Sunday 21st May 2017

Having a day off

​Hello friends and family
Last week’s conference kicked off with a presentation from Leanne (Sydney) where they get over 1000 calls a day for a native animal that needs to be rescued. It was very informative. She was followed by a trustee from Predator free NZ. Then Lisa spoke about the Wild-life hospital for Dunedin. Kate from DOC did a workshop on identifying survivable injuries in different species, and after a rehabber from Coromandel, I spoke about penguin rehabilitation. After that we had a lizard PHD student talk and 2 rehabbers with case studies. A great day!

​On Sunday, we heard about IT systems to administer rescues and then it was an update from the Nest at Wellington Zoo, Claire spoke about operation nest egg for Kiwi and the ranger from Zealandia spoke. Janelle spoke of bird rescue in India and Shalsee from RSPCA talked about cat management. I then had a walk around Zealandia and had to go to the airport – others went to the Nest at Wellington Zoo. An excellent conference all round. Next year it will be in Christchurch.

Bert, our last penguin is now in soft release

​I did the rounds on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, started cutting the hedges and repairing the asparagus patch. I did the bees here and at Owen’s. On Thursday, the walk-in freezer arrived and so the logistics problems sourcing fish for penguins is now solved. I feel very blessed.

all ready and waiting

​This was a week of YEP publicity with Otago University staff going public with their concerns about the extinction of YEPs.
They have published a paper on their research ( https://peerj.com/articles/3272/ ). 

cubic beauty

​Forest and Bird called for a joint effort to save the Yellow-eyed penguins but Sue of the YEPT is already working with DOC and Ngai Tahu and would not use the word “extinct”. I have observed no evidence of this work since 2015, (The stocktake -no actual conservation) but have seen many people harassing the penguins here at Katiki point on a daily basis since then, with the blessing of both DOC and Ngai Tahu.

Ignoring signs

The white at these people’s feet is penguin poo. They have jumped the fence behind them to get closer to penguins.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
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