New Zealand - Dunedin

Arrived in Dunedin early this morning. The past few days we’ve been traveling through rural countryside, and Dunedin is more of a university town. There’s a lot of action, and the town center is called The Octagon, and where we had a sophisticated Italian dinner tonight.

We went to the Otago Peninsula to see the yellow-eyed penguins come to shore at dusk. They’re a solitary penguin, so they don’t come to shore in massive hordes like other species. They’re the third largest penguin species at about 2 feet and 10-15 pounds. Considered the world’s rarest penguin (didn’t I hear/read that about another penguin species recently) there’s only about 4000 of these guys left. About 3000 live on the outlying islands and the other 1000 live on the southern points of New Zealand’s south island. The cause for their threatened status is numerous. Part due to predators (as with many native species of birds the introduction of stoats have been devastating to the population) and habitat loss as well. In recent years the numbers of been declining even more. It is believed that this is in part due to the recent La Nina effects. The temperature fluctuation has created warmer waters, and the yellow-eyed penguin is a specialist in diet. With the fish populations low due to higher water temperatures the penguins haven’t fared well either.

We watched the penguins through trenches as not to startle them, and I have to admit that half of the fun was wandering through the endless maze of trenches to pop up in little huts to observe the penguins in their territories. It is a little disappointing that the habitat almost seemed like an open zoo, but it’s an ingenious way to take conservation efforts. The penguins are still wild and live freely, but on land they have added protections from non-native predators.

While I did get to witness one penguin come ashore, two making their way to their territories, and one resting comfortably at home, I was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to witness more. I saw more penguins in the penguin hospital than I did out in the wild (I think that‘s the saddest part really). Tomorrow I’m off to Oamaru to hopefully see some more penguins.