Western Bay Wildlife Trust

"A day in the life of a Mount Maunganui penguin"

The coast is clear to return home for the evening, I waddle through clumps of tangling line, trying my best to not get caught or stabbed by the spiky hooks. I jump from rock to rock, hoping I don't slice my feet on all the broken bottles. I reach my burrow safely, there's a large piece of trash blocking the entrance, hopefully I can squeeze past without losing a flipper, sounds like my chicks are really hungry and mum could use a break! Sometimes nice people come and clean up, but it's only a matter of time before it comes back again. As we rest and raise our rapidly growing chicks, we brace ourselves for the hungry predators that may be lurking...domestic cats and dogs included! We are constantly at war with those pesky rabbits and rock pigeons trying to take over our burrow, some years we are not so lucky and they've claimed it!What's even worse is the our burrow caving in or sliding away from all the erosion. Breeding is our busy time of year, turns out it's the time of year lots of humans like to visit, it's not too bad when they keep their distance and don't drop things around our home. I often worry about all that sticky black oil washing up again and ruining our colony. We know there is many people out there who care and are trying their best to make our home better and keep us safe, we need more like them!

Mount Maunganui supports a large little blue penguin population, including two sites (Mauao and Moturiki Island) which are heavily used by humans. Mauao also hosts a significant mainland colony of Grey-faced petrels. There are many factors that pose a risk to these populations including: oil spills, boat strikes, fishing, disturbance, pollution, erosion and predation from introduced pests, feral and domestic cats and domestic dogs. A thorough understanding of the wildlife we are trying to protect is essential for successful conservation management practices, such as identifying risk factors and protecting important habitat features.

Western Bay Wildlife Trust needs your help to undertake long term monitoring of little blue penguins and grey-faced petrels, habitat restoration and/or enhancement and provide rescue services to wildlife across the western bay of plenty. We wish to establish an education programme with hands-on fieldwork and utilise the community to help us achieve our goals.

The work of the trust will aid future efforts in little blue penguin, grey-faced petrel and shorebird conservation and utilise local populations as flagship species to conserve habitat where other species co-exist.