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From our scientist, Hiltrun Ratz, PhD
scientist@penguins.org.nz |
Our yellow-eyed penguins hang out on the foreshore in the late afternoon after a day's fishing and socialise - they are NOT an anti-social species as much literature will suggest. If they have a choice they look for company and hanging with other penguins. Their nests are hidden (but so is every burrow nesting penguins' nest!!)
Our injured male yellow-eyed penguin is getting his last meal here. If you watch to the end you will see that his walking is fine and that he in fact has good sized hips with plenty of fat as well as a new feathers. We will let him go and complete the moult in the colony so that he can get to know the locals and maybe he will stick around, find a pretty girl and make lots of baby penguins!! Now that would be the ultimate reward for this work! We had a Rockhopper penguin guest in our hospital for a while. He was running a little late with his moult and was a bit far away from home. But a kind soul found him and brought him to us so we could give him a little top-up and send him on his way. They are such delightful birds and full of character - and learn very quickly what this feeding thing is about.
Here is our young yellow-eyed penguin male with the crook foot getting his evening meal. He was making great progress and certainly liked his salmon dinner!! We received this young male yellow-eyed penguin for rehab a while back and it was perfect example why it is so important to check beaches for injured penguins in autumn. He had an injured foot - it wasn't bad, didn't need stitching and had started to heal. BUT, he had not yet moulted and was trying to and was only 6.0kg. While the injury would not have killed him, the trauma of it prevented him to fatten up enough for the moult and without the kind person who patrolled the coast finding him, he would have died. He was a delightful patient, so easy to care for, it was a real pleasure.
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