From Budgies to seabird conservation at Long Point

The Trust welcomes Jim Young, a teacher from Catlins Area School, to their team. Jim will spend 2010 working on his project at Long Point thanks to receiving an Awarded Teacher Fellowship.

The New Zealand Science, Mathematics and Technology Teacher Fellowship Scheme is funded by the New Zealand Government and administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Jim’s career in teaching has taken him from around city and country schools in  Queensland to the rural community of Owaka in the Catlins. He has previously been involved with conservation work in the Catlins, growing native plants and assisting Fergus Sutherland at the Forest & Bird (Southland) Te Rere Reserve.

Jim ‘s project ‘Whakaora Irahuka: restoring the white cliffs’ will be investigating aspects of seabird restoration at Long Point / Irahuka, including surveying and mapping seabird habitat, establishing vegetation plots, examining predator species composition and abundance and surveying the lizard fauna and distribution. We expect that Jim’s work will contribute significantly to the Trust’s planning processes and development of seabird conservation and restoration in the reserve. His professional experience as a science teacher will greatly assist in aspects of the project, but as the fellowship is designed to do, it will also present new challenges, information to acquire and skills to learn.

The Trust will act as the host organisation with the responsibility of supporting Jim and providing the resources and equipment necessary for the project to be successfully undertaken. It is unusual for a conservation trust to undertake this role, which would usually be taken by universities, Crown Research Institutes, local authorities, and museums.

We hope that the Catlins Area school will be able to benefit from Jim’s experiences with the Long Point / Irahuka project; this may include hands on experience with aspects of the research.

Crucial support for the application was received from Dr Bill Lee of Landcare Research and Dr Jamie Newman (University of Otago) who will act as science mentors for the project.

Codfish Island Survey 2009

The population census of yellow-eyed penguins in the Stewart Island area was completed in November 2009 when the last remaining area to be surveyed, Codfish Island/ Whenua Hou, was visited. Last surveyed fully in 2001, Codfish Island / Whenua Hou is considered one of the strongholds of the Stewart Island penguin population and has been one of the study sites for the Trusts 2003-2008 research into factors affecting penguin breeding success. Two of the original surveyors, Dave Houston and Dean Nelson from DOC, and Sandy King from the Trust made up the 2009 survey team, with help from resident Kakapo Rangers Errol & Steve. The survey was completed within a week and found 46 breeding pairs, a drop from 61 breeding pairs in 2001. This could be a real downwards trend, or it could be just an extreme interannual fluctuation, but to find out more regular surveys and monitoring will be required. The Trust is working with DOC and the Southern Institute of Technology to ensure this can happen. Read the rest of this entry »

Auckland Island Survey Blog

This post will be updated during the Auckland Island Survey which takes place between Friday 6^th November and Monday 7^th December 2009. For more details click here

Weather report
Click on the map to see where the team are

Thursday 03 December

09:30 The Tiama has arrived safely in Invercargill.  The crew are apparently very chirpy – probably finding it strange to be back on land! No Icebergs were seen along the way – more updates later when we get the full story off them.

Some interesting Stats from the trip from Jo:

Of the 22 days we were at the islands -

• 1 day 20kts and under
• 7 days with 30kts and under
• other 14 days 30kts +
• 10 days experienced gusts of 50kts or more.
• 2 days with 70kts…….

No worries mate!! Read the rest of this entry »

GPS Data loggers

Despite many studies on yellow-eyed penguins we know little about their habits at sea. Interpretation of the species population dynamics, and consequently conservation measures, are primarily based on what can be observed on land. Today with the aid of modern satellite technology, studying penguin behaviour at sea through miniature GPS logging devices attached to their backs has opened a new window of opportunity to examine all aspects of the penguins’ biology. Read the rest of this entry »

Unexplained Chick Losses on Stewart Island

The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust has just completed the first year of a planned five-year study to measure the effects of cat predation on yellow-eyed penguins on Stewart Island’s north-eastern beaches. But instead of cat predation, what we found was as yet unexplained high chick death rate.

