Blog
Penny Pōhutukawa
Have a read and I'm sure you'll all love her as much as we do.
Happy and healthy and doing just great – But then their parents started coming home… super-duper… late.
The days grew hotter and the ocean did too – and a Marine heatwave, La Nina had the ecosystem askew.
Penny’s penguin parents didn’t show up for days - the fish were far out at sea… causing delays.
Penny and her Sister were all alone – without penguin parents, they would leave the nest and roam.
They were still too young to fend for themselves - too fluffy and small for the big ocean swells.
So, Pōhatu’s Monitoring team pick the chicks up – and bought them into rehab …the chicks were in luck!
They were hand raised by humans, who knew what to do – fish smoothies of salmon and chunky fish stew.
The sisters kept growing and baby fluff gone – time for swim lessons - to make feathers strong.
Penny and her sister - fledglings ready to go - 8 weeks old now, they were fat and healthy and had finished to grow.
The day to go back to Pōhatu was here – But rehabber Ave - had discovered a problem with Penny’s rare!
A small red ball hung from her backside – a problem only the vet could fix … so they went for a ride.
Up over the hills and off to the city - a long drive for penny- such a pity.
Weeks at the vet had Penny fixed up – The prolapse was fixed and stayed in her butt!
Time to go now and take her to sea – another long drive… and then Penny would be free.
But things don’t always work out as well as you’d hope - and the morning she was to go, her butt said… NOPE.
Argh… another long ride to Pauline the vet – this time surgery was needed - to have Penny set.
More weeks in Rehab – Penny stayed with Kristina and Thomas - until finally she was ready to go - they had felt with some Promise.
So Ave picked her up – and another long ride – Ave, nervous and weary of Penny’s Backside.
But her butt stayed put and for that Ave was glad – ok let’s release her … out of Rehab!
She was bought to Pōhatu - to a box on the beach - the ocean on her doorstep - right within reach.
Yay, Penny had gone by sunup next day – hopefully finding fish in the bay.
But again things don’t always go to plan – and Penny ending up going for another ride in a van.
The kayaking guide Ben had found a bird looking thin – and Rehabber Ave opened up a box to find Penny… within.
“oh no, you again!” Ave cried in disbelief – Penny’s butt was ok which was a …relief.
You’ve lost a little weight but you’ll be ok – it’s really time to go back to the bay!
So, Penny went for another van ride – she was bought to the beach and realised with the… tide.
The days went by and Penny didn’t turn up – good news for Penny the bird with the… Butt!
Penny Pōhutukawa is the name of one of the adult Kororā’s living in nest box F36. Box Photo:
Both their chicks came into care and we started using this name for one of the chicks.
For 3 weeks in December 2023 a marine heatwave caused by La Nina, drove the small fish the penguins rely on for food away. Adult Kororā usually forage close to the colony site when they are raising chicks. But with no fish around they had to go super far away and sometimes it took them days to get back. This can be too late for the chicks. Sometimes chicks leave the nest - an instinct to go to the big blue takes over… but if they are young and still fluffy they can’t survive. Fluffy Chicks are not waterproof. It takes 8 weeks for a Kororā chick from hatching to become a beautiful blue waterproof fledgling and be ready for sea. During monitoring of the colony, the Pōhatu conservation and research team had found many of the chicks starving and some… it was already too late.
Penny and her Sister we very lucky to be picked up on time. 4 weeks old, tiny and close to starvation. We had to hand-raise them, along with another 23 chicks we had in care at the same time. All with the same situation - their parents were not returning. We monitored our colony with trail cameras to see if adults were coming in or not and weighed the chicks to see if they were getting fed. In many of the nests, no adults came home.
Side Note; To hand raise Chicks or Rehabilitate Adult penguins - This is where our special license from the Department of Conservation comes in. We have authorization to uplift and handle Kororā for rehabilitation. In New Zealand, it is in fact illegal to handle Kororā as it is a protected, at-risk/ threatened species. We have gone through specific training over the years and are mentored by Kristina and Thomas Christchurch penguin Rehab and Pauline the head Vet at the wildlife hospital, as well as working with our Local DOC rangers.
On the day Penny and her sister were to be released, I went into give them a big feed and then get them ready to be transported to the bay. We had already microchipped them - So we could keep track of who’s who.
