WHO IS HELPING HOIHO, THE YELLOW- EYED PENGUIN?

Forest and Bird, Volume 19, Issue 2, 1 May 1988, Page 16

WHO IS HELPING HOIHO, THE YELLOW-

EYED PENGUIN?

by

Fergus Sutherland

Forest and Bird Southland branch chairman

"Penguins just a mile from here?" The American's laconic attitude suddenly changed; this was something different! . . .

was speaking to him amidst the bleak desolation of a native forest clearing operation in eastern Southland. He was selling a log hauler to the chipmill company, | was Selling conservation. He was having more success. The idea of penguins living in a forest was completely new to him however, and I gathered that he had always thought of them as cute creatures standing on ice floes or adorning Christmas cards. We both learned some things from our brief talk: he about our unique yellow-eyed penguins and me about the potential interest in the bird by people from the penguinless northern hemisphere. However, our talk did little to help the penguins and the forest destruction went on, fueled by the chipmill’s demands and farmers’ need for more land.

Bush-felling binge

That was some years ago, at a time when government incentives for farm development were encouraging a bush-felling binge of historic proportions. Today the chipmill still demands the forest, but in eastern Southland at least, there are fewer owners willing to provide it. Even the local people have become alarmed by the rate of forest loss. As well as this, after years of neglect,

something is at last being done about the yellow-eyed penguin. Concerned people in the south are working and gearing up for a massive effort to save this rarest penguin in the world, and certainly one of the most unusual. What makes it so extraordinary? The yel-low-eyed penguin, or ‘‘hoiho" (Maori meaning ‘‘noise-shouter’’), is found only in New Zealand waters and is not closely related to the world’s 15 other penguin species. One of its most obvious peculiarities is that instead of congregating in closely packed breeding colonies like other penguins, it prefers to seek out solitary nesting places in coastal forest and scrub, sometimes more than one kilometre from the coast. So compelling is this drive for solitude, a pair of hoiho will usually fail to breed successfully if they are within sight of another pair’s nest. Hoiho is the biggest of New Zealand's five native penguin species. It grows to about 60 centimetres long, is grey with a typical pure white underside and has a handsome band of yellow feathers behind its yellow eyes. Its attractive colouration and size is well described by its scientific name: Megadyptes antipodes, meaning ‘‘big diver from the Antipodes’’. Its present population is estimated to be about 5000. It breeds along the south-east coast of the South Island from Moeraki to Bluff, as well as on Stewart Island and the sub-Antarctic Auckland and Campbell islands. Unlike other penguins it is sedentary, living near its breeding grounds all year. Only the fledged juveniles travel north up to 500 kilometres to winter feeding grounds.

Greatest threat

The greatest threat to the survival of hoiho is On the mainland where nesting sites in

forest and coastal scrub have been cleared for farms. Besides removing the birds’ hiding places, the clearance has encouraged predators. Rats, wild cats, stoats, ferrets and dogs all pose a hazard. The chicks are at most risk, although stoats, dogs, and unfortunately even humans have killed adult birds, most commonly during their vulnerable three-week moulting period in autumn. Even on offshore islands hoiho is not secure from introduced carnivores. On Stewart Island, cats are a menace, while rats, cats and pigs are present on the main Auckland Island and rats and cats roam Campbell Island. Some individual efforts have been made to help hoiho. These range from the Jones's penguin "‘hospital’’ at Moeraki in North Otago, to the Southland Forest and Bird Society’s Te Rere penguin reserve project. It has become apparent however that greater co-ordination is needed. In response to this need, the Department of Conservation has produced a draft species recovery plan. Also, a Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust has been set up by concerned individuals, its aim being to co-ordinate efforts to reverse the decline in numbers of the bird. One person who can take a major portion of the credit for the recent highlighting of hoiho’s plight is John Darby. John, an ornithologist who works for the Otago Museum in Dunedin, has led research into the birds’ numbers and habits, taking up where pioneer researcher, Lance Richdale, left off more than 40 years ago. John’s enthusiasm has encouraged others and he has co-ordinated a much needed census of the mainland population. We now have a good knowledge of the distribution of the 41 breeding areas on the coast, and we also have clear knowledge of the crisis the bird faces with a low and rapidly declin-

ing population. John has shown that there are fewer than 700 birds left on the mainland and that losses have continued since the first full count in 1984. The 1986-7 summer breeding season was a disaster for hoiho. Suffering from what appeared to be lack of food, some breeding areas failed to fledge any new offspring, while others produced very few young and a large number

of adults also died. Breeding adults have declined by 65 percent over the last two years.

