The Canterbury White-flippered Penguin

News Update

December 2009

The White-flippered penguin population at Harris Bay is increasing with each breeding season and this year is no exception. The numbers of eggs laid and hatched this year is up on last year and the chicks are looking big and healthy so there must be plenty of food in the ocean for the parent birds. Some of the chicks are almost as big as the parents so you can imagine the tight squeeze in the nesting boxes especially if both parents return to shore on the same night. They will continue to feed the young birds until such time as the chicks are big and strong enough to leave for the sea (fledging) and fend for themselves. This happens during the months of January and February.

Two interesting facts have been observed by our resident ornithologist, Dr. Chris Challies. Firstly there is one female parent bird that is leucistic and two of her six chicks from this and previous years have also emerged the same. Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells of the penguin fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing amongst the feathers or more rarely, as a completely white bird. This condition differs from albinism.
The other interesting fact noted is that there has been an influx of little blue penguins from Otago into Harris Bay and although they have occupied some nesting boxes and laid eggs, these have yet to hatch. Have they been interbreeding with the White-flippered cousin or do they prefer their own ilk? Watch this space!