I walked into the enclosure and Penny waddles out, looking like her normal self, eager to be fed. But then when I picked her up, I noticed a small red ball sticking out of her butt! I freaked out, I’ve never seen anything like that before.
I called Pauline the penguin vet in Christchurch straight away. She gave me and my husband Kev some instructions over the phone about how to gently push her butt back in. It was a prolapse, something that can happen to all of us, and is apparently fixable. We tried to push it back in but it wasn’t working. I was so scared of hurting her, that I decided to just drive the two-hour trip straight to Pauline.
Penny’s Sister had no problem going to sea in healthy condition and was released with other fledglings on the day Penny was raced up to Christchurch Wildlife Hospital.
Penny spent a week with Pauline until she was happy with her. Her name on the chart was Butt bird. She had kept the prolapse back in and it seemed to be ok. So I went back to Christchurch to pick her up for release to the wild... round two. I kept her overnight with me as it was too late to drive all the way over to Pōhatu after the Christchurch trip, which is a 4-hour round trip.
And then in the morning the second attempt to release Penny… it happened again!
I called Pauline and told her we were on our way back. Pauline saying “oh no Butt bird is back”. I told Pauline the name from her nest box… which is technically her mother’s name, Penny Pōhutukawa. Pauline liked that better than Butt Bird - So that was put on her medical chart.
This time Pauline performed surgery. Penny stayed with Pauline and… Albatrosses, Shags, Hoiho/Yellow eyed penguins, petrels and many other Marine birds in care at the wildlife hospital - for several weeks. The marine heatwave had effected not just penguins but marine birds all over Canterbury and further afield. Our Amazing vet Pauline was working long hours 6 days a week.
Pauline started running out of space at the wildlife hospital - as so many birds were arriving, Penny was doing much better, but still needed a bit more recovery time. So off she went to Kristina and Thomas at Christchurch penguin rehab.
Kristina and Thomas had quite a few Kororā in care. One of them they named Houdini as he kept trying to escape his enclosure. He was a White flippered Kororā - found very thin, half way through his molt, exposed on a public beach in Kaikoura. Penny and Houdini became fast friends during their time and became inseparable. While Kristina and Thomas were cleaning out the enclosures the two penguins would contently be calling to each other and when reunited would jump all over each other in joy to be back together.
When the time came that Penny was finally ready to be realised … round 3. Kristina and Thomas didn’t want to separate her from Houdini. So, I picked them both up from Christchurch, drove all the way home and again Penny and now Houdini stayed the night at our care facility in Akaroa.
In the morning, when I went to get Penny and Houdini ready for transport to Pōhatu, I was secretly freaking out I would find Penny’s butt hanging out again - even though she had fully recovered and she was in prefect health… I still had this fear, I think I’ve been traumatized by the Butt ball! But fortune was on my side this time and everything was completely fine.
So Penny and Houdini where bought to the soft release beach box in Pōhatu where they could find their own way to sea. The next day they were both gone! Yay. We had video footage of them leaving together on our trail cam. No more Butt bird to worry about… until.
4 days later. Ben our kayaking guide messages me while I’m in Christchurch with another penguin I’m picking up from the Kristina and Thomas. Bens message - I’ve left a skinny penguin in your kitchen. There’s a photo. I’m like, oh no that looks like Penny… When I get home I scan the Kitchen bird sitting nonchalantly in a the box… opening it’s beak for food. That’s not normal penguin behaviour.
And yes. It’s Penny. Being a bit too friendly. But all and all she looked a bit slimmer but her weight was ok. This is not Ideal I told her.
Ben had said she was sitting on the beach in the way of the kayak tour looking sorry for herself. He figured it was a rehab bird which hadn’t gone yet. Which is the whole point of soft release. They know where to find us if they still need help.
Penny was fed up and then she went out with the next van going over to Pōhatu. They released her that night and now that I’m writing this we haven’t seen her since. I’m hoping she finds Houdini. One day we might find her again - if she chooses to nest in our colony. Penny is Microchipped and we monitor the nest boxes once a week. So if I ever find Penny and Houdini in a nest together. I will be the most happy rehabber in the world!
Thanks for Reading.
Ave.
Penny and Houdini leave soft release box together.