News

With penguins thriving on the side of the penguin protection fence north of Punakaiki, numbers appear to be growing and penguins are exploring beyond the ends of the fence through gaps. One of those gaps has just been filled.

With little penguins thriving on the sea side the West Coast Penguin Trust's penguin protection fence north of Punakaiki, penguins are starting to explore beyond the three colonies that were protected and finding their way past the ends of the fence through gaps.  Sadly one penguin has been killed on the road and others have been rescued and returned to the sea side of the fence. We're therefore thrilled to report that one of those gaps in the fence has just been filled, protecting penguins at the northern end of the main fence line just in time for the new breeding season. Our thanks go to WestReef for getting the work done the minute they were able to including the traffic management and other safety measures, and to Waka Kotahi for both permission and support through an annual grant to help maintain the fence. We would also like to thank Geofabrics New Zealand for the very generous discount on the special fence mesh.  Geofabrics (then Maccaferri) helped us out in the same way when we first installed the penguin protection fence back in 2014.  The mesh has stood up to the coastal assaults of sun and salt brilliantly, just as expected.

 

Qualities of penguins embraced by pension company and extended through a donation to help penguin conservation

Pension Insurance Corporation or PIC for short loves penguins and last year gave the West Coast Penguin Trust a very generous donation. This UK company has had emperor penguins at the centre of their brand from the start.  Their website notes that the penguins are memorable and intrinsically appealing and of course the West Coast Penguin Trust knows that is true for all penguins. PIC has translated the qualities of emperor penguins into their own qualities and the PIC team strive to emulate them every day, loyalty, adaptability and resilience. Most penguins form lifelong partnerships - known as partner fidelity.  Pairs work together to protect and nurture their young and some, including the emperor penguin, cooperate with others for the wellbeing of the group.  This is translated to time invested in building long-term relationships, and being dependable and dedicated. Penguins live in a variety of habitats and zones from equatorial Galapagos Islands to southern Australian and New Zealand coasts, South American and south African coasts to sub Antarctic islands and the Antarctic, in other words, they have evolved to live in many different climates and live successfully in water and on land.  PIC too pride themselves on their adaptability, agility and providing innovative solutions. The emperor penguin, the largest of the 18 species of penguins, are tougher than most species, withstanding long Antarctic winters and months without food.  Again, PIC aligns itself with this remarkable bird in its strength in harsh economic conditions and volatile markets.  The little or blue penguin, the main penguin on the West Coast, is the smallest of the penguin species, but resilient in its own small way. PIC's charity partners are very relevant to their clients, focussing on older age and mental illness.  But their charity committee also considers providing support to other charitable trusts and, late in 2022, the committee approved a generous donation to the West Coast Penguin Trust for penguin conservation.  The approach to PIC was prompted by a personal connection in England, which just goes to show that you never know where any of us might bump into a new donor or sponsor, and we always need to be ready to invite and enable donors to help penguins! The Trust is reliant on donations and grants and this year will be investing in improvements to the penguin protection fence north of Punakaiki and developing our foraging study to better understand the life of and threats to little penguins / kororā at sea off the Charleston coast.  That is in addition to all the business as usual including monitoring breeding success and managing threats to both little penguins and Fiordland crested penguins / tawaki, and our education and awareness programmes.  So the support from PIC is immensely valuable in maintaining and growing our penguin conservation efforts. Not only does PIC recognise the wonderful qualities of penguins but they are also very strongly ethical and environmental in what they do, which the Trust values very highly. PIC are investing in solar/renewable energy and decarbonising the economy, supporting social housing and universities, and has future generations in mind as they do business.  PIC employees can also take two days paid leave each year to work on volunteer projects of their choosing. The West Coast Penguin Trust is hugely grateful for the wonderful support from PIC and congratulates the company on their various community and environmental initiatives.  

We say a farewell and a huge thank you to Linden as trust ranger.