Because of an apparent decrease in yellow-eyed penguin numbers on Stewart Island, the Trust, assisted by the Department of Conservation (DOC), was testing whether the loss might be attributed to predation by feral cats. During the 2003/2004 breeding season all nests along the Mt Anglem coastline were monitored intensely.

Early in the breeding season we discovered that chicks were dying at an alarming rate. Of 42 chicks hatched only 11 were still alive by mid-February. This is a survival rate of just 26%. At some beaches every chick died.

There were no signs that these deaths were due to cat predation, instead starvation appeared to be the most likely cause of death. This possibility was tested by comparing the weights of yellow-eyed penguin chicks from the offshore islands of Bench, Tommy and Whenua Hou (Codfish) to those in the study area / main island.

Although the weights of chicks on the offshore islands were on average lower than those on the Otago Peninsula, the weights of the surviving chicks in the research area were comparable.

Observers monitoring the penguin chicks noted large pieces of regurgitated fish beside some of the dead chicks. Could this be a repeat of the mystery disease or biotoxin that killed off a significant proportion of the breeding population on the Otago Peninsula in 1989-90 or a widespread shortage of food?

At the moment we have lots of unanswered questions, although we’re hoping there may be some partial answers when analyses of samples and autopsies are completed.

These results highlight the importance of regular, ongoing monitoring of our penguins. “If the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust had not been on Stewart Island this summer, we would never know this event had happened. The Department looks forward to working with them to determine what is actually happening with these birds and if there is anything we can do about it” says Brent Beaven, DOC Programme Manager – Biodiversity, Stewart Island.

The Trust had already committed in principle to a five-year programme on Stewart Island, subject to finance being available. Although we feel it is important that our monitoring continues, we have not as yet been able to find total funding. This year’s work was largely funded by two, unexpected one-off grants. One was from the Community Trust of Southland, and the other from Contact Energy, as a result of Otago people using 10% less electricity to ensure adequate power supplies during early winter 2003. If you would like to consider helping fund this research, any donations marked Stewart Island Project will be earmarked for next season’s work.

Feral Cat Study on Stewart Island

Despite the fact that the first year of our study into the effects of feral cats on hoiho populations on Stewart Island did not show high rates of predation, we still managed to obtain some useful data.

Grant Harper’s research in an inland forested area on Stewart Island in 2002 found that the average weight for male cats was 3.4kg and for females was 2.6kg. Sandy King found almost identical results in the coastal yellow-eyed penguin habitat during our study this season: males 3.4kg and females 2.5kg.

However, the two studies differed in what food the cats appeared to be eating. Rats made up 60% of the diet of cats in the inland area, with birds making up 19% and invertebrates 15%. On the coast, rats and possums only accounted for about 30% of the diet, with beetles making up another 10%. Interestingly 27% of the stomachs were empty. Thankfully this season there is no evidence of yellow-eyed penguins in cats diet.

This year there was no cat predation seen of chicks. Our previous experience in Otago suggests that predation events may be sporadic and sometimes only occur every 2-3 years. The long-term monitoring that we have instigated will, over time, tell us to what level feral cats are affecting yellow-eyed penguin breeding success.

Cat predation on Stewart Island

Three years of census work by the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust has suggested that penguins may be in decline on Stewart Island. The cause and rate of this decline is not known, but feral cats are suspected to play a role because they are the only land-based predator on Stewart Island large enough to kill a penguin. The decline does not appear to be food related, as surveyed pest free islands have healthier penguin populations.

Feral cats on Stewart Island were introduced from Europe. Early European settlers brought cats to New Zealand from 1769 onward, as a control agent on rat infested ships. However, it may have taken around fifty years for a feral population to become established on the mainland. Ships have visited Stewart Island since 1804, and in 1909 Cockayne reported cats to be “common”.

