We are delighted to have been supported recently by two pokie machine corporate societies.
Pub Charity, a supporter for various projects in the past including the development and publication of our Educational Resource, has approved our application for funding to purchase microchips for penguins. These are known as PIT tags or Passive Integrated Transponders, which have internal microchips.
For little penguins, the PIT tags are about the same size as a grain of rice and are inserted under the skin at the back of their neck.
Microchipping penguins will enable us to do more scientific research and learn more about little penguins/kororā on the West Coast. We already monitor breeding success and we study where penguins go to feed at sea and this information about individual penguins will enable us to better understand our other findings and learn much more about these penguins. Our research will inform our practical projects to conserve little penguins as well as our awareness and education programmes. Related news story here about learning to insert microchips into kororā.
Our huge thanks to Pub Charity!
A few months ago, we also heard that we had been successful in an application to The Lion Foundation. We applied for a grant to support the work of our Education Ranger, Lucy Waller, to work with schools in the Greymouth and Hokitika areas. The grant will support visits to classrooms as well as field trips to the beach, helping teachers use our Blue Penguins & Other Seabirds: Activities for exploration and action for schools and community groups resource and helping children find out all about little penguins / kororā in their area.
So our huge thanks to The Lion Foundation too!
With DOC under extreme financial pressure and their community funding drying up for groups and projects such as ours, gaining this support for our work makes a huge difference to what we can do.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are returned annually to the community from the proceeds of gambling on electronic gaming machines, or pokies, in pubs and hotels. The not-for-profit process supports charities in all walks of life, including environmental projects such as ours.
Information about safer gambling can be found here: https://www.safergambling.org.nz/
While materials were chosen that would stand up to the harsh coastal conditions, those same coastal conditions are conducive to plant growth! Occasional checks of the fences have been carried out by volunteers and rangers so that any maintenance needs can be identified and remedied. The never-ending need for maintenance is managing the vegetation that can grow through the fence, for example gorse, blackberry and hydrangea, pushing it to breaking point in places, or flop over causing damage from the weight of rank grass, rushes and weeds such as montbretia.
Volunteers recently spent a few hours tidying up the main fence along Woodpecker Bay north of Punakaiki so a big shout out to them - thank you Fiona, Jony, Reef, Katrina, Mandy, Marty, Teresa and Deb! Flax had been pressing down on the fence, but now the fence has been freed up by these wonderful volunteers - and they picked up a fair bit of rubbish too.
Volunteer Natassja Savidge has offered to check and help maintain the Hokitika penguin protection fence and joined Ranger Lucy Waller and Manager Inger Perkins in May to inspect the length of the fence. Some minor issues were found but the main finding was the extent of the vegetation growth that was damaging the fence in places. Big thanks to Natassja!
