News

Little Blue Penguin Chicks

2 Little Blue Penguin chicks were brought into the Centre on 20 November 2006, they were found on one of the Tutukaka coast beaches. The chicks had been noticed at their nesting area on the beach but when they moved down toward the water and were still by themselves – no parent bird observed – further investigation was required. A walk further along the beach revealed some dead adult penguin birds and stingrays with net markings on them. After 2 more days and still no adults had been observed it seemed likely that the dead birds on the beach were the parents of the 2 chicks, so the rescuer picked up the chicks and brought them into the Centre.

Going for a walk down the hall while his bed was being cleaned.

The two chicks were still covered in grey down, very cute and boy could they bite! We hadn’t had Little Blue Penguin chicks this young at the Centre before so we called on the expertise of the staff at Marineland in Napier. They estimated by the weight of the birds that they were about 30 days old and recommended that the chicks should eat about 20% of their body weight per day.

For the next 70 days we had a daily routine of purchasing fresh fish from the supermarket and cutting it into strips 2 to 3 cm long then hand feeding twice a day, morning and night. We really struggled to get the birds to take food at first. But once we trained them and they trained us the task wasn’t too difficult. They lost weight when they first arrived, but it wasn’t long before they began to put on weight steadily. The Little Blue Penguin can easily become very tame so they got used to the routine very quickly and were quite comical when they got very excited and scrapped between themselves when they knew it was feeding time, running around the brooder box with their little wings out for balance.

The start of learning the feeding process for both us and the penguins

They learnt what feeding time was very quickly

"I can feed myself now"

"I’m very full,  just stretching to get it all down"

The bigger of the two birds was feeding by its self after a few weeks, but if we let this chick feed its self, what a mess, so we took them outside to feed. This proved to be very popular with the public who happened to be visiting the Centre at the time. We think that the “Happy Feet” movie playing at the time the chicks were here helped to give penguins the “cute factor”. Plus these two little fluffy bundles were very cute as most babies are.

The chicks began to loose their down and get feathers, starting from the head, then wings, back and tummy. Once they had their adult feathers we had to wait for them to become waterproof. So we reduced our handling to a minimum, which also helped to desensitise them to humans. They were released on the 19 Jan 2007. Robert Webb, Centre Manager said they took off like little torpedoes when they got into the sea and didn’t come up the surface again until they were about 25m off shore. In the wild, chicks fledge at about 54 to 63 days old and at about 90% of adult body weight.

Two very cute little blue penguins with Robert Webb

Adult plumage

The penguins would follow Robert back to their aviary

We gave them swims to get them used to water

Just before they were released

* The Little Blue is the smallest penguin about 40cm long up to 1100g, the juvenile has a brighter blue back. They are often noisy on land at night, uttering loud screams, wails, trumpeting and deep growls. They breed on rocky coasts and islands through out New Zealand, the nest can be several 100m inland. When breeding they come ashore at dusk and depart at dawn, they are often seen in the coastal waters of New Zealand. The Blue Penguin usually has a complete body moult which takes 10-18 days from December to March.
* Details of bird habitat and behaviour from “The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand, Barrie Heather & Hugh Robertson 1996.

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