Penguin death sparks ban call
A dog is suspected to have caused the death of a little blue penguin at Port Tarakohe in Golden Bay, sparking a call to ban pooches from port land.
Massey University Professor John Cockrem, a penguin expert, said the korora¯ was found dead in a nesting box on Thursday with blood and what appeared to be puncture wounds on its head and around its flippers.
The bird was otherwise ‘‘very heavy – in very, very good condition’’, he said.
‘‘We don’t know what happened [but] it seems likely it was killed on Wednesday night by a dog.’’
The penguin would be sent to Massey University for an autopsy, Cockrem said.
Port Tarakohe has long been a home for the little blues – the world’s smallest penguin, known officially as little penguins or korora¯. Dogs are banned from the penguin nesting area.
‘‘When a penguin is killed by a dog, one really upsetting part of that is how unnecessary it is,’’
Cockrem said. ‘‘This is an area where dogs are prohibited.’’
Little blue penguins, which are at risk-declining according to the
Department of
Conservation, were attractive to dogs, which could smell them up to
30 metres away. The birds had no chance of outrunning dogs on land, Cockrem said.
As well as being a professor of comparative endocrinology in Massey’s school of veterinary science, Cockrem is a trustee of the Mohua Blue Penguin Trust, which was established in mid-2019 to protect the korora¯ population in Golden Bay.
The trust’s chairwoman, Cynthia McConville, said the discovery of the dead penguin was distressing, ‘‘not just for trustees but also for the many volunteers from our community who have come and given their time to this project’’.
‘‘Yesterday [Thursday] we finished installing our 150th penguin nesting box at the port,’’ McConville said.
The little blue penguin population needed ‘‘far better protection’’.
‘‘I would like to see Tasman District Council step up and ban dogs from port land,’’ McConville said.
Cockrem said there were more than 100 resident birds, of which more than 40 had so far been microchipped.
The penguins were being weighed and measured as they were microchipped, and their condition was good.
‘‘Golden Bay penguins are doing really well,’’ Cockrem said.