Before I went on a tour of Yellow-Eyed Penguins back in 2003 when I was on a trip to New Zealand, I assumed that all penguins lived in Antarctica. It wasn’t until I was standing in front of one on the shores in New Zealand in 50-degree weather that I began to believe that wasn’t the case. In fact, as I later learned, penguins live along the shorelines of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and even the Galapagos Islands, which are right on the equator.
The Yellow-Eyed Penguins that I saw, however, only live on New Zealand’s South Island and a few surrounding islands. They are one of the most endangered penguin species. We flew into Dunedin in August to get to the Otago Peninsula, where I saw them after a day of visiting the Royal Albatross. It was around 4 p.m. in the afternoon, and the penguins were just coming back from their daily trip out to sea for food. Most traveled in pairs and waddled from the sea up to their respective huts where they lived. The month was August, which is wintertime in New Zealand, so they were in the midst of the mating season, and there weren’t any chicks to see.
The number of Yellow-Eyed penguins has been in decline on the Otago Peninsula since I was there. They are not exactly sure why, but there are several active movements afoot to try to up the numbers, including one by the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust.