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From our scientist, Hiltrun Ratz, PhD
scientist@penguins.org.nz 
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Some babies are more work than others. This 3 week old Yellow-eyed penguin chick had to be adopted to new parents because it ran away from home and hid and the parents thought it had died. The neighbours took it in as they had a chick of similar age and size and we put a camera on them to make sure that all goes well. It certainly makes the new parents run around after it no end - but they are so sweet in their worry about their lively baby. Enjoy! To all our Facebook friends: Have a wonderful Christmas and may your life be filled with happy penguins! Thank you for your interest and support for our work - we so appreciate you letting us know that you also care for our precious birds! From all of us at Penguin Rescue: Merry Christmas!!  We have not seen a lot of Yellow-eyed penguin juveniles this summer but came across this one in a house with one of our lonely males: we were able to read her transponder number and behold: she had been in hospital last summer as a chick pre-fledging - repeatedly due to ongoing issues of vomiting. We persevered and released her three times - eventually she left for good and now she is back AND she already has a boyfriend. They have been sighted more than once! We were over the moon and feel that persevering with difficult cases can pay - you never know.  Giddaye......checking you out.....check me out and my big belly......  Almost all our Yellow-eyed penguins have chips or transponder numbers in them for identification but they are 12 numbers - not easy to remember. So we call them Mr. or Mrs. Nest Box Number. So, here is Mr. 9 and he has been our first patient in the our rehab facility for this summer. He had an encounter with someone who bit his feet and left some nasty gashes. He had not lost weight - yet - and the wounds were fresh and not infected. A few days in rehab fed on beautiful salmon - kindly provided by King Salmon in Malborough at very much reduced rate for our birdies THANK YOU - and the wounds were healed and the bird ready to be released. He is one of our many lonely males - so his short stint in rehab had no consequences for any chicks he might have been raising. If you fancy supporting our rehab work, please consider a donation on our website http://www.penguins.org.nz/donate.html Thank you! 
When we do our rounds there is usually one parent at each Yellow-eyed penguin nest guarding the chicks. Every once in a while we come across the whole family with one parent having just returned from feeding. The chicks are usually quite active as they are excited about dinner. Here the parents are singing to each other. This reunion of the whole family only lasts maybe 20 minutes then the parent who has been at home will depart to get the next load of fish for the chicks. The other parents stays home and looks after the now full and sleepy chicks. Very domestic!!  This is (currently) our only and hopefully last patient. This 25 day old Yellow-eyed penguin chick has been treated for Diphtheria since 16 November and every morning it has new plaques in the corner of its beak. These are the tell-tale signs that it is infected, but this one is a particularly stubborn case. Most chicks only need 5 days of treatment, this one had its 18th this morning. It is making progress and growing: it weighed 1230g this morning, up from 800g only 6 days ago, so it has a good appetite and it is slowly getting bigger. It should be 1800g - but the main thing is that it is alive!!   |
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