Research and Monitoring

Monitoring

In order to ensure that the blue penguins are breeding successfully at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony we have a weekly monitoring programme that has been running since 1993. This programme involves checking every nest box and recording what is happening in each. All of our penguins are banded with a metal flipper band, at the top of their right flipper. The bands are numbered, which allows us to identify the different individuals and following their breeding throughout their lives. Every week we record the band number of the penguin at home, whether they are sitting on eggs or chicks and if they have chicks we weigh them. We repeat this process at our control colony where there is no public access and then we can compare the two sites. We are very pleased to report that the penguins breeding at the site of the tourism operation are just as successful as those at our control site.

We also count the penguins for an hour each evening as they come ashore. This information enables us to predict what our visitors are going to see and more or less what time.

Please refer to the 'Facts and Figures' page for updated weekly statistics from monitoring.

Results from monitoring

At the end of each breeding season we look at the total number of eggs laid, chicks hatched and chicks fledged to analyse how successful the season was. From this monitoring we can answer a number of questions about the breeding and survival of the blue penguins in Oamaru. This extends to analysing trends over time which we can compare to other colonies of blue penguins and we can relate these trends to environmental conditions such as El Nino Southern Oscillation or global warming for instance.

Our Scientist regularly inspects each nesting box