kororā update

Our team of dedicated volunteers found a nice surprise in one of our nesting boxes this week with a Little penguin/kororā with eggs.

In 2015 a small group of Meact Volunteers formed The Muriwai Penguin Project and put 26 penguin nesting boxes out into the four bays to the south of Maukatia Bay (known by some as Māori Bay), in the hope of attracting kororā to nests and the results have been spectacular.

kororā used to nest in the dune environment of the main beach of Muriwai, but through predation by stoats, cats and dogs, and disturbance from the increasing numbers of humans they had largely disappeared from Muriwai. Nationally, due to threats like these, kororā are now categorised as 'declining/at risk" by DOC

Encouraging penguins back into those bays to the south is a long game, but the team are making progress with kororā starting to nest in the boxes. After two years of intensive trapping in these bays the team noticed a reduction in the amount of predator tracks in the sand at low tide.

Now, after three years, we’ve recorded zero predator tracks. That gives us hope that we’re making a difference. The team has also found evidence of grey faced petrels (Pterodroma gouldi) nesting in the cliffs, recently using a trained sniffer dog to find penguin and petrel burrows. Nesting seabirds Birds are pretty secretive really, so it was a huge morale boost to the team to find so many.