Road signs for penguins?
HEN YOU DRIVE around the coast from Wellington airport to Breaker Bay you will see a different type of road sign. It warns motorists to slow down because penguins cross the road here. For millenia blue penguins have probably nested in the vegetation along this coast and ventured out daily to feed in Cook Strait. In recent times a road was formed around the coast between their nesting and feeding areas, and over the past 10 years the number of cars and their speeds have
increased dramatically. Many penguins were being killed on the road at night, usually as they came in to nest or roost; more than 30 were killed in one year. A number of Breaker Bay residents, appalled by the carnage decided to try and stop the penguin deaths. They designed large road signs to warn motorists of the problem and erected these along the coastal road. With less deaths on the road and nest protection work by the Department of Conservation and the local Rotary Club, the penguins may survive in this city suburb.
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Forest and Bird, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 February 1992, Page 20
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182Road signs for penguins? Forest and Bird, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 February 1992, Page 20
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