Penguin Reserve Flourishing Despite Fire Damage

Forest and Bird, Issue 309, 1 August 2003, Page 42

Penguin Reserve Flourishing Despite Fire Damage

Southland Forest

and Bird.

—CHRIS RANCE,

Anyone visiting the Society’s Te Rere Penguin reserve in Southland will be astonished at the progress made in recent years. Southland Forest and

Bird has been managing the reserve for yellow-eyed penguins since the land was purchased in 1989. The well-publicised fire in 1995 was a major setback for everyone involved. The

previous plantings and the penguin population were devastated. Concentrated effort since then has seen remarkable progress, however — plantings are now well above head height and providing good nesting habitat for the birds. Predator trapping and possum control has been intensive since the fire with the part-time caretaker, Fergus Sutherland, servicing bait stations, stoat traps and checking fencelines monthly. On a recent Southland Branch visit we checked the stoat lines and were rewarded with one dead stoat and a rat in the traps. Despite our best efforts it has not been a good yellow-eyed penguin breeding season. This has been recorded in two beach counts done in October and December across all colonies in the Catlins and mainland Southland. Poor food supply at sea is implicated. As we can only concentrate on the factors we can influence, we will plant around 1000 native plants at our two main planting days this winter. If you have not visited Te Rere in recent years, your help on August 16 would be most welcome.