Our long time friend and patron Beverley, Lady Reeves, decided it was time to hand over her role as patron of the trust, which she had held since 1988, as “age was creeping up” – not that you could tell. And, since it was made public in the Otago Daily Times, the 72-year old wife…

The number of yellow-eyed penguin chicks fledged in Otago this year was the lowest recorded for many years, primarily due to an outbreak of a Corynebacterium infection. The disease was first noticed on the Otago Peninsula in early November and for a short time it appeared that the disease was confined to that location, prompting…

Despite many studies on yellow-eyed penguins we know little about their habits at sea – their foraging patterns and where they are feeding and travelling. Interpretation of the species’ population dynamics, and consequently conservation measures, are primarily based on what can be observed on land. Today with the aid of modern satellite technology, studying penguin…

In late November, several cases of avian diptheria (Corynebacterium) were confirmed in yellow-eyed penguin chicks at locations on the Otago Peninsula and North Otago. The disease results in lesions in the mouth and throat, causing respiratory problems and poisoning of young birds. Mortality rate of chicks is thought to be 60% or higher. After further…

The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust has just completed the first year of a planned five-year study to measure the effects of cat predation on yellow-eyed penguins on Stewart Island’s north-eastern beaches. But instead of cat predation, what we found was an, as yet unexplained, high chick death rate. Because of an apparent decrease in yellow-eyed penguin…

Despite the fact that the first year of our study into the effects of feral cats on hoiho populations on Stewart Island did not show high rates of predation, we still managed to obtain some useful data. Grant Harper’s research in an inland forested area on Stewart Island in 2002 found that the average weight…