Don’t get caught up in Christmas sales, you can help penguins instead!
Friday 29th November is Black Friday but you can donate here.
Donate to the penguins this Black Friday
5.30pm, Wednesday 19th August – Penguin talk at Greymouth Library
We have been invited to speak about our penguins and our work at the fabulous new Greymouth Library and that's happening tomorrow!
It would be lovely to see you there.
Come along and find out the latest from the last breeding season for both West Coast Penguins, how the Trust has evolved over its 20 years, and some other perhaps more surprising information!
Seabird found on Wellington beach tests positive for H5 bird flu
The news we didn’t want to hear but have expected for some years arrived today, 15 July 2026
The news we didn’t want to hear came through late this afternoon, 15 July 2026. “Seabird found on Wellington beach tests positive for H5 bird flu” Here is the RNZ news item including the press briefing video: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/723404/seabird-found-on-wellington-beach-tests-positive-for-h5-bird-flu The West Coast Penguin Trust is prepared, DOC is ready, MPI is ready – but every person in New Zealand needs to understand what this means and what they can do to help. The Ministry for Primary Industries, MPI, with its biosecurity role, is leading this work. Their resources are on their website here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/biosecurity-in-nz/dont-let-bird-flu-take-flight The resources include this introductory video. And this one pager – Bird Flu Be Ready: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/64557-How-to-report-suspected-bird-flu Key rules from MPI, are below.What to do if you find sick or dead birds
When out and about, especially on beaches, keep an eye out for wild birds showing signs of bird flu.
The most obvious sign of HPAI is sudden death in several wild birds. Other signs can include weakness, tremors, paralysis, difficulty breathing, lack of co-ordination, blindness, trembling, and diarrhoea.
If you see 3 or more sick or dead wild birds in a group, report it immediately to the exotic pest and disease hotline on 0800 80 99 66 so we can investigate the cause.
Added by DOC - OR report it if you see a single sick or dead high-risk seabird. These include skua, giant or cape petrels, and albatross, which are rarely seen on the Coast, and white-fronted tern, which nest on rock stacks and in river estuaries.
Do not touch or collect sick wildlife - birds or seals.
Keep pets away from wildlife as the disease can spread to other animals.
Avoid disturbing wildife congregating on shorelines.
Clean your shoes and gear before and after visiting beaches, parks, reserves, or farms, to stop the disease from spreading.
When reporting sick or dead birds, provide as much detail as you can, including:
-
- a GPS reading or other precise location information
- photographs and videos of sick and dead birds
- species name and estimate of the numbers affected
- how many are sick or freshly dead, and the total number of birds present.
MPI will note the details and one of our specialist biosecurity investigators will assess the information and contact you.
Sick birds can recover from this disease, so leave sick birds alone, and reduce stress or disturbance around them.
It's important to note that recent reports including this skua have been isolated incidents, just single birds. So it's important to be aware of unusual bird behaviour. Do not hesitate to ring the MPI hotline if you have any concerns. Thank you for doing your bit. Information we provided a couple of years ago: https://www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz/news/being-prepared-for-avian-influenza-or-bird-flu/Penguin Season on the West Coast: 2025 Summary
May 28, 2026
Penguin Season on the West Coast: 2025 Summary
Tawaki have a good year, kororā struggle
Results from the 2025 penguin breeding season are in. Here on the West Coast, as they do around the world, penguins face ever-changing challenges. Despite notable losses at key breeding sites, our Little Penguins (kororā) and Fiordland Crested Penguins (tawaki) continue to respond with remarkable resilience. Your support helps us to understand and respond to the rapidly changing conditions that our penguins face every day and we are enormously grateful. Here’s some of what we achieved and learned from the 2025 season.- 31 kororā microchipped this season (now 77 in total)
- Kororā travelled up to three times further offshore than usual, staying away much longer than expected to find food during egg incubation
- Lower breeding success at key sites reflects likely environmental stress
- Joyce Bay colony strongly rebounded in breeding activity
- Tawaki had a stable season despite some unexplained chick deaths
- No stoats seen at the tawaki colony monitored with cameras, demonstrating the success of DOC’s predator control efforts in 2025 (as per our advocacy) and benefitting penguins breeding there.
Little Penguin (kororā): 2025 season updates
31 new penguins microchipped
Foraging study reveals surprising findings
Using tiny GPS and dive loggers, we were shocked to find that kororā from our study site travelled up to three times further offshore to find food during the egg incubation stage. It seems they were out at sea much longer than in previous years too. With daily checks on the nests, one took nearly 3 weeks instead of the expected 5-7 days to return. For these breeding birds, that indicated a much tougher time finding food, and a tougher time for the increasingly hungry parent left to keep the eggs warm.
Breeding success down from the previous year
Resilience and recovery
Fiordland Crested Penguins (tawaki): 2025 season updates
A steady breeding season
Mysterious chick deaths
A small number of healthy tawaki chicks were found dead without signs of predation. Possible causes include parental loss or unknown environmental factors. We aim to continue and improve our camera monitoring so that we can learn more about such scenarios.Predator management success for tawaki
What’s happening in 2026?
Over nearly 20 years, we have seen the challenges our penguins face grow, but we have continued to develop our ability to understand those challenges and respond. Where we have already responded, with penguin protection fences, campaigns to protect penguins from loose dogs, and our much-valued education programme, we have seen reductions in the numbers of penguins killed on the road and by dogs as a result. With your support, our ongoing penguin monitoring and research efforts will drive improved knowledge of kororā and tawaki, ensuring we continue to make a lasting impact on their future here on the West Coast and continue to work towards our Vision:"Sea and shore birds, and their habitat across the West Coast Te Tai Poutini, are healthy and thriving."
- Continue microchipping new kororā chicks as well as adults that may be new to the study colony or that we haven’t been able to reach before. This will build a long-term dataset that tracks survival and population trends, and, with our foraging study, help us better understand how changing environmental conditions may be affecting West Coast penguins
- Continue our kororā foraging study during egg incubation and chick guard stages
- Upgrade kororā nest boxes at our study site
- Maintain penguin protection fencing that is serving so well to save kororā lives
- Improve tawaki monitoring with better cameras and batteries, and improve our understanding of the variable timing of egg-laying and thus chick rearing to improve our data collection and analysis
- We will be monitoring forecast El Niño conditions and hope that they will not impact penguin breeding success. The last major El Niño event led to almost total breeding failure for tawaki in 2015
- Maintain our education programme, supporting teachers and youth leaders to deliver educational resources through lessons, activities and beach visits
- Work with DOC and District Councils to update beach access signage that will encourage responsible dog ownership: keeping dogs safe reduces the risk of dog attacks on penguins and other wildlife
- Maintain our advocacy programmes to protect penguins, other endangered seabirds, and their nesting and foraging places here on the West Coast
- And we might find a way to celebrate 20 years since the West Coast Penguin Trust was born!
