Yellow-Eyed Penguins
New Zealand has offered a number of firsts for me. One of them - was seeing the penguins in the wild. We got to observe the Yellow Eyed Penguins in a special conservation area called Penguin Place. It was founded by the farmer, Howard McGrouther, who upon discovering that there was a small colony (just 8 couples) on his land, decided to put as much effort as possible into preserving their habitat.
Today, it's a cutting edge penguin conservation reserve. Each winter hundreds of bushes and shrubs are planted within the reserve to restore shade and privacy which the Yellow Eyed Penguin requires. Along with replanting, nest boxes are provided which enables ideal conditions for successful breeding. The reserve also takes in all the injured penguins that are discovered along the coast and takes care of them, with very high rate of survival.
All of this work is funded by the tours, one of which we got to attend:
We definitely felt like we were visitors in penguins' home. The guides were very adamant about protecting the penguins' peace. In addition to being on guard for the usual human stupidity of shoving a gopro camera right into a penguin's nest, they were also very careful about how the penguins viewed us. You see, we walked in special hides and tunnels. The idea being that if penguins saw us, they would only see a very small part of us, one that would be smaller than themselves and thus not perceived as dangerous by the penguin.
So when this little fellow walked over to the area we were walking by and where it was not expected, the guide made us all crouch behind the bushes and half-crawl to the hide:
So... Yellow-Eyed Penguins. What did I find out about them on this trip? Well, they are native to New Zealand, but live on nearby islands as well. They are some of the rarest in the world - the estimated population is just 4000 individuals!
During the breeding season, the female penguins choose the male penguins by how effective they are in finding food. This results in older penguins enjoying the attention of younger females and hence the couples with large age disparity are formed. Yellow Eyed Penguins divide the child-caring equally: after the egg is laid they both participate in incubating the egg and then in feeding the chicks (usually one parent will stay with the chicks while another is at sea during the day):
Unfortunately, only 1 egg usually hatches. We were lucky, though, to see 2 couples with 2 chicks each!
While the adult penguins weight 5-6kg, by the end of the breeding season the chicks usually weigh 6-7 kgs. They need that extra layer, as once they leave the nest, they spend a month on the beach, without any food, while they change their feathers for the water-resistant ones. It's interesting that the adult parents don't know when the chicks will leave the nest, they just come back one day back to the nest, and the chicks are gone!
The threats that those penguins face are numerous: along with the usual ones of marine mammals (sharks, seals), domesticated animals like cats also pose problems for the defenseless birds. The guide told us a story how one summer a pregnant sea lion took residence in the same bay as the penguin colony was. According to the guide: "We had really mixed feelings about this: on one hand, both of those species are endangered and the sea lion was pregnant! On the other - she has eaten half of our colony of penguins that we have worked so hard to breed!"
A number of conservation efforts are underway now in New Zealand to preserve the Yellow Eyed Penguins. I am happy we were able to contribute, however little.
Today, it's a cutting edge penguin conservation reserve. Each winter hundreds of bushes and shrubs are planted within the reserve to restore shade and privacy which the Yellow Eyed Penguin requires. Along with replanting, nest boxes are provided which enables ideal conditions for successful breeding. The reserve also takes in all the injured penguins that are discovered along the coast and takes care of them, with very high rate of survival.
All of this work is funded by the tours, one of which we got to attend:
We definitely felt like we were visitors in penguins' home. The guides were very adamant about protecting the penguins' peace. In addition to being on guard for the usual human stupidity of shoving a gopro camera right into a penguin's nest, they were also very careful about how the penguins viewed us. You see, we walked in special hides and tunnels. The idea being that if penguins saw us, they would only see a very small part of us, one that would be smaller than themselves and thus not perceived as dangerous by the penguin.
So when this little fellow walked over to the area we were walking by and where it was not expected, the guide made us all crouch behind the bushes and half-crawl to the hide:
So... Yellow-Eyed Penguins. What did I find out about them on this trip? Well, they are native to New Zealand, but live on nearby islands as well. They are some of the rarest in the world - the estimated population is just 4000 individuals!
During the breeding season, the female penguins choose the male penguins by how effective they are in finding food. This results in older penguins enjoying the attention of younger females and hence the couples with large age disparity are formed. Yellow Eyed Penguins divide the child-caring equally: after the egg is laid they both participate in incubating the egg and then in feeding the chicks (usually one parent will stay with the chicks while another is at sea during the day):
Unfortunately, only 1 egg usually hatches. We were lucky, though, to see 2 couples with 2 chicks each!
While the adult penguins weight 5-6kg, by the end of the breeding season the chicks usually weigh 6-7 kgs. They need that extra layer, as once they leave the nest, they spend a month on the beach, without any food, while they change their feathers for the water-resistant ones. It's interesting that the adult parents don't know when the chicks will leave the nest, they just come back one day back to the nest, and the chicks are gone!
The threats that those penguins face are numerous: along with the usual ones of marine mammals (sharks, seals), domesticated animals like cats also pose problems for the defenseless birds. The guide told us a story how one summer a pregnant sea lion took residence in the same bay as the penguin colony was. According to the guide: "We had really mixed feelings about this: on one hand, both of those species are endangered and the sea lion was pregnant! On the other - she has eaten half of our colony of penguins that we have worked so hard to breed!"
A number of conservation efforts are underway now in New Zealand to preserve the Yellow Eyed Penguins. I am happy we were able to contribute, however little.
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