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The State of Penguins in New Zealand
Current knowledge and research priorities now available as a web page
Our Vision
West Coast seabirds and their habitat are healthy and thriving.
Our Mission is to achieve this through research, education, awareness, advocacy and practical projects, founded on strong science.
Penguins and other seabirds are a treasure or taonga, and we strive to protect and conserve them and their habitat – the wider marine and coastal environment.
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Birds We Protect
Latest News
Thanks to volunteer in Volunteer Week for new penguin maps
Volunteer Fung Lai responded to a call for a volunteer to translate location descriptions into map coordinates and then maps.
Earlier this year, New Coasters joined BeCollective.com, a "digital gateway to helping your community and realising your positive social impact". The idea is to link volunteers to volunteer opportunities and the Trust took up the offer. Understanding where penguins might be is critical for the advocacy role of the Trust. When councils are developing or updating plans or considering resource consents in the coastal area, we are able to advise whether there is a potential risk to penguins and seek conditions or rules that will protect them. Penguins could appear anywhere on our coasts. Main locations will of course be their breeding colonies and their nest sites, but if they have been injured or are ill, they may stop on a beach away from their nest. We also know that they may travel inland, perhaps for up to a kilometre, sometimes following rivers upstream. And of course we know that they end up on roads that have been created through their nesting habitat to make our lives easier. Together with DOC, the Trust established a mortality database in 2006 to record all dead penguins that were reported. Reports were added to a spreadsheet and facts, as far as they could be determined, were included for each record, such as juvenile or adult, cause of death, when and where found. This is where we needed some help and volunteer Fung Lai responded to the call on BeCollective for a volunteer to translate location descriptions into map coordinates and then maps. When using maps in the past, the Trust has identified penguin sign and sometimes been able to confirm nest sites. For example, the maps below are from a surveys in 2007 and 2012.








Blue penguins pairing up for the new new season
June 9, 2022
Blue penguins pairing up for the new new season
Blue penguins pairing up for the new new season
June 2022



No stoat plague and plentiful food benefit tawaki
June 8, 2022
No stoat plague and plentiful food benefit tawaki
Tawaki monitoring reveals steady breeding during seasons 2019-2021
Tawaki monitoring has revealed steady breeding during seasons 2019-2021. This is despite a major mast event with massive seedfall in autumn 2019. Mast events with abundant seeds available support mouse plagues, followed by rat plagues feeding on mice, followed by stoat plagues feeding on rats. As seeds gradually rot or germinate, rodent numbers fall and stoats seek prey elsewhere, commonly native birds. The Trust feared that stoats would overrun colonies of tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguins, in either the 2019 or 2020 season, a lag between rat and then stoat plague numbers being common. Stoats will prey on tawaki eggs or chicks and, in 2016, stoats were abundant in the Jackson Head area, virtually wiping out all chicks that year. Fortunately for the penguins, over the past three years, presence of and predation by stoats has remained low. When the Trust first started monitoring tawaki nests in 2014, the aim was to establish which predator, if any, was responsible for an apparent decline in the number of penguins. The link of a mast event to a stoat plague in 2016 appeared to be the main risk to breeding success, but with evidence in only one year of four for the study, further evidence would be useful. In 2019, the Trust switched focus to monitoring breeding success with fortnightly checks as well as monitoring stoat numbers. The aim was to determine if there were any trends year to year, or between the colonies; and to better understand the link between mast events and stoat populations and predation as well as to methods of predator control. Key conclusions for three year study to date are as follows:- Breeding success was high at all three colonies for all three years, with no obvious differences or trends between years or between colonies.
- Stoats were present at all three colonies at different times, however at low numbers, and are likely responsible for a few tawaki nest failures.
- The mast event of 2018-19 did not result in any observable increase in stoat numbers in the colonies in either the 2019 or 2020 seasons.
- Lack of food did not appear to be an issue for breeding tawaki during the study period.

