The Yellow-eyed Penguin – (Megadyptes antipodes), or ‘hoiho’ in Maori – is one of nature’s delights. About 65 centimetres tall and weighing around five kilograms as an adult, it’s easily identified by the distinctive yellow stripe that runs across its bright yellow eyes and around the back of its head.
The Yellow-eyed Penguin can only be found in New Zealand’s south-eastern South Island and Stewart Island, and in the sub-Antarctic Campbell and Auckland Islands. Unfortunately, coastal development, especially the clearing of coastal shrublands and forest, together with predators, have taken their toll on the penguin numbers.
Thankfully help is at hand from the Department of Conservation, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, private landowners and rehabilitation centres. The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, the key independent trust protecting the hoiho in New Zealand, runs a comprehensive coastal conservation programme to re-establish their coastal habitat and control predators, and provides information to schools and the public on penguin conservation.