Ensuring the survival of rockhopper penguins

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has taken the first step in a dedicated conservation program that will help to ensure the survival of rockhopper penguin populations.

In the past six decades, the number of rockhopper penguins has plummeted by up to 80 per cent – but the reason for the decline is a mystery.

RZSS has provided £20,000 for a boat so conservation workers can move easily between nest sites on Tristan da Cunha and surrounding islands. This will allow them to carry out a survey on the existing population, monitor fluctuations and investigate possible reasons for the decline.

Source: Scotsman
Photo: Edinburgh Zoo

New reserve opened for rare penguin

The world's rarest penguin found only in New Zealand has a new haven thanks to DOC and the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust.

A wildlife reserve has been opened in South Otago to protect the bird.

The yellow-eyed penguin is so rare that there are fewer than 500 breeding pairs left in the world.

Now, 50 hectares of land along a South Otago coastline has been secured to ensure the birds' future.

Photo Credit

Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust

The Yellow-eyed penguin is a black and white bird with distinct yellow eye stripes. It is a very secretive bird that nests away from others amongst dense vegetation normally raising two chicks every year.

This unique penguin is found only along New Zealands south islands' eastern coastline, as far north as Banks Peninsula and as far south as Stewart Island and beyond to Campbell Island.

In the 1980s research on the Otago Peninsula showed that the penguin population had declined severely, and that the yellow-eyed penguin was now considered to be an endangered species. This was due to severe predation and loss of habitat.

In 1987 Dunedin conservationists formed the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust with the aim of saving the penguin by restoring coastal forest and controlling predators. The penguin is the focus but the Trust's efforts also benefit other native species of plant and animal.

The Trust is based in Dunedin but manages land and penguin interests in the whole of mainland New Zealand.

The Trust's first twenty years have seen the penguin population increase, yet they are still a long way from being a self-sustaining population.

New England Aquarium seeks to conserve species

Every summer, the New England Aquarium babies a handful of penguin chicks, to support its own penguin population, and - in a crisis - the world's. This year, the nursery has been particularly busy, with a record nine chicks, two Little Blue penguins and seven Africans.


The chicks eat 10 percent of their weight every morning and again every night.

"Right now they're so hungry they'll eat anything you put in front of them," laughed Heather Urquhart, senior aquarist, as five chicks wearing colored bands on their wings jostled and squeaked while she rotated the feeding among them.

"You can see why they grow from the size of a jumbo chicken egg to the size of an adult penguin in 80 days."

The aquarium breeds penguins as part of the Species Survival Program, a cooperative project among the penguin programs at zoos and aquariums across the country.

The program seeks to conserve penguin species by working cooperatively to breed the animals.

The program maintains a stud book, or extended family tree of sorts, mapping out the lineage of every penguin in captivity. With such detailed information, specialists are able to decide which penguins should and should not be paired to provide a strong and diversified genetic pool.