Our Projects
Education

Education plays a key part in the West Coast Penguin Trust’s activities. We are welcomed into schools, armed with Kevin the taxidermy Kororā and Toni the Tawaki (fiordland crested penguin; the South Island West Coast’s second resident penguin). We visit schools and educate the students about penguins, thus encouraging discussions about the environment and conservation issues. It is never a difficult mission to get the students, and staff we should add, to fall in love with penguins, excited to find out that they have these wonderful creatures on their local beaches and then devastated to find out the struggle of survival they face due to humans! Using our Blue Penguins & Other Seabirds resource book, which links games and activities throughout the entire curriculum, fitting into any subject, the schools get involved in activities to learn lots of facts and then moving on to learning how to become the ‘Guardians of their penguin’ and taking the message home to their local communities.
Education plays a key part in the West Coast Penguin Trust’s activities. We are welcomed into schools, armed with Kevin the taxidermy Kororā and Toni the Tawaki (fiordland crested penguin; the South Island West Coast’s second resident penguin). We visit schools and educate the students about penguins, thus encouraging discussions about the environment and conservation issues. It is never a difficult mission to get the students, and staff we should add, to fall in love with penguins, excited to find out that they have these wonderful creatures on their local beaches and then devastated to find out the struggle of survival they face due to humans! Using our Blue Penguins & Other Seabirds resource book, which links games and activities throughout the entire curriculum, fitting into any subject, the schools get involved in activities to learn lots of facts and then moving on to learning how to become the ‘Guardians of their penguin’ and taking the message home to their local communities.Penguin and Seabird Educational Resource - now in second edition

Download the Education Resource - Second Edition out now!
The resource is available for download as a PDF, after completing the form below. This web-friendly version is 59 pages – 7.8MB. If you would like a beautiful hard copy of the resource, please email info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz.LEARNZ Videos
When using the education resource, we regularly refer to the LEARNZ videos that are used in conjunction with the resource, and they can be found here on vimeo: LEARNZ Videos
Other useful resources
NZ Tracker
Have a look at this great resource to help you identify tracks in the sand at your beach: https://nztracker.org/index.html#
Nest box designs
And our latest advice about building nest boxes: https://www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz/news/blue-penguin-nest-box-design/
Year 10 Ecology Curriculum readily available here:
Our education resource targets primary school age, however it is possible to adapt our book to some secondary student work. The Trust is keen to connect with all education groups and to share resources and encourage schools to work together collaboratively. Erica Jar at Buller High School, created a Year 10 ecology unit of work for her class and kindly shared it with us to edit and make penguin and seabird relative. Those notes and lesson plans are now available here, in a zip file, with grateful thanks to Erica: Penguin Ecology Year 10 Lesson Notes (Erica Jar, Buller High School, 2017)Schools taking action
Fiordland crested penguin predator study

In order to understand whether and if so which predators were contributing to an apparent decline in the numbers of Fiordland crested penguins, the West Coast Penguin Trust embarked on a study using trail cameras in 2014.
In order to understand whether and if so which predators were contributing to an apparent decline in the numbers of Fiordland crested penguins, the West Coast Penguin Trust embarked on a four year study using trail cameras in 2014. For the 2019 season, which followed a 'mega-mast' seed event and predicted rat and subsequently stoat population explosions, the Trust established an annual breeding success monitoring programme. In 2020, following a mega mast in Autumn 2019, the Trust has extended the project, with the support of Wellington Zoo and the Birds New Zealand Research Fund, with the aim of better understanding whether breeding success is adversely affected by the presence of stoats, and if so, what is the best means to manage that threat. An overview of the work planned for the 2020 season is available on the Birds NZ website and a summary of the 2019-2020 seasons is here and the full report here. There were many fewer stoats than expected and predation was low, which was great for the penguins and showed us that there is plenty more to learn about the relationship between beech mast events, stoat populations and predation. (Interim reports on the 2020 season can be found here (March) and here (June).) The Trust's Tawaki Ranger and Trustee, Robin Long, gave this TED type talk in Franz Josef in October 2019, summing up the Trust's work and her experience of tawaki both at home in Gorge River and volunteering with The Tawaki Project. Robin has continued her adventures to survey areas of Stewart Island with a survey of the Port Pegasus coast in September 2020. A report of her mission can be found here. Project Background