Linden Brown joined the trust in the middle of the 2021 breeding season and, with some guidance from our previous ranger, Matt Charteris, we were delighted that he hit the ground running.  Field work is his passion and he brought considerable field work experience from his monitoring roles with the Department of Conservation. Completing the monitoring and reporting for the 2021 season enabled Linden to approach the 2022 season with clarity and preparedness.  It was a big disappointment to him and to us all when the pin had to be pulled on the foraging study due to the unusual and clearly stressful conditions the penguins were in, apparently due to the marine heat wave. Although his heart was in the field work, Linden provided excellent insights and advice for the behind the scenes work of the trust, including funding applications and reports and advocacy.  While Education Ranger, Lucy Waller, was stuck overseas due to COVID travel restrictions, Linden also stepped up to help lead education and awareness opportunities in the classroom at the beach, proving that he could be the all rounder needed as a ranger. Sadly though, a couple of things drew him away, firstly wanting to do more field work and less time at a desk and secondly, building a new home.  He is the Trust's third ranger to have resigned to put time into building a home! The Trust is grateful to Linden for his contribution and flexibility and wishes him well in future endeavours.

Healthy, safe penguin colony south of Ōkarito is thriving without disturbance.

The West Coast Penguin Trust has maintained an active interest in the Ōkārito kororā colony since it was first surveyed in 2008 and has resurveyed the colony every few years since then.

In late October, Ranger Linden Brown resurveyed the colony for the first time since 2018. Unlike most kororā colonies on the West Coast, the penguins here are safe from dogs and cars, and human disturbance and the effect of introduced predators are minimal; it is little surprise that the penguin colony here is the largest on the West Coast. Stepping onto the beach it is obvious that there are a lot of penguins; the sand is almost continuously criss-crossed by penguin tracks! Almost a step back in time to what things would have been like before humans and introduced predators.

The colony is split into distinct north and south areas. Penguin numbers have stayed more or less consistent over the years, and this year was no different with over 40 breeding pairs. It is highly likely there are more pairs than this in area, however thick gorse and supplejack makes finding them tricky sometimes! As we are seeing in our monitored colonies in the Buller, breeding has been later than normal this year, with the majority of adults still sitting on eggs during the late October visit; in previous surveys at the same time of year, the majority of eggs have hatched, with some chicks fledging by this time. Numbers of breeding pairs at the Ōkārito colony

	2008	2013	2015	2018	2022
Ōkārito North	18	21	13	10	17
Ōkārito South	33	34	26	14	22
Total	51	55	39	24	39

The Ōkārito colony is a healthy and safe kororā colony; a reminder of how things would have been in the past, but also a vision of something to work towards for other kororā colonies on the West Coast.

2022 proved to be a challenging season for kororā on the West Coast.

The 2022 breeding season proved to be a challenging one for kororā on the West Coast. Our monitored sites at Charleston had a late start to the breeding season, with the first eggs laid in late August, two to three weeks later than normal. From then on kororā bred in a slow trickle, with eggs still being laid in late October. Sadly, over half of these eggs did not reach hatching after being abandoned by the adults. Lack of easily available food is the likely cause of this poor breeding season, with the adults having to take long foraging trips at sea whilst the other parent stayed on the eggs. If the changeover time is too long then the adult on the eggs will have to abandon the eggs in order to feed themselves. This meant we had a low rate of breeding success, with only 35% of eggs successfully fledging in one colony and 45% in the other. This is comparable to some previous poor seasons such as 2016 and 2017 (37% & 43%), but significantly lower than the last two seasons (80-90%). Kororā lay two eggs and two chicks will fledge in good years - two chicks fledged from two eggs would be 100% breeding success.  We also record chicks per nest, and this year, over the 27 monitored breeding burrows, the average was less than one chick fledged per nest.

