Great teamwork for kororā

Kaumoana and Tāwhai are two precious new additions to the Zoo’s kororā (little penguin) colony at our Takutai (Coast) habitat thanks to a great collaboration with our conservation colleagues at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier.

Last October, our Bird Team Leader Chris Steele travelled to Napier to collect a kororā egg from the National Aquarium. With great care, Chris transported it to the Zoo in a special climate-controlled incubator, where it hatched three days later.

Additionally, an abandoned three-week-old kororā chick was rescued by the National Aquarium after being found on a Napier beach (that wouldn’t have survived if returned to the wild) and was transferred to us here at the Zoo for hand rearing.

Now fully integrated with the Zoo’s kororā colony – as our video about them shows - it’s been an intensive few months for our skilled and incredibly dedicated bird keepers. Caring for and rearing these two female chicks initially required two-hourly feeds over a 12-hour period!

“As zookeepers, we’re essentially doing the job of their parents, who in the wild go out to sea and fish, then regurgitate the fish to their chicks. We feed them an enriched slurry feed and small (whole) fish warmed up. To encourage them to feed well, we also used a toy kororā (with sound) to stimulate their natural behaviour of begging for their food,” explains Chris.

Chris says having the two chicks so close in age further supported the expression of their natural behaviours, as it created a healthy positive competition for food between them - also the reality for them in the wild.

As the chicks grew and became more active, they graduated from temperature-controlled brooders to a small aviary with a pool. At around two months old, with their down feathers replaced by their essential waterproof feathers, they could spend short periods at our Takutai (Coast) aviary and begin introductions with the rest of the colony ahead of eventually staying for good!

Thanks to mana whenua - Te Kaha Hawaikirangi, who have played an important role in the establishment and monitoring of the Napier Port kororā sanctuary, these kororā have been gifted beautiful names. Kaumoana (meaning ‘an offspring of a captain’) is the chick that hatched at the Zoo and was the offspring of a male penguin named Captain, and Tāwhai (meaning a penguin that roams around) is the chick found rescued from a Napier beach.

“It’s great to be collaborating with the National Aquarium of New Zealand as we work within ZAA (Zoo Aquarium Association) accredited facilities throughout Aotearoa towards creating a self-sustaining kororā colony at Auckland Zoo. Our hope is that in the future we may see Kaumoana and Tāwhai go on to successfully breed and raise chicks of their own,” says the Zoo’s Bird Curator, Dr Juan Cornejo.

The success with Kaumoana and Tāwhai follows the first successful breeding of kororā/ Eudyptula minor (the world’s smallest penguin) at Auckland Zoo last year.

“For Auckland Zoo, having a self-sustaining population is part of our much larger goal – to advocate for and enable our visitors to connect with and learn about kororā. They’re such an amazing species that unfortunately are facing increasing threats out in the wild - mostly as a result of human activities.”

“However, there are a lot of small everyday things we can all do to help, like always keeping our dogs (a key threat to these fragile taonga) on a leash in coastal areas including the beach and taking great care when enjoying activities like fishing and boating out on the water. Many of the penguins we have at the Zoo have come to us from the wild with flipper injuries, requiring amputation.”

National Aquarium of New Zealand General Curator Joe Woolcott says the partnership with the Zoo has resulted in a great outcome for these two kororā.

“It’s presented an invaluable opportunity to practice highly specialist skills, and ultimately raise awareness of the plight of this charismatic native species that we all want to see thrive.”