Excited tourists inadvertently harassing Oamaru penguins

Ignorant tourists could be making life difficult for penguins wanting to feed their chicks in the Oamaru region.

The penguin colonies in the district, most notably at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony on Water- front Rd, have been a boon for Waitaki tourism, but that interest has apparently been to the detriment of the aquatic birds’ routines.

Tourists eager to get close and snap a picture of the urban penguins may in fact be scaring them away from their hungry chicks and even causing them to abandon their nests, Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony research scientist Philippa Agnew said.

‘‘It’s happening in areas that we don’t monitor.’’

Penguins have nested all over the wider Oamaru town area, with Criterion Hotel and Main St being just two of the places they have popped up.

‘‘We could put signs up but they come ashore at random places,’’ she said.

When the penguins would surface and where they would settle was too unpredictable, meaning Agnew and her team were unable to control every tourist who encountered the birds.

Social media was now helping Agnew gain a broader idea of when and where penguins were being disturbed than she did in previous years.

‘‘Social media is a way for members of the public to let others know when and where these things are happening.’’

She also suggested people report harassment to the Department of Conservation.

It was a ‘‘lack of understanding’’ from tourists about how their actions affected the penguins and that their behaviour was illegal under the Wildlife Act that caused the issues, Agnew said.

Oamaru’s penguins were not the only ones facing these challenges because dealing with people was the ‘‘consequence of living in an urban environment’’, she said.

Since it was a shared issue, Agnew planned to meet with penguin-focused biologists from across the country to discuss the problem.

‘‘We’ll be looking at brainstorming ideas to solve it,’’ she said.