- Tawaki nests were monitored at three distinct colonies in South Westland for three years
- The aim was to determine breeding success at these colonies; determine if there were any trends year to year, or between the colonies; and to better understand the link between mast events and stoat populations and predation as well as to methods of predator control.
- Trail cameras and tracking tunnels were used to determine the presence of predators (especially stoats) within the colonies.
- Breeding success was high at all three colonies for all three years, with no obvious differences or trends between years or between colonies.
- Stoats were present at all three colonies at different times, however at low numbers, and are likely responsible for a few tawaki nest failures.
- The mast event of 2018-19 did not result in any observable increase in stoat numbers in the colonies in either the 2019 or 2020 seasons
- Lack of food did not appear to be an issue for breeding tawaki during the study period.
Blue Penguins – monitor and review

The Trust started life in 2004 as the Blue Penguin Group, a group of concerned residents in the Greymouth/Charleston area who had noticed that blue penguin numbers were declining. The Trust has been monitoring penguin breeding success in a number of colonies ever since and using the lessons leaned to improve conservation management for these penguins on the West Coast.
Science is at the heart of our work
Under the direction of former Lincoln University ecologist, Trust Scientist and former Chair, Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM, science underlies all the the Trust does. The Trust began by determining the role of stoat predation on the apparent decline of blue penguins in the Buller area.
Burrowscopes
Monitoring is undertaken using burrowscopes. These are small cameras on the end of a 2m flexible tube, sending images back to a monitor. The camera can be gently inserted into a burrow, often quite deep underground, to establish whether eggs or chicks are present with minimal disturbance for the penguins. In addition to the Buller monitoring, the Trust has carried out surveys of Okarito penguins in 2008, 2013 and again in October 2018. The colony south of Okarito is generally well away from human disturbance and numbers appear to be steady.
What's happening now
Masters student Luisa Salis-Soglio is currently reviewing all the data monitoring date to and including 2019, aiming to establish any trends, as well as any links to knowledge of foraging patterns established through our GPS study. The New Zealand Penguin Initiative is working to support community groups achieve consistency in their collection, storage and presentation of data and has established a platform for our monitoring results. The new site enables us to discover the breeding success rates for the two study colonies and much more detailed information. After a disappointing breeding season in 2019 with chicks lost to starvation, the 2020 season has been far better, with breeding success at 66.7% at one site (numbers of chicks fledged from eggs laid) and an excellent 89.6% at the other.Nest box design
In areas where weka are present, they will try to predate penguin chicks. Nest box design is critical and we have provided a design that aims to minimise the risk of predation by weka. Read more and find the design here.Cape Foulwind and Wall Island

Cape Foulwind is a wonderful place to visit at any time and we're hoping to add to that experience by carrying out predator control for sooty shearwaters. 'Sooties' can be seen between November and May as they fly back to their burrows over the wooden section of Cape Foulwind Walkway.
Sooty Shearwaters
Although the population of sooty shearwaters is in the millions, they are in decline, surviving on islands, particularly around the southern South Island. A handful of 'sooties' nest on the mainland at Cape Foulwind and the Trust has been encouraging more to nest here and protecting those that do. A solar powered sound system is used to play calls to attract the birds as they prepare to nest in October and November, and a trap network is maintained on the headland. Over the past few years, numbers nesting at this site have increased, but the colony remains small and as yet no chicks have fledged.
Blue Penguins
There are only a few blue penguins nesting at Cape Foulwind, despite the sound system mentioned above also being used to play calls to encourage them into this site. These sounds are played between June and August, as the breeding season gets underway. In time, the Trust hopes to establish a small viewing opportunity, perhaps with a discrete nest cam.Fairy Prions


West Coast Blue Penguin Count

An annual count of blue penguin sign on West Coast beaches in October, but we'd love to hear from you anytime. It's a great opportunity to discover your beach and to be involved in a project!
2021 blue penguin count form 8 Oct
Let's get back to paper and pencil this year! Here's a simple form: 2021 blue penguin count form 8 Oct to print and take with you or take some paper and note the key observations. And then share your results with us in one of the following ways:
- ideally add your findings to our super simple Google Form, or
- you can photograph or scan your form and email to us, or
- add the details direct to an email, or
- post the form to us c/o 231 Revell Street, Hokitika 7810.

