Lending a hand to rear precious hoiho chicks

Our veterinary nurse Jess and bird keeper Suzie assisted our friends at The Wildlife Hospital in Dunedin with their incredible project to hand rear and treat hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) chicks.

This intervention is necessary to help prevent chick mortality, in particular respiratory distress syndrome, which without intervention has a close to 100% mortality rate in affected chicks. It’s all hands on deck as there are multiple chicks hatching or arriving each day – that’s a lot of fish smoothies for hungry mouths! The chicks’ ages range from 0 to 10 days, and are generally returned to nests by around 10 days of age.

We’ve been helping out as part of a large and busy team of experts for the past four years. This was Jess’ second year and she felt even better prepared and confident, building on the knowledge gained last season. While its Suzie’s fourth year, and due to this extensive experience, she is an invaluable member of the hoiho hand-rearing team.

Every effort is focused on returning each individual chick to full health and back to its nest.

“Unfortunately, this year was quieter due to lower chick numbers, following the loss of many adult hoiho during the moult. I was deeply shocked to learn that hoiho are predicted to go extinct within the next 10–20 years due to their rapidly declining population, unless the current threats are reversed. This only made the work feel more critical,” explains Jess

“This year, I learned how to tube-feed the chicks, which allowed me to take my skill set to a new level. It was incredibly rewarding to see the chicks leave the hospital in good health and contribute to the recovery of a species in serious decline. Receiving updates from the Department of Conservation rangers has made the experience even more meaningful, especially seeing the parents resume their care.”

A massive congratulations to the dedicated team at The Wildlife Hospital for another successful year of this labour of love for hoiho, as well as other conservation-focused organisations that lend their time and experience to such a rewarding project.