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News from Taiaroa Head/Pukekura

Department of Conservation — 25/03/2014

By Lyndon Perriman, Head Ranger at Taiaroa Head/Pukekura

Perfect weather for young albatross chicks

Summer in Dunedin didn’t seem to stay around for long this year, but I wasn’t complaining. Unlike most years, where fly strike leads to the loss of young albatross chicks, we had such mild weather over the hatching period that no fly strike occurred.

Last season we had 26 chicks fledge. We are hopeful that the 24 chicks on the headland this season will all fledge, making a nice round 50 fledglings in two years.

Seven years abroad: Pukekura’s 500th royal albatross returns

After seven years abroad, the 500th royal albatross chick to have hatched at Taiaroa Head/Pukekura, has finally returned home.

Toroa, the 500th royal albatross chick to have hatched at Pukekura

Toroa, and two other chicks, had transmitters attached to their back feathers when they fledged in 2007.

All three survived their long journey at sea for the first year, after which the transmitters stopped sending back signals. It has been a long wait to see if any of these birds would return.

Map of albatross flight path from New Zealand to Chile.

Toroa, the grandson of ‘Grandma’—the colony’s oldest bird (over 60 years old when last seen in 1989)—arrived home to find his own parents breeding again.

The image below shows Toroa with a two-month old sibling. This chick is on its nest close to where Toroa himself was raised.

Toroa sitting in the background with his two-month-old sibling in the foreground

Toroa has been hanging around this same area not because of any bond with his sibling or his parent (there is no interaction between parents and returned chicks), but because he, like most males, will nest fairly close to the site where he was raised as a chick. Nest sites tend to be closer to the male hatch site than to the females hatch site.

Scurvy explosion

Cook’s scurvy grass (Lepidium oleraceum) has had a population explosion here at Taiaroa Head/Pukekura.

Cook’s scurvy grass has had a population explosion

Just three plants of this threatened species (once abundant and used by Captain Cook to help reduce the effects of scurvy) were on Pukekura last year.

Now, nestled in among the 2000 pairs of red-billed gulls (that produced plenty of quality fertilizer), this species numbers over 40 large healthy plants.

The ice plant in the background of the image above is South African, and was probably introduced onto the headland to help hide the stone and concrete gun emplacements used during the Russian Scare of the late 1880’s.

Interestingly, the ice plant can not tolerate the excreta from gulls and dies back, whereas gull excreta doesn’t affect the native ice plant found in the same area.

Planting for penguins

The Pukekura Trust little penguin colony at Pilots Beach has recently benefited from Air New Zealand Environmental Trust funding.

This allowed several hundred new natives to be planted—mostly by school children—throughout the reserve.

Small native plants nestled in the grass on a hillside. Sea in the background.

New natives have been planted throughout the reserve

You can see part of the little penguin viewing platform in the image above. Here, at dusk, as many as 300 little penguins waddle in from the sea.

In Native animals, Native plants, Otago Albatross, Cook’s scurvy grass, little penguins, penguins, pukekura, royal albatross, Taiaroa Head

Feed the penguins: Generous partnerships provide for hungry chicks

Department of Conservation — 11/03/2014

Sometimes our native species have it tough out there in the wild. This year large numbers of yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho chicks – natives of coastal Otago – have had a particularly challenging first few months of life.

Yellow-eyed penguin chicks have thick fluffy feathers that they shed between three and four months old – which is about the age of this chick

Two of the 80 underweight chicks currently in the care of Penguin Place.

Two of the underweight chicks at Penguin Place

Every year in November/December yellow-eyed penguin chicks begin to hatch around the wild beaches of the Catlins, Otago Peninsula and North Otago.

There are often a few that are abandoned by their parents or aren’t well fed, and need to be removed from their nests. But this year a late breeding season and lack of fish to eat has meant a large number of chicks have gone hungry and many have died.

Fortunately, around 80 of these chicks and juveniles are now in the care of Penguin Place.

Penguin Place is a privately run conservation effort and tourism operation, funded through the guided tours they conduct. This project began in the mid 80’s as a family-run conservation project and nature tourism experience. They now carry out a range of conservation work including a research programme, trapping predators, providing safe nest boxes, restoring a stretch of coastline to prime penguin habitat, and rehabilitating sick and injured penguins in its penguin hospital.

Penguin Place’s Lisa King (at rear) and DOC’s Andrea Crawford, look on as the chicks are rounded up for their dinner

Throughout the breeding season, a small team of DOC rangers and volunteers monitor the penguin nesting grounds, conducting health checks of the chicks to make sure they are well fed and gaining weight.