Site	Breeding burrows	Breeding attempts	Eggs laid	Chicks hatched	Chicks Fledged	Chicks per breeding attempt	Breeding Success	Failed attempts
Rahui	20	21	42	23	19	0.90	45 %	6
Nile	27	24	48	22	17	0.71	35 %	13

  Although the number of eggs laid at the Nile colony were higher than last year, this number was inflated by the discovery of three additional breeding burrows (which were likely to be breeding in previous seasons). Additionally, and somewhat interestingly, two pairs laid a second clutch of eggs this season. This is common at East Coast colonies, but quite a rarity on the West Coast. One of these pairs successfully raised their first clutch and the second clutch failed, whilst the other failed on their first clutch before successfully raising their second clutch. We assume it was the same pair each time but will be able to use data gained from microchips or PIT tags in the future to confirm this. At the Rahui colony, one burrow was used for two breeding attempts and in this case it was for different birds. The first attempt failed with unknown birds, and the second attempt with the nest box's usual occupants (identified using the PIT tags and reader) was successful. Our rangers noted that this was the third warm water season in a row and the birds struggled for food.  Experienced breeders may have had more success and resilience. No adult (breeding bird) deaths were recorded in these two colonies, which bodes well for the 2023 season when waters should be a little more traditional after the shift from La Niña to El Niño conditions occurs. Our Masters student, Luisa Salis-Soglio, has begun to look at the factors that may be contributing to poor breeding seasons, including water temperature and nutrients.  We will develop our understanding of the marine factors that could impact breeding success and provide updates on our website. In addition to our two fortnightly monitored colonies, there are several other colonies scattered up and down the Buller coastline that are visited by our ranger once or twice a breeding season. These colonies range in size from 1-2 breeding pairs up to around 20 breeding pairs. Although not as intensively monitored as our two key sites, our visits still provide us with valuable insight into population trends at these sites and add to a long-term data set to help improve understanding of blue penguin/ kororā on the West Coast. These colonies generally had similar numbers of breeding pairs to last season, although as was the case at the Nile and Rahui colonies, breeding success was likely lower than last year.

Site	Number of breeding burrows
Joyce Bay	8
Whitehorse	9
Bullock Creek	4
Punakaiki River	1

Read more about our annual kororā monitoring project here.

Tawaki wrapped up their breeding season for 2022 in late November, and it proved to be a good year.

Tawaki wrapped up their breeding season for 2022 in late November, and it proved to be a good year. The Trust aims to monitor nests for breeding success and to determine whether there is any predation by stoats. As was the case with kororā in the Buller region, tawaki breeding started 2-3 weeks later than normal this season. However, it seems that food was abundant for tawaki this year, with chicks rapidly gaining weight and adults observed going on short foraging trips, presumably returning with full bellies. Although the numbers of breeding pairs were lower this year compared with previous years, both the Jackson Head and Knights Point colonies recorded a high rate of breeding success, with only one monitored nest at Knights Point failing at an early stage. As with other crested penguins, tawaki lay two eggs and the norm will be to raise one chick, with two chicks surviving and fledging only in exceptional circumstances with readily available and abundant food sources close by.  Success is therefore measured against a standard of one chick fledged per nest or 100%. We'll add an update from Gorge River soon.

Site	Nests monitored	Chicks seen at nest	Breeding success
Knight’s Point	11	10	91%
Jackson Head	14	14	100%

  Trust Tawaki Ranger, André de Graaf, working at Jackson Head, reported: "Two of my chicks retreated into impenetrable rock caves but were heard on most monitoring visits so have been assumed to fledge successfully." "Overall a very successful Tawaki breeding season at Jackson Head with a confirmed 85% chick success rate and an unconfirmed by sight but 'opinioned' 100% single chick per breeding pair success rate this year!" With regard to the presence of stoats and threat to tawaki eggs and chicks, André noted: "a large increase in stoats anecdotally around Haast in November and December, including high numbers in the kiwi sanctuary, missed the start of the penguin breeding season." Trust Tawaki Ranger, Polly Hall, working near Knights Point north of Haast, reported no sign of stoats and no evidence of predation, noting that landscape scale predator control had been undertaken by DOC in that area in late August, just in time for the breeding season.

Penguins are aquatic birds native to the Southern Hemisphere. There are about 18 known species of penguins, the largest of which are the emperor penguins, the lead stars of the documentary, March of the Penguins. The smallest are our local birds right here on the West Coast.