Using i-Naturalist To make it even more useful and accurate for us, penguin observations – probably mostly penguin tracks but perhaps a live penguin or penguin sounds – can be recorded using the i-Naturalist app on your smart phone or tablet, not only this week, when blue penguins are likely to be busy feeding chicks and the tides are just right, but any time that you come across them. iNaturalist has been around for a few years, is ‘the online place for Kiwi nature watchers’, and you can add any nature observation at any time. It may take a few minutes to install and familiarise yourself with it, but then it’s a piece of cake to add your records, including your photos if you wish. At home, create a login and then find The Great Annual Blue Penguin Count under ‘Projects’, and join our project. Link to the Great Blue Penguin Count October 2021 project



GPS Foraging Study of Blue Penguins

The Trust had focused on establishing and addressing the land based threats to blue penguins for several years and, in the last few years, has sought to understand the marine ecology.
Tiny GPS units were applied to blue penguins during the 2015, 2016 and 2017 chick rearing seasons and the Trust collaborated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in a wider study to better understand the foraging patterns that were discovered. A report was published in the NZ Journal of Zoology in April 2017, led by Tim Poupart and Dr Susan Waugh of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and included data from three sites, Wellington, Motuara Island (Marlborough) and our West Coast study. Data has been collected for five years and, for three of those years, the West Coast Penguin Trust carried out the field work at Charleston and Cape Foulwind. Altogether the study includes tracks gathered on 68 individuals in three regions of central New Zealand between 2011 and 2016. Foraging patterns varied between sites and between years. Tracks revealed that penguins can rely on distant foraging areas while incubating, with nesting birds from Motuara Island travelling up to 214 km to feed. Isotope analyses of blood samples showed that this distant food from deep waters (0–200 m deep) is likely to be squid dominated, which has a low nutrition value. During the chick rearing period, birds undertook a diet shift to a higher trophic level while foraging closer to their colony, and possibly near river plumes. These findings highlight the need to consider much larger potential foraging ranges when assessing and managing threats to the penguins. The research team, including the Trust’s Kerry-Jayne Wilson and Reuben Lane, advise that conservation efforts need to take this variation into account to protect these penguins, which are currently in decline across New Zealand. The Trust continued the project in 2019 with the support of the New Zealand Penguin Initiative. The NZPI was able to supply GPS trackers that also measured dive depths and although only two tracks were obtained, the information was very interesting and useful. Read more here. The study continued in 2020 with greater success and 11 tracks obtained. The NZPI have created a new platform to store and share data for each group undertaking penguin research in New Zealand. The results of the 2020 season tracking can be viewed here and read more about the project in our news story, largely from NZPI.



Pahautane Penguin Fence

3000m of fencing to protect penguins and prevent them being killed on SH6 - The Coast Road. It's saving the lives of several penguins every year and mortality has reduced to zero in these areas.
Why build a penguin fence? Where the Coast Road is close to the sea, penguins may choose to nest on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. Both parents will feed penguin chicks and they often go to sea to forage every day, leaving around dawn and returning after dark. These small birds don’t stand a chance against vehicles and large numbers of birds have been killed on some sections of the road. A fence on the sea side of the road was the obvious solution as it restricts the penguins to nesting habitat below the road, preventing them nesting and therefore crossing to the other side of the road. Why build it here? The West Coast Penguin Trust has been recording penguin mortality since its inception in 2006. A few sites along the Coast Road have been found to be hotspots for road kill. Three locations on the Coast Road (SH6) have claimed the lives of over 100 penguins in five years. They are the McCarthy Creek area, the south side of the Fox River Bridge, and Pahautane Beach to Hatters Bay. The annual penguin census, along with scientific studies, suggest that blue penguin numbers on the West Coast are continuing to decline.



How can you help?
The completed fence requires occasional maintenance and costs will be ongoing. Your donation will help to keep the penguin protection fence working as designed and you can donate via our Givealittle page. Also, if you're driving past the fence and notice any issues, perhaps a gate wedged open or some damage, please close the gate or let us know so that problems can be fixed immediately. Thank you.