuffed) penguin and learn more about its life and how to help the Trust grow trees to enhance its habitat.  Thousands of people enjoyed sampling the seafood on offer at the festival and were able to learn more about an expert on seafood at our stand.

Many thanks to the “Penguins” who did a great job entertaining the crowds (some were seen doing some groovy moves on the dance-floor which must have been difficult in the suits!) and raised over $500 for the Trust. Read the rest of this entry »

Opoho School visit to Okia

A hardy group of students from Opoho primary school joined Ranger Leith Thomson and Nursery staff Toby Bulow and Anita Pillai on Friday 19^th August at Okia to help plant pikao in the native dune systems that we have been developing. Despite the snow earlier in the week and the lingering southerly, around 11 pupils, parents and teacher Lucy Marr were still keen to come out and learn about native dune systems. They successfully planted 200 pikao plants in a very short time.

The group from the school, the Fantails Club, is dedicated to doing things to help the environment and is supported by the Enviro Schools programme. They have offered to assist us with growing pikao in their school shade house that we can use on our reserves. We will visit the school later this year to teach them how we propagate pikao and how to look after it. Read the rest of this entry »

Celebrate World Ranger Day

The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is extending an invitation for a once-in-a-lifetime experience to celebrate World Ranger Day on Sunday 31 July 2011.

The experience includes spending the day with our Trust Ranger and an exclusive tour at a yellow-eyed penguin reserve in North Otago. See firsthand conservation activity the Trust does to help save endangered yellow-eyed penguins. Attendees will be a Ranger for the day and embark on a series of challenges including planting a native tree for future penguins to nest under, learning how to look for penguin footprints and how transponders are used to identify penguins.

This day is open to new and existing supporters of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust. Numbers are strictly limited and entries are on a first in, first-served basis.  This is a new initiative by the Trust to acknowledge their supporters, one that will become an annual event.

To become a supporter of the Trust click here

To submit your details for World Ranger Day – please email your name, address, phone number and send to yeptrust@gmail.com

Terms and conditions:

Individual and student membership: Offer limited to one person per voucher, although members under the age of 15 years can bring one parent/caregiver – please advise us on your response.
Family membership: Offer limited to four people on a single family membership.

Full details including meeting time and place, clothing, footwear will be provided to participants. A medium to high level of fitness is required. All travel and accommodation arrangements and expenses are the responsibility of the participants. Participants will not be eligible for selection in future years.

Trust Habitat Volunteer Team

The contribution of volunteers to all aspects of the work of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is immense, and the three volunteers pictured below, Michael Stevenson , Jim Thornley and Jeremy Beck,  at the Ngaio paddock entrance to Tavora Reserve,  have each donated many hours of their time.

All three are members of the Habitat Volunteer Team that works regularly on Trust reserves, carrying out revegetation, pest control, facilities maintenance and penguin monitoring. As our reserves are spread over 160km of the Otago Coast, from Tavora near Palmerston to Long Point, south of Owaka  in the Catlins,  the team members get to work in  some varied and interesting locations. Read the rest of this entry »

Highlanders help kick off planting season

Thanks to the Speight’s Brewery Environment Fund, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust Nursery kicked off their planting season this year on International Day of Biological Diversity, Sunday 22 May, 2011 at Tavora Reserve, East Otago.

Over 20 Trust volunteers, staff and supporters pitched in alongside Highlander players Siale Piutau, Shaun Treeby and Highlander marketing manager Doug McSweeney to plant 1000 native trees, shrubs, flaxes and pikao. The aim of the day was to extend the current planting towards the southern beach to enhance the biodiversity where the rare yellow-eyed penguins breed. The restoration of these riparian strips provide ecological and environmental benefits for integrated land-use practices and is the way forward for conservation.

The planting took place as part of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust programme of conservation activity using trees from its own nursery, which produces approximately 15,000 trees each year, the bulk of which will be planted in its own reserves this winter. Read the rest of this entry »

Kentucky helps yellow-eyed penguin

Adrian Turcu

Although Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States is over 1,000km from the sea and in the northern hemisphere, an 8^th grade student from Kentucky Country Day School has raised over (US) $200 for the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust to help the conservation of yellow-eyed penguins.

Adrian Turcu was working on a school project to do with endangered animals, and chose the yellow-eyed penguin. He was particularly interested in yellow-eyed penguins as predators, their interaction with prey species, and the use of scent to deter dogs from entering yellow-eyed penguin nesting area.

The project won 1^st place in a school competition and Adrian got to host a school fundraiser, where his fellow school mates donated $1.00 each, reaching a total of $202 or NZ$250

Huge thanks to Adrian and the school for this wonderful effort.

2011 Planting Season

Preparations for the 2011 planting season are well underway at the YEPT plant Nursery. Our Nursery is so full it is bursting at the seams. It is time for all those plants to go.  Our coastal areas need them to provide shelter and food for penguin and other wildlife. Volunteers have been working hard sorting and weeding our plants so that they are in the very best condition before they leave. It’s a great feeling to be getting rid of the stock and planning the plants for the next year and here at the Nursery we need the space. Read the rest of this entry »

New AmBassador – Kieran Read

Prominent New Zealand rugby player and Crusaders number 8 Kieran Read has taken a deft side-step in his rugby career to help raise awareness of New Zealand’s endangered yellow-eyed penguins and the work of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust that has done so much to ensure their survival into the 21^st Century.

Recently capped New Zealand player of the year and enjoying life as a first-time father, Read admitted to having a strong interest in our native wildlife. He said that he had been lucky enough to visit yellow-eyed penguin reserves on the Otago Peninsula and see their breeding habitats for himself.

“When I was approached by the Trust I was reminded of a school project I did as a kid. These penguins are tough, determined little characters, climbing over sand dunes and into the hills to nest and feed their young. I’m really pleased to be able to help save the yellow-eyed penguin so that our next generation and visitors to our country can enjoy viewing this iconic species.”

As ambassador, Kieran Read will join forces with Otago rugby icon and former All Black Anton Oliver, and patron of the Trust since 2006.

During a recent visit to Dunedin, Oliver thanked Kieran Read for coming on board to the Trust as an ambassador.

“It’s so wonderful having a current All Black lend his considerable shoulder to my now more diminutive shoulder to drive forward the wheel of conservation, in particular the conservation of the yellow-eyed penguin. He’ll be a huge asset to the Trust and get us a lot more coverage and visibility of the issues facing our little penguins.”

Sue Murray, general manager for the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust commented: “We are thrilled to have Kieran Read join us as an ambassador and look forward to working with him in the future. As a charitable trust, we are reliant on the goodwill of national and international supporters, volunteers, schools, community organisations, local and central government and businesses including our principal sponsor, Mainland Cheese. We still need ongoing support to ensure that yellow-eyed penguins have safe, high-quality habitats in which to breed and prosper

Murray also added, “The Trust is even more indebted to Kieran for this commitment, given his recent experience of the Christchurch earthquake and all the demands on him and his family in the aftermath and in the future to assist Christchurch in rebuilding their own community.”