Penguins are aquatic birds native to the Southern Hemisphere. There are about 18 known species of penguins, the largest of which are the emperor penguins, the lead stars of the documentary, March of the Penguins. The smallest are our local birds right here on the West Coast. January 20th each year is Penguin Awareness Day, and considering we share our beaches and forests with two different species of penguin, all up the West Coast, this day is very relevant to us Coasters. Did you know that we have the World's smallest penguin living on our beaches and in our forests on the West Coast? The little blue penguin, or Kororā, are found all around New Zealand coastlines and we have a good number of colonies, here on the West Coast. We cannot be certain of exact numbers, however, our mission, with the help of Mena the Penguin Dog, our Great Annual Blue Penguin Count each October, observations from the public and our regular monitoring, is to keep an eye on the numbers and their whereabouts, put things in place, such as nest boxes, signs, fencing and to raise awareness in the local communities, to help protect their future. The little penguin/blue penguin/kororā stand at approximately 30 cm high and weigh around 1 kg. Despite their size, they are a feisty bunch and do very well at braving the rough West Coast seas, extreme weather and natural predators, to protect their young each year. The threats that they struggle with here on the Coast are the unnatural threats - humans! (cars, dogs, cats, rats, stoats, roads, development). The next time you drive the West Coast road, or into Hokitika, have a look out for our penguin fences. These fences have stopped many penguin deaths and we hope to keep building more in the areas that are needed. We also have hundreds of nest boxes up and down the Coast, in areas where perhaps there has been erosion or less protection for the birds, to stay protected in breeding and moulting season (June - February). Blue penguins are labelled as "At risk-declining' on the conservation status, so we need to keep on doing what we can to protect the smallest penguins in the World. We also have Fiordland Crested Penguins, or Tawaki, on the south coastlines of the West Coast. These birds stand much taller than our blue penguins at 60cms and weigh 4 times as much at 4kg.  Most of the tawaki population reside further south in Fiordland round to Stewart Island and can nest along rocky and forest clad shorelines. These birds do not like to be disturbed by humans, so they tend to find areas that are inhospitable for humans. However they are still affected by us in certain areas, so we are always on the mission to protect these birds as best we can. Tawaki were classified as Threatened - Nationally vulnerable until recently and Threatened - Nationally Endangered until a few years ago, but with more penguins recorded, largely through Robin Long's survey work (see 2021 Notornis journal article here), they are now also classified as At Risk - Declining.  Classifications are reviewed every three years and can change depending on their changing environmental and very often, the efforts humans put into conservation on one hand or the damaging effects they are having on the other.

Did you know...

• the fastest penguins – the Gentoo – can swim at the speed of 22 miles or 35 kilometers an hour?
• a group of penguins in the water is called a raft but on land they're called a waddle!
• the black and white (or blue and white in the little penguin's case) “tuxedo” look donned by penguin species is called countershading - find out why here, and it's not camouflage!
• most birds have hollow, air-filled bones to help them stay light for flight? However penguins adapted with solid bones instead. This helps them swim and dive down!
• you can find them in Antarctica and Antarctic islands, the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Peru and Chile?
• the only penguin found north of the equator is the Galapagos penguin, found in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. (This means a penguin has never met a polar bear! Contrary to all the cartoons and films!)

Based on previous DNA and fossil evidence, the possible dates for the earliest ancestor of penguins were originally calculated to date back 40 million years ago. However, recent evidence has expanded those dates backwards and changed what we know about the presence of penguins. The oldest penguins might date back to 60 million years ago during the early Cenozoic or late Cretaceous periods. This is 20 million years older than previously thought — and when dinosaurs were wandering the Earth!   They are amazing  birds that have been around a very long time! Please help us protect them and keep them around for centuries to come, as they deserve! Want to help? Things you can do year round, but particularly between July and February:

• Keep your dogs under control at the local beaches. Do not let them run up into the sand dunes and bushes behind - this is nesting and moulting area for penguins.
• Pay attention on the coastal roads, particularly where there are penguin signs; they may be crossing at dusk and dawn.
• Look out for crossings when driving on the beach, particularly early in the morning and late at night.
• If you see a penguin, keep your distance. Do not approach it and if possible, hide and watch from afar. This way, you will not disturb the penguin, which could potentially lead it to abandon it's nest and chicks, but also you will enjoy a much longer and fulfilling viewing too.
• If you hear sounds or see tracks, do not follow them up into the bushes, as  this will clear the pathway for other predators. Just enjoy the tracks and the knowledge that you have found penguins!
• If you find a sick or injured penguin, please call the DOC hotline 0800 362 468. Please note, at this time, the birds will be moulting, so they will be looking rather scruffy and stressed. They are unable to go to sea for two weeks, therefore unable to eat or drink, making them weak and vulnerable. It is very important at this time that we leave them alone to complete this natural annual process.
• If you find a dead penguin please report it on our database so we know where the dead birds are found - the bigger picture of when and where penguins have died can be invaluable in protecting them.  www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz/contact/

 

Almost a year after she died and close to what would have been her 74th birthday, a memorial event has been arranged for Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM in Charleston on Saturday 4th March 2023.

Almost a year after she died and close to what would have been her 74th birthday, a memorial event will be held for Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM in Charleston on Saturday 4th March 2023. The venue will be the Charleston Goldfields Hall, 7348 Camp Street/Coast Road aka State Highway 6 and the party will start at 2pm. Yes, party.  To celebrate Kerry-Jayne and her life. "Kerry-Jayne wanted no fuss, she said, no speeches, ... Just have a party, she said. Well, there will likely be speeches (for once without fear of Kerry-Jayne’s right of reply :o). Otherwise it will be an informal event with time for socialising over light food and fluids afterwards."  Dr Euan Kennedy, a great friend of Kerry-Jayne's, added that he's planning a later event at or near Christchurch for former colleagues, academics and research associates. Euan and Bruce McKinlay, President of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand, wrote a wonderful obituary, which was published in the journal of the OSNZ last month and they have kindly allowed us to share it here. Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM - Notornis - Obituary_69_274-278.v3 For all those who knew, loved, respected and valued Kerry-Jayne, there are three things you could do.

1. Share any photos of Kerry-Jayne with the West Coast Penguin Trust (via email here or via WeTransfer to info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz) so that they may be shared during the afternoon, and
2. You may like to make a donation to the Trust in her memory.  A very generous sponsor has offered to match any such donations up to $5,000.  Our huge thanks to supporters who have already donated over $1,500 in memory of Kerry-Jayne after she died: our sponsor has kindly already matched that amount.
3. Please share this with people you know who knew Kerry-Jayne and may have missed this.

Thank you, and we hope that we might see you in Charleston on 4th March to share and enjoy memories and to celebrate the extraordinary and irreplaceable Kerry-Jayne. Kerry-Jayne was a founding Trustee, our first Chair and in fact Chair for most of the Trust's 16 year history. She was our scientist and guide, our leader.  And of course she was so much more, first and foremost a leading seabird ecologist, but also caver, dancer, lecturer and teacher, reader and author, entrepreneur and travel guide, mentor, neighbour, friend - the list goes on. She is hugely missed and we will do our best to give her the send off she deserves.   Update June 2023 Match funding success! Thank you to all those who made donations in memory of Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM.  We invited you to donate after she died in March 2022 and again around the time of her memorial in March this year.  Together, donations came to a very generous $4,606.01. And then our wonderful match funder stepped in and doubled that for twice the impact, so $9212.02 donated to the trust in memory and honour of Kerry-Jayne. Thank you all, we're immensely grateful.  

Education for Sustainability students at Grey High School chose fast fashion as their issue to research and address. They addressed it in a very creative way, upcycling old material destined for landfill to make new tote bags. They also wanted to raise money for a good cause and they chose the West Coast Penguin Trust.

Education for Sustainability students at Grey High School chose fast fashion as their issue to research and address. They addressed it in a very creative way, upcycling old material destined for landfill to make new tote bags. They also wanted to raise money for a good cause and they chose the West Coast Penguin Trust. Haamiahly Priestly-Hall and Fearne Richards developed the project supported by Caitlin Shields, who brought the idea of protecting penguins to the project.  Together they cut up fabric, learned how to use sewing machines, dyed some of the fabric, made bags, used fabric paints to hand paint permanent penguin designs and then sold them at the first youth spring market in Greymouth. They were the only students selling for the benefit of a charity with 100% of the income destined for the penguin trust – and they were the first stall to sell out!