Food supplies

With hoiho's problem of survival highlighted, other researchers are entering the field. Yolanda van Heezik, a PhD zoology student at Otago University, is working on the vital question of food supplies. Her results so far show that although a wide variety of small fish are eaten by hoiho, the main ones are red cod, opal fish, sprat, ahura and squid. She also found that if there is insufficient food to build up the young to over five kilograms by their fledgling state, they are unlikely to survive. Her research indicated that owing to the small size and low fishing priority of fish eaten by hoiho there is no direct competition with commercial fishing, but the complexity of

the oceanic food chain means that indirect links may exist. The lack of food in the 1986-7 season seems to be linked to changes in the normal distribution of fish as a result of the El Nino effect on oceanic currents and temperatures. Other research underway by John Darby, Otago University student Philip Seddon and by the Department of Conservation scientists aims to find out more about how hoiho uses its loud voice, the effects of temperature on breeding success, and possible gene flow between the mainland and offshore island hoiho populations. With the recent significant decline in the numbers of birds breeding on the mainland there is some urgency to establish whether recruitment occurs to the mainland from sub-antarctic populations. A Department of Conservation expedition (with John Darby on board the HMNZS Wellington) recently

visited Auckland and Campbell Islands as part of a blogd sampling programme. Samples will be analysed using electro phoresis by Dr Sue Triggs of DOC and mitochondrial DNA analysis will be carried out by Dr Allan Baker of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. The findings will not only establish clearly whether gene flow occurs between island populations, but also its frequency and whether it is bi-directional. Peter Moore, a Department of Conservation Scientist, is spending a full year on Campbell Island studying the breeding biology of the yellow-eyed penguin in the most southern part of its breeding range. This and other research is necessary if hoiho’s needs are to be fully understood. However the continued loss of breeding habitat is obviously plunging the mainland populations towards extinction, and therefore beyond research. Protecting and replanting coastal scrub and forest nesting sites is an obvious priority. Up until a few years ago, farmers who watched the penguins struggle up from the seas through grazing stock to nest in a few rock overhangs, believed the birds could co-exist with the farmed animals. Census work has proved this belief to be mistaken; numbers of birds nesting in ‘‘open’’ ground have dropped most dramatically, and the success rate for the rearing of chicks there has been abysmal. It is clear that open country encourages predators, allows stock to trample nests, and discourages successful nesting by neighbour-shy penguins. Lack of shade in the summer breeding season also causes the well-insulated penguins to overheat and become stressed. Conservation efforts What is being done? The new Department of Conservation has at last taken a lead from a few private efforts and fenced important reserve land at Highcliff on the Otago

Peninsula; and Nugget Point, Hina Hina Cove and Kings Rocks in the Catlins district of South Otago. In North Otago, Bob and Janice Jones have developed a reputation as the ‘‘penguin people’. Living in the house attached to the now unmanned Moeraki lighthouse, they rescue birds hurt at sea, often after being caught in nets, and nurse them back to health before releasing them again. They are honorary rangers in charge of the penguin reserves at Shag Point and Katiki Beach where chick survival has risen dramatically since their work began. On the Otago Peninsula, where the greatest concentration of mainland penguins is found, replanting of part of the Highcliff Reserve has started with the help of school children. Schools have also raised funds for hoiho through mufti days and other fund raising

projects. Most important, privately-owned penguin areas desperately need fencing but financial and legal difficulties are preventing progress. The newly formed Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust has set out to remedy this situation. In the Catlins, where farmer pressure for land has been less and where there are already several reserves on land occupied by hoiho, progress on protection is being made. A programme for fencing of reserves by the Department of Conservation is nearly completed and important colonies on private land at Penguin Bay and at Te Rere have been partly fenced. It was near Te Rere that I spoke to the American about penguins. It is this area that I have been involved with most closely. Possibly the most important in the Catlins district, it presently supports some 40 pairs of

breeding birds and has a great potential for expansion. Some of the best and most well known photos of hoiho have come from Te Rere as seen through the lens of local photographer, Dean Schneider. Here the forest has been cleared only very recently anda substantial area still remains bush-covered close to the coast. The Forest and Bird Society has successfully negotiated to buy some 60 hectares, most of which is still in forest. The coastal fringe however has largely been cleared, and a major replanting programme will be needed. Replanting has already started on five hectares fenced by the Southland Branch of the Society between 1980 and 1985. We in Southland are now running a fundraising campaign to recover the cost of fencing, surveying and replanting the land. This is estimated to cost some $40,000. The people of the south are working together to save the world’s rarest penguin from disappearing from the mainland. Many areas where hoiho nests on reserves are now protected by fencing, but the most important areas remain unprotected on private land. If the effort to save the bird is to be successful over the next few years, assistance from all over the country will be needed. The greatest need is for funds to fence land and to buy it where necessary, for only with adequate protection from stock, predators, and the sun, will the yellow-eyed penguin survive. It is not a great deal to ask: it is the least we owe this unique bird. y& For more information on the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, write to the Secretary, PO Box 5409, Dunedin.