Doing Whatever It Takes to Save This Iconic Penguin

Drastic measures have been taken to protect the declining population of New Zealand’s favourite endemic bird, the yellow-eyed penguin, a species revered in Māori culture.

In 2023, all 214 hoiho chicks – the species’ Māori name which means “noise shouter” – on New Zealand’s South Island were removed from their nest and placed in human care for the first week of their lives to be treated and fed, a drastic yet life-saving intervention for between 50% and 70% of those chicks.

In Māori culture, the hoiho is revered as taonga, or treasure, and is “protected by sacred origins.” And yet, according to the International Union for Conservancy of Nature, only between 2,600 and 3,000 hoiho exist. Two-thirds inhabit sub-Antarctic islands some 480 kilometres south of New Zealand’s South Island, where the rest of the yellow-eyed penguin population lives. In the past 15 years, the northern population has dropped by 75%, notably due to a decline in fish population, commercial gillnets that drown the flightless bird, and two deadly diseases – avian diphtheria and a mysterious and fatal respiratory illness that infects virtually every chick. Human intervention has been crucial to giving newborn chicks antibiotics to heal the mouth sores caused by avian diphtheria and fish smoothies to boost their strength.