They didn’t stop there though, making many more bags and selling them at school, raising a final magnificent amount of $432, from bags priced at $5 and $10 and some generous donations thrown in too. The West Coast Penguin Trust is acutely aware of the problems caused by our throwaway society, including the increasing risk of fatal plastic ingestion or tangling by seabirds and marine mammals.   Manager, Inger Perkins, said “Not only is the donation a superb effort and a wonderful contribution to the work of the trust, but the efforts by these students to do something about waste, focussing on fabric and fast fashion, and raising awareness of penguins at our coast at the same time, is outstanding.” With the support of Education for Sustainability teacher Lara Thompson, as well as drama teacher Susanne Smith and others in the GHS team along the way, Haamiahly, Fearne and Caitlin have researched the issue, considered and rated possible courses of action, chosen and implemented the tote bag option, chosen a very worthy cause and used the project to raise awareness about the smallest penguins that live along our coastline, diverted waste from landfill AND delivered a fabulous donation to the West Coast Penguin Trust.

As Caitlin brought the passion for penguins to the group, having become aware of them and their plight as a young girl, Miss Thompson asked her to have a think about the best way to spend the donation.  It was agreed that the donation could go towards extending the penguin protection fence north of Punakaiki.  Ms Perkins explained: “There are a few gaps in the fence that need to be filled before the 2023 season, so this donation will go to keeping penguins safely off the Coast Road.” “These students can be very proud of the work they have done – from start to finish it has been an excellent collaborative project based on valuable principles.  A huge thank you from the Trust to the team from Grey High School and Papa Taiao Earthcare”. The Trust wishes Haamiahly and Fearne well in their future endeavours, having just left school, and wishes Caitlin another excellent year in her final year at school, including more Education for Sustainability at Greymouth High School and training from Papa Taiao Earthcare, led by Miss Thompson.  Caitlin will be increasing her skills in growing native plants, starting from seed collection, as well as learning bee-keeping through a Papa Taiao Conservation and Earthcare course at the West Coast Trades Academy.  

French actors-cum-reporters, Laetitia Hipp and Emmanuel Suarez, are travelling the world looking for marine conservation stories to share via the podcasts on the French public media service. While staying right at the beach in Waihaha bach near Fox River, they found information about the West Coast Penguin Trust and got in touch.

French actors-cum-reporters, Laetitia Hipp and Emmanuel Suarez, are travelling the world for three months looking for marine conservation stories to share via podcasts on the French public media service. While staying right at the beach in Waihaha bach near Fox River, they found information about the West Coast Penguin Trust and got in touch. Laetitia and Emmanuel interviewed Trust Manager, Inger Perkins, about the origins of the Trust, local blue penguins, penguin research and conservation as well as everything else that the Trust does including education and advocacy.

The lovely bach, owned by a generous Supporter of the trust, is right above the beach and, with waves crashing noisily just metres away, the interview took place indoors.  At the end of the interview, there was an opportunity to promote the trust to any future French listener - there may be some wonderful French folk who would love to support the work of the trust if they only knew about it! The three then went down to the beach where footprints in the sand prompted discussion about being a penguin detective - a handy tool used by Education Ranger, Lucy Waller, with children on beach visits.  You can find out more about identifying footprints in this useful guide from NZ Tracker. If you're wondering, the French for penguin is manchot (m) or manchote (f) . And if you're wondering about the acting element, Laetitia and Emmanuel present environmental education shows in France, often using puppets.  Their company name is 'et demain la terre' - which translates as 'and tomorrow the earth'.  It was a great pleasure to meet this couple and their three children on their three month trip.  The podcast will be created when they are back in France and will be published mid 2023.  As we often hear on RNZ interviews using another language, the English interview will start and then a translator will present the conversation in French.