Penguin Place

Click here for a short Meet the Natives video clip about Penguin Place.

This Otago Peninsula nature reserve is part of a working sheep farm.  Tourists go there to see penguins at close range from observation hides and covered trenches.

When the visitors arrive at Penguin Place they are given a ten-minute talk to explain the project,the annual penguin lifecycle and what to expect to see at that time of the year. Then, they are taken by bus over the farm to the conservation reserve. From here they are guided on foot and will usually see blue penguins in their very smelly nesting boxes (currently many of which are occupied by an adult and a chick), seals, sea lions, forest and wading birds, and of course, yellow-eyed penguins.

The reserve

The reserve part of the farm is rapidly turning back to native bush. The trees are planted in winter when the penguins spend most time at sea and there are fewer visitors.

Nesting box photo courtesy of Glen Riley, Penguin Place.

Nesting boxes are also provided for the yellow-eyed penguins - although some prefer to make their own nests in the bush. Kanuka branches are put around the boxes to provide shade and privacy.  The additional shade is often necessary as nest sites are built in early spring when the sun is still lower in the sky. Come summer, the sun can be directly overhead and extra shade is needed.

Chicks cannot regulate their own body temperatures and can expire in full sun.

Green shade cloth is also used for shade and as a physical barrier between the visitors and the penguins if the penguins have chosen to nest too close to the walking paths.

The penguins don't appear to be able to see through the green shade cloth the same way humans can. It is important to protect the penguins from seeing people's movements. For example if a breeding adult is startled, there is a risk they can accidentally step on their chick, crushing it.

Penguin "Clive" on his favourite spot, on the shade cloth. Photos courtesy of Glen Riley, Penguin Place.

The trenches are for the people to make their way through the reserve without disrupting the penguins.  There are bridges over the top of the trenches so the penguins can walk across them to get to their nests.

There are several viewing hides on the reserve.  These have small openings in the side to see out. The whole idea of a "hide" is for visitors to hide from the wildlife. The penguins can therefore only see a small part of a person through the 20cm opening.

Picture showing inquisitive penguin feeling superior in size to a stunned onlooker. Photo courtesy of Glen Riley, Penguin Place.

Pests in the reserve include rabbits. Visitors have been known to ask staff how a rabbit could possibly harm a penguin? They are a pest because they destroy the young trees being established for the habitat and young yellow-eyed penguin chicks have on occasion fallen down rabbit burrows without being able to get out - and have had to be rescued by Penguin Place staff.

The hospital

This year there have been 94 penguins treated in the hospital with only a few deaths. There is an enclosure containing a pool.

Common injuries are barracuda wounds usually to the feet. Starvation has been a severe problem in both chicks and pre-moult adults this past
season. The rehabilitation enclosure contains a pool, and nest boxes for shade and privacy.

The yellow-eyed penguin patients are hand fed three silverside fish in the morning and another three in the afternoon. Yellow-eyed Penguins are not "tame" and the fish needs to be force fed. The healthy penguins in the wild
who are walking as far as a kilometre from their nests to the sea, swimming
and diving for X kilometres, holding food for regurgitating to their chicks before returning to their nests, are going to require a whole lot more food.

All fish is swallowed whole, head first.

The yellow-eyed penguin and the dog

Penguins give off a musky sent that is irresistible to dogs.

A tagged penguin from Warrington on the Otago Peninsula spent 14 months in
the Penguin Place hospital.

It had come in with a bitten/infected foot - possibly inflicted by a barracuda - that required stitches and antibiotics

When it came time to moult the new feathers did not grow properly. The new feathers were very brittle and the coat was full of holes. With the feathers providing water proofing, this was equivalent to having holes in a dive suit. Therefore when the penguin was released it could only spend brief moments in the water before coming straight back to land. As it was not feeding, it would have soon starved.

The staff were not sure of the cause of the poor new feathers. Suspicions
included stress, the diet of frozen fish (time eventually proved it wasn't the frozen fish diet). So, the penguin was kept in hospital for another year until the next moult.

After the following moult the new feathers were excellent, and the penguin
was in perfect condition so it was released back to the wild.

Shortly afterwards it was found dead at Warrington after being mauled by a dog.

Cat traps

Cats are captured live.  "Trip-traps" are placed in the reserve and are checked each day - on the off chance something other than a predator is trapped! Cats
caught are then shot. Over the 08/09 summer 32 cats were shot. The cats mainly appear around Xmas time. It is presumed people who go on holiday take unwanted litters of kittens to the countryside and dump them.

The penguins

Having no natural land predators, penguins feel safer on land. However, they are strongly wired for ocean predators and feel in danger when returning home from sea. Human activity on beaches is extremely disturbing, as penguins are looking out for sea lions who also spend time on the beach.

Penguin Place staff have seen three sea lion attacks this year, and have found several penguin skins have washed up on the beach.

Each resident penguin is banded with a DOC-issued metal ring on the right flipper.