
Be a penguin conservation champion!
New: reduced fees for one off or regular donations, by credit or debit card - thank you! We need your help now.

World of Penguins
We will be back with our penguin trust updates and 'World of Penguins' talks when gatherings are safe again. Look after yourselves and stay safe in your bubbles.

Check the latest Trust newsletter for updates
Find out what we have been doing, what we are planning, events you can get involved in, the latest research and more.

The State of Penguins in New Zealand
Current knowledge and research priorities now available as a web page

November to January - watch out for downed Westland petrels
Westland petrel chicks are leaving the nest for the first time between November and January and could come down and be stranded due to disorientation by lights and poor weather - and may need your help.
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.
Sign up for our latest conservation news
Birds We Protect
Latest News

Rescued tawaki returned to the sea
December 1, 2020
Rescued tawaki returned to the sea
An injured tawaki was reported to DOC, who picked it up and took it to the local West Coast vets in Hokitika.
An injured tawaki was reported to DOC, who picked it up and took it to the local West Coast vets in Hokitika. The penguin needed stitches for a wound to the abdomen and then he or she, was taken to rehabilitator, Tracy Johnston-Coates for care until well enough for release.

Ranger Matt reports on the season so far for West Coast Kororā and Tawaki
Penguin ranger, Matt Charteris, reports on the success so far for our blue penguins and Fiordland crested penguins.
End of spring update from the coastline Blue Penguin Breeding: Monitoring from Punaikaiki to Cape Foulwind is showing a good breeding season. Numbers of breeding pairs is similar to last year, with the exception of 2 pairs re-establishing at our Punakaiki monitored site, where the colony appeared to have been lost. Two chick nests are dominant with one chick nests representing 20% of breeding attempts. We are entering the final period of the breeding season so hoping Santa keeps delivering the moana kai to complete fledging, for new fishers and feed up the adults before they moult. Foraging: In early September, with the help of NZ Penguin Initiative's Richard, Thomas and Hanna, 7 GPS loggers were deployed on blue penguins at Nile, Knoll and Rahui colonies. Each datalogger recorded a single foraging trip of a chick-feeding adult. A further 4 deployments were made at Rahui on post-guard chick-feeding adults in mid-October. Further analysis of 2020 dive data and travel data and comparison with previous seasons data will follow. Our data set of breeding season foraging behaviour is growing and we hope to work with others in order to analyse in relation to marine conditions.


Mission: Find tawaki in Port Pegasus
November 30, 2020
Mission: Find tawaki in Port Pegasus
Tawaki Ranger, Robin Long, went searching for Fiordland crested penguins a couple of months ago and reports on her adventure.
Tawaki Ranger, Robin Long, went searching for Fiordland crested penguins a couple of months ago and reports on her adventure. Our plan was to survey for Fiordland crested penguins or tawaki along a remote stretch of the Stewart Island coast by kayak. As for last year, I was assisted by Simon Litchwark and we were very fortunate to hitch a ride down to Port Pegasus on August 28th with Aurora Charters, and back again on September 8th. While we were down there we got around in a double sit on top kayak kindly lent to us by a friend of Simon, Phil Bradfield. Two of the days were too windy to go out paddling but aside from that we managed to make things work in spite of it being quite wet and windy and not always very pleasant. In total we paddled 165km over the eight days and managed to cover most of the Port, which I didn't think we'd manage given how windy it was when first got there.




Our Projects
Education

Education plays a key part in the West Coast Penguin Trust’s activities. We know that children can develop a lifelong value for nature particularly in the age range 6-10 if they are given the opportunity. Not only that, but they love penguins and share their enthusiasm with their extended family and friends.
Education plays a key part in the West Coast Penguin Trust’s activities. We know that children can develop a lifelong value for nature particularly in the age range 6-10 if they are given the opportunity. Not only that, but they love penguins and share their enthusiasm with their extended family and friends.Penguin and Seabird Educational Resource
The Trust has developed a penguin and seabird education resource aligned to the NZ Curriculum especially for the West Coast but it will be of value for educators and children everywhere, particularly coastal areas of New Zealand, and whether at school, home or youth group. (Scroll down for link.) “Blue Penguins & Other Seabirds. Activities for exploration and action for schools and community groups” is aimed at children in the age range 5 to 9 but can be adapted for younger or older children. The goal is for local people to learn about and take action for the wildlife in their own back yard. Research has also shown that children gain essential values for the environment and a lifelong connectedness to nature in this age group. Fun learning activities are included within the education resource, including games and arts and crafts. With all the resources on line, they are readily available to home school parents and students and indeed anyone with an interest in sharing a love for and interest in the coastal environment with children. The project focuses on blue penguins but includes sooty shearwaters (both species are in Gradual Decline, 2005 NZ Threat Classification System), Fiordland Crested Penguins or Tawaki (Nationally Endangered) and Westland Petrels (Range Restricted), all in their natural habitat. The coastal habitat of these species on the West Coast has, as it has around NZ, been modified or disturbed by humans and their activities. We welcome any feedback on the resource and we would also love to receive photographs and stories as you have a go at the various activities. Please send them to us at info@bluepenguin.org.nz.Download the Education Resource
The resource is available for download as a PDF, after completing the form below. This web-friendly version is 59 pages – 10.4MB. If you would prefer a higher-resolution PDF and or a hard copy of the resource, please email info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz.LEARNZ Videos
The LEARNZ videos that can be used in conjunction with the resource, can be found here: LEARNZ VideosYear 10 Ecology Curriculum
The Trust is also keen to connect to senior school teachers and students and has worked with Erica Jar at Buller High School, providing material for her Year 10 ecology curriculum classes. Those notes and lesson plans are available in a zip file, with grateful thanks to Erica: Penguin Ecology Year 10 Lesson Notes (Erica Jar, Buller High School, 2017)Other Resources
Coming soon... For now, have a look at this great resource to help you identify tracks in the sand at your beach: https://nztracker.org/index.html#Schools taking action
Hokitika Primary School
- Planting day to improve penguin habitat - link coming soon

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. 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. Link to study report after 2017 season Project Background





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 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 next
A Masters student will continue the Buller monitoring in 2019 and review all the data, aiming to establish any patterns or links to knowledge of foraging patterns established through our GPS study.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!





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. We expect additional analysis of foraging areas in relation to other marine influences including currents, climate events and commercial fishing, to follow at some point, and for now, we'll be focusing on ensuring consistency of process to collect data annually and contribute to an understanding of the foraging activity of blue penguins on the West Coast through the four key stages of the annual life cycle, namely incubation, chick rearing, pre and post moult. We’d like to thank the JS Watson Trust (managed by Forest & Bird) for their support, Te Papa for their collaboration and the New Zealand Penguin Initiative for coming on board with their help.


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.