Conservationists join forces to care for precious penguins

How do you care for 100+ chicks at one time? Lots of expert hands!

We’re pleased to have been able to assist our friends at the Wildlife Hospital in Dunedin for the third year in a row, in hand-rearing and treating vulnerable hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) chicks.

This endemic and rare species is severely impacted by two serious and deadly diseases in the wild - Diphtheritic stomatitis (DS) and Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), but early intervention has a huge impact on chick survival.  

This year we sent five of our Zoo kaimahi over staggered weeks – bird keepers Suzie Keith and Adam May, vet nurses Celine Campana and Jess Erb, and veterinarian Adam Naylor.

When vet nurse Celine arrived the hospital was caring for around 30 chicks – which soon ramped up to 100. It takes many months of planning to be able to achieve such a massive undertaking, with the Wildlife Hospital team calling on additional help from expert staff with bird-handling and caring skills from organisations around the motu.

Newly hatched chicks and/or eggs are collected by Department of Conservation (DOC) rangers and the Wildlife Trusts from Rakiura/Stewart Island, The Catlins, Otago Peninsula and North Otago and brought to the Wildlife Hospital for care and treatment. Prior to these interventions roughly 30% of hoiho naturally survived to fledging, while the chicks that come through the Wildlife Hospital have an over 90% survival rate!

Each morning, every chick is individually weighed and their daily feed requirement is calculated. Chicks are fed a nutritional fish slurry that is roughly 10% of their body weight at every feed. Once they are a few days old they then moved to larger creche tubs, before they’re ready to return to wild nests as robust 10-day olds to be cared for by their parents. This mahi gets them through the ‘danger period’ and ensures the chicks are more able to fight off illnesses.

“We had a lot more chicks this time around - last year the highest number in hospital at one time was 72! This year, more eggs hatched at the hospital as well, as some eggs were brought in by DOC from nests on Rakiura / Stewart Island.

This is my second year in a row helping at the Wildlife Hospital and I loved all of it – except sieving litres of fish slurry! The work they are undertaking is long, stressful and sometimes heartbreaking, but totally essential – we know that about 80% of new hatched chicks would die in the nest without this work,” explains Celine.

Celine was also able to see a juvenile hoiho that she helped to hand-rear at the hospital in 2023. Last time she’d seen him he was a ‘little grey fluffball’ and this time he looked more like a proper grown-up penguin. He was brought into the hospital for an extended stay due to an aspergillosis infection, but she was able to see him head to rehab in preparation for going back to the wild.

The northern sub-population of hoiho is endangered so every healthy chick that reaches adulthood helps the long-term survival of the species. This work is so vital and we congratulate the Wildlife Hospital for their incredible mahi – as well as all of the experts and volunteers that helped along the way.