Why YEPs aren’t in zoos

Hoiho Recovery Group  of the Department of Conservation in its Hoiho (Megadyptes antipodes) recovery plan 2000–2025 has considered the use of captive populations as part of a recovery programme. 

It concluded that a captive population would not contribute meaningfully to the conservation of hoiho at this time for the following reasons: 

i.  advocacy needs for this species are adequately catered for in public and private viewing hides on the South Island coast,

ii.  the production of captive penguins for release is not justified because sufficient pairs exist to form a viable wild population,

iii.  when the marine ecosystem has failed in the past there has been no point in having captive progeny for release because such individuals will enter into an ecosystem which cannot sustain them,

iv.  the establishment of a captive population may increase the risk of introducing disease to the wild population.