Blue penguin tracks

It’s the West Coast Annual Blue Penguin Count time again folks, so grab your gummies and your penguin tracks form or better still, your phone with the i-Naturalist app downloaded onto it and start counting tracks!

An early morning walk in the spring, the week of Monday 12th – Saturday 17th September, will help you rediscover the beauty of your local coastline, discover whether penguins are using the beach and help us build a clearer picture of where blue penguins are on the West Coast.

We have selected these dates when the tide will be low early in the morning to keep you safe and to offer the best chance of seeing penguin tracks crossing the freshly washed sand.  You can add your observations any time, but always pay special attention to tide times and conditions.

Read the details here.

 

A little history behind the Great Annual West Coast Blue Penguin Count:

Little Penguin populations on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand were surveyed and partially counted for the first time in late 2005/early 2006. Motivated by anecdotal information suggesting a decline in Little Penguin populations along the West Coast. this on-foot survey has been the foundation for Little Penguin research and the establishment of regular monitoring schemes. The West Coast Penguin Trust undertook the survey in its first year and has since been documenting factors that influence Little Penguin population growth such as threats, breeding habitat, breeding biology and foraging distance at sea during breeding seasons on the West Coast.

Your help is extremely valuable, thank you.