Aviva Stein (Zoologist), Leith Thomson (Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust Ranger), Eiren Sweetman (DOC volunteer) and Guy Brannigan (DOC Trainee Ranger), weighing yellow-eyed penguin chicks in the Catlins

Those that are showing signs of starvation or other ailments are removed from the nest where needed and taken to safe havens like Penguin Place till they fatten up and are ready for release.

DOC Trainee Ranger Guy Brannigan with four underweight yellow-eyed penguin chicks in the Catlins, on their way to Penguin Place. These chicks lost up to 1kg and would have died before fledging if left in the wild.

DOC Trainee Ranger Guy Brannigan with four underweight yellow-eyed penguin chicks, on their way to Penguin Place. These chicks lost up to 1 kg and would have died before fledging if left in the wild

Penguin Place guide Tama Taiti hand feeding one of the juvenile penguins

Feeding 80 hungry beaks is a big job. It takes two keepers three hours twice a day to hand feed all of the penguin hospital’s current patients – and they’re consuming up to 80 kilos of fish per day! Plus, because they’re still growing, these young patients need fish that’s full of protein and other vitamins, preferably small whole fish with blood, guts and bones.

Thankfully some generous partners have come to the aid of Penguin Place this year. Talleys Nelson contributed an emergency supply of one tonne of pilchard; and seafood company Sanford Limited has just agreed to provide an ongoing donation of up to six tonnes per year.

DOC doesn’t run its own facilitates for providing the specialist care that’s needed to rehabilitate sick or injured wildlife. We work in partnership with a number of specialist organisations like Penguin Place, who have permits from DOC to care for native species. These organisations play a really important role in conservation. So next time you’re in Dunedin pop by, join a tour or make a donation, and show your support.

Fresh from a swim in the Penguin Place pool

In Marine, Native animals, Otago hoiho, partnerships, Penguin Place, penguins, Yellow eyed penguin

Cycling Central Otago gems

Department of Conservation — 27/02/2014

February is Bike Wise month and to celebrate Fiordland Biodiversity Ranger Chrissy Wickes tells us about her recent trip biking the Roxburgh Gorge and Clutha Gold Trail.

Chrissy Wickes

Having biked the Central Otago cycleway with my partner and son we were looking for another great cycle route in the Central Otago area.

We found a real gem, the Roxburgh Gorge and the Clutha Gold Trail and we headed off in January on a three day journey.

As we were doing it as a family we took our time doing 20-25 kilometres a day, and taking all day to do it! Why not!

Clutha river and cycle track between Roxburgh and Alexandra.

Schist country between Roxburgh and Alexandra

Starting at Alexandra we headed off on a fabulous purpose built bike trail. There is something so special about being able to bike free of traffic in an amazing gorge in the remote heartland of Central Otago schist country.

Following the Clutha/Mata-Au River

After the first 10 kilometres we met up with a jet boat (pre-arranged) that took us about 12 kilometres through the gorge to meet up with the trail again. This was a great luxury and currently the only way to do the trail without doubling back.

Chrissy's son Shannon in front of the jet boat.

Catching the jet boat

There was lots of history to learn about along the way, with old miners cottages made from the local stone. We stayed just out of Roxburgh the first night and headed off to Millers Flat the second day.

Millers flat is a charming settlement on the south side of the river — friendly and peaceful with plenty of history.

The third day got us back to Roxburgh, where the obliging owner of our first night’s accommodation had organised for our car to be relocated to. The people we met were amazingly friendly.

Clutha Gold Trail between Millers Flat and Roxburgh

The gorge was our highlight. It was beautiful following the cool blue Clutha/Mata-au River all the way amongst the dry brown rocky landscape. I would choose your weather wisely it can be excessively hot in summer and extremely cold out of summer. It is also remote so you need to be prepared.

In Otago, Recreation Alexandra, Bike, Clutha River, Cycling, Mata-au, Millers Flat, Mountain Biking, Otago, Roxburgh

Voluntourists help out in Oteake

Department of Conservation — 11/04/2013

Volunteers experienced hands on conservation work in vast golden tussock, under big open skies, when they removed fences in Otago’s Oteake Conservation Park recently.

Over three kilometres of fencing was taken out over a week, saving DOC $8000. The project was part of one of DOC’s volunteer conservation projects that run throughout the year.

Volunteers Francisca of Chile and Pierre of France

After a day of removing fences, the volunteers and DOC staff headed back to the nearby Tailings Hut, which was restored by volunteers last year. Evenings were spent preparing food, eating and socialising. Food—and the social experience around it—made up a significant part of the volunteer experience.

