Historic Evidence
Please feel welcome to post your evidence / stories /sightings of little blue penguins in Taranaki (even if it was 30 years ago :) ) Please send your evidence to me by email me at taranakipenguins@gmail.com
I will then post it on this page for others to see
Hi Mark, I was pleased to get your flier in my letterbox at Messenger Tce. Thank you.
Sadly, I have to report that the Little Blues have disappeared from this address. When I bought the place in March 1996 I was delighted to find at least one pair nesting under the kitchen floor. Except when their mating rituals moved under the floor beneath our bed, I even enjoyed their raucous conversations, starting with calls as the returning partner emerged from the sea and climbed the bank. The smell of the feeding chicks was offensive,but even that did not put me off. The mating rituals sometimes went all night, and very loud with it. I enjoyed noting their tracks up the beach, sometimes from low tide. I built 2 boxes to a design provided by of DoC. The document was called something like "State Houses for Little Blues". Neither of them appealed and I did not ever catch a penguin to stash in there, on the understanding that they got used to the idea after a while. I did find a couple of wrecks at the foot of the bank, evidently savaged by dogs. But they are resident no more, since about 2000. I attribute this to dogs. However, many beachfront dwellers have also cast their green-waste down the bank creating quite a barrier, too.
Sometimes I fancy I hear a penguin calling in the night, perhaps looking for its mate, but I have not had any flatmates for several years. I have not seen any footprints, recently
So, not the best news, but there you have it. I trust your research reveals we still have a population and I would be interested in restoring the Little Blues to our section of beach.
Regards
Shane Herbert