There is no evidence that they grow any larger than cats which live in a domestic setting. Male cats on Stewart Island average 3.4kg and females 2.6kg. Cats are efficient predators and hunt diurnally and nocturnally. They will live in almost all habitats. Their diet is composed mainly of rats (60%), although birds (19%) and invertebrates (15%) together compose a significant portion.

This research proposal covers a five-year study into whether the control of cats has a positive effect on the breeding success of yellow-eyed penguins on Stewart Island. One area will have as many cats killed as possible and another will be left as a control area. We are hopeful that this will show us that the fledging success in the targeted area is greater.

The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is seeking funding for a five-year study into the impact of cats on yellow-eyed penguins. The funding for year one, has been guaranteed by the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust (thanks to our unexpected donation from Contact Energy) and this will take place October 2003-March 2004. The project will again be supervised by our Projects Officer, David Blair.

Stewart Island Breeding Locations Revisited

Three seasons after a comprehensive nest census on the north east coast of Stewart Island it was deemed useful to revisit three breeding locations to see if the numbers compared with the earlier visit and to look carefully for juvenile yellow-eyed penguins-an indication of breeding success.

The Project Officer took four volunteers along to get first hand experience of the work, and to do those long hours of beach counts and learn about crawling through vines and penguin poo to locate nests.

There was sea-sickness, large rats and enough equipment and food (but no meat as someone inadvertently left it in a fridge at Halfmoon Bay), to out last a week of storms. The weather was great, and the early 5am starts thrilling. The results were somewhat predictable with the indication of a similar number of breeding pairs as last time, but ominously no juveniles were identified on or near any of the beaches we surveyed.

The Trust hopes to support research into the relationship of feral cats and the yellow-eyed penguin breeding locations in the future.

Codfish Island Survey

2009:

The resurvey of Codfish / Whenua Hou has been completed by Sandy King (Projects Officer Southern Islands) with assistance from DOC staff Dave Houston (Auckland) and Dean Nelson (Twizel), both very experienced yellow-eyed penguin people in their previous roles with DOC.

What they found was:
2001 survey found 61 breeding pairs
2009 survey found 46 breeding pairs

If you add on a 15% margin for an error of margin of ‘missed nests’ then that is still only 53 breedng pairs, or down 15% from the 2001 survey.

We still need to find out WHY.

Comment from Dave “Codfish, with the removal of pest species and the addition of a few new birds, is even better than I remember from my first amazing trip there 28 years ago, although the hills have apparently got steeper.  Thanks to Sandy King and the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust for the opportunity to take part in this fantastic trip and to Dean for bringing the scotch.”

(Thanks Dave for the awesome photos!)

2001:

The Trust sponsored yellow-eyed penguin census of Whenua Hou (Cod Fish Island, found off the north-west coast of Stewart Island) commenced mid-November 2001.

It was important the Trust conduct this survey of this predator-free island. When results are compared to those of the neighbouring Stewart Island, it may assist us in finding out whether feral cat predation is a significant factor in the low numbers of yellow-eyed penguins on Stewart Island.

The Trust’s Projects Officer, David Blair and other experienced volunteers carried out a nest search to find 61 productive nests in three main breeding areas. Following the nest search a series of beach counts were completed. The results for Whenua Hou were very positive this year as the numbers of juveniles and non-breeding adult penguins give promise of a secure future for this breeding location.

Otago University Survey

Three marketing students from the University of Otago will look at the major issues facing the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust as part of their MART 355 Business Project.

Collectively known to the Trust as ‘Visionary Consultants’, they have identified the key issues of securing a strong financial base through sponsorship, gaining new members, retaining existing members and raising the profile of the Trust. Under each of these issues they will consider the impact on the organization, future trends, possible causes and the supporting evidence.

The research will include in-depth interviews, personal surveys, telephone surveys, discussions with board members and research of secondary sources.