The volunteers all had different motivations; some wanted to experience the Oteake landscape that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access (due to lack of confidence in backcountry driving, or not having a four wheel drive). Others wanted a new experience, and some were ‘voluntourists’—a term used to describe a new form of travel where tourists travel while assisting the community.

Volunteers Monica winding wire and Francisca feeding

The volunteers spent the week removing staples and lightening rods (long pieces of metal between the posts), and manually hand-winding wire into coils for recycling. Removal of the lightening rods was the least-favoured task, with people jostling positions to avoid removing the frustratingly stubborn wire.

Safety is always a concern with volunteer projects, where people undertake an unfamiliar task in an unfamiliar environment. It was an interesting challenge to ensure participants wore the geeky looking glasses and handled the unpredictable wire.

Volunteers Francisca, Paul and Monica setting up

DOC’s working holidays

DOC runs volunteer working holidays all over the country to allow New Zealanders and overseas visitors to participate in conservation projects. The 2014 programme will be released in June/July. See www.doc.govt.nz or visit your local DOC office for more information.

In Otago, Volunteers Conservation Park, Oteake, volunteers, Voluntourists, Working holidays

Tagging yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula

Dave Houston — 20/02/2013

Dave supports biodiversity programmes anywhere between Auckland and the Auckland Islands, but specialises in the Chatham Islands and penguins.

Using a band or ring has been vital to the monitoring and conservation of birds for more than 100 years. Yellow-eyed penguins were first fitted with leg bands as part of a landmark population study by schoolteacher-biologist Lance Richdale in the 1930’s.

A flipper-band on a yellow-eyed penguin

Unfortunately, leg bands proved to be difficult to read and also caused some injuries so, by the late 1950’s, flipper bands became the standard for marking penguins.

The current banding programme for yellow-eyed’s started in the 1970’s and has enabled the monitoring of penguin survival (to a ripe old age of 24 years) and allowed researchers to know the age and history of the individuals at the focus of their research.

Flipper bands are not without problems. They decrease the underwater efficiency of the bird and, particularly if poorly fitted or maintained, can cause feather wear and injury. Alternatives to bands have been explored and one under investigation at the moment is the use RFID tags of the same type used in dogs and cats. While safe and long-lasting, they do have the downside of requiring electronic readers to find out if a bird is marked and who it is.

Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust staff inserting a RFID tag into a penguin chick

Whichever method used, it is important to ensure that those applying the tag are doing so correctly in order to minimise the risk to the bird and maximise what we learn as a result. Penguin chicks get tagged just before they go to sea and I recently took the opportunity to join DOC staff, Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and Massey University Veterinary students and oversee the tagging of this season’s batch of chicks on the Otago Peninsula.

Ranger Mel Young showing Wane Begg and Jim Fyfe the best way of measuring head length

Assisted by volunteers willing to crawl through flax, gorse and nettle, we visited several sites, going to nests found earlier in the season, before locating and capturing the chicks. Bags are used to restrain the birds while they get weighed, measured and tagged before being released back at their nest site. The weight tells us how good the food supply is (5-6 kg is the normal range) and measuring the head and feet of the chicks gives us an indication of the sex – the males are slightly larger.

Volunteer Monika Fry with penguin chick ready for weighing

Also along for a day was Jeff Corwin of “Animal Planet” fame, filming for the third series of “Ocean Mysteries”. Jeff, trailed by his camera crew, enthusastically crawled through the shrubbery, helping capture and measure chicks. Later in the day he assisted researcher Dr Thomas Mattern with the retrieval and deployment of GPS/dive loggers attached to the parents of some of the chicks we tagged as part of a long-term project looking at where the birds feed.

Ranger Mel Young talking penguins with Jeff Corwin

The opportunity to assist with this work, and spend a few days on the beautiful Otago Peninsula in no less than spectacular weather, was very much worth the being stung by nettle, scratched by gorse, bitten, beaten and pooped on by penguins.

Dr Thomas Mattern and Jeff Corwin waiting for a GPS-fitted penguin to return

Postscript

Since my visit some 57 adult yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula have died suddenly, possibly due to a marine biotoxin. Birds found dead on the beach have been identified by their tag, enabling rangers to locate the nest and keep a close eye on their almost-fledged chicks. Understanding how the penguins encountered the bio-toxin will be helped by the GPS and dive logger data.

Yellow-eyed penguin foraging tracks. Credit: Dr Thomas Mattern

In Native animals, Otago Bird Banding, Otago Peninsula, Yellow eyed penguin

Archives For 30/11/1999

News from Taiaroa Head/Pukekura

Perfect weather for young albatross chicks