Ōamaru Penguins

08/05/2026

Check out the sea of penguins that arrived ashore a couple of nights ago!

The number of penguins arriving during evening viewing has been high for autumn (200-300), which means that foraging conditions at sea must be great at the moment. While penguins do spend a large proportion of their life at sea, they seem to opt for single-day foraging trips when possible. We can see exceptionally short trips happening at the moment from our tracking work, the penguins are foraging within only 5-10kms of the colony!

This explains the high numbers returning each evening and the early egg laying. It's a great time to visit!

05/05/2026

We forgot to mention yesterday that we still have moulting penguins in the two breeding colonies we manage. This pair was photographed at our second site today by our monitoring team, where they also found three pairs on eggs.

They're making the most of what must be good feeding conditions at sea!

05/05/2026

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with E!

Our monitoring team were more than excited to find two breeding pairs sitting on eggs today ☺

We've been busy analysing our reader data that records when the penguins come and go from the colony, and we have agreed that the first egg was laid on the 30th of April! This is the second breeding season in a row we have had first eggs laid in April, so we look forward to hopefully another bumper season.

Congratulations to Rosie Fakatava who guessed the correct lay date, we'll get in touch to get your penguin adoption to you! We've decided that the first layer can be the adopted penguin. The penguin ( #04164) is a 4 year old female and this is her third year breeding, interestingly she bred early last year as well.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our pick-the-date competition.

Check out our adopt a penguin programme if you'd like to adopt your own penguin. https://book.penguins.co.nz/giftvoucher/selection

04/05/2026

We sadly had three little penguins picked up or brought in to us that had died from suspected dog attacks over the weekend: from All Day Bay, Harbour Street and Harbourside Park. Our research team necropsied all three penguins and confirmed that the penguins found at Harbour Street and Harbourside Park were definitely killed by dogs (the third was suspected, but the body was too degraded to tell for sure). We've based our findings on years of research at Oamaru and elsewhere.
The classic signs are multiple puncture wounds and blood in the mouth from the associated crushing. We've tried not to be too graphic in our images, but we think it is important to show how clear the evidence is. There are multiple puncture wounds in these penguins and the distance between the wounds is around 4-5cm. Dogs can make these wounds in one bite when they pick up and shake an animal.
Regardless of the rules around where you can and cannot take your dog, this is completely unacceptable.

29/04/2026

We've released our final penguin from rehab for the season! With 36 penguins coming through our rehabilitation centre this season, its been a busy year for the team. Penguins have come in with many different concerns, such as injuries, starvation, feather contamination or chicks that have gotten a little lost within the township. It's a great feeling seeing this last penguin swim off into the sun on such a beautiful day.

20/04/2026

Guess the date that first eggs are laid for the 2026 breeding season and win a penguin adoption worth $150!

Little penguins at Oamaru are highly variable in the date first eggs are laid for the breeding season. At this time of year we always compete within the team to see who can pick the date that first eggs are laid.

This year we decided to open it up to our followers. So join the competition by writing a date in the comments below and if you're correct, you will win your own penguin adoption!

Hints, you might've read in our blog last week that the 2025-26 season has finished and all (994!) chicks have fledged from our two colonies. While officially the season is finished, we do still have lots of moulting penguins at home, so it is a late season. However, there has been some sign, like the nesting penguin in the photo, that some are preparing their nests for the new season and the number of penguins arriving in the evening is high (150-200).

The date is likely to be sometime between now and the end of July. The closest commenter will win.

16/04/2026

With all of the chicks now fledged and just a few more adults left to moult. We thought we would have a bit of fun with a new blog, paying tribute to some of our remarkable kororā for the 2025-26 breeding season.

Check it out here:

conservation & science 2025 End of season round up Wed Apr 15, 2026 | After a long and incredibly successful year, we’ve officially wrapped up the 2025 season - and what a season it’s been! With a record-breaking 644 chicks fledged from our tourist colony, and 994 in total across the two colonie...

10/04/2026

The juvenile fur seals have been super curious as usual while the penguins arrive home from sea. They really just want to have a close look at the penguins, but luckily they're also interested in checking each other out, which takes the pressure off the penguins and allows them to scurry past!

07/04/2026

How's this for a pre-moult and 'normal' body size comparison!

A couple of the penguins we have in care at the moment have different weight goals to achieve. The bigger penguin we've been helping to put on enough weight to trigger his moult to start and we've achieved that! He reached 1.6kg before his moult finally started. The little one is weighing just below 1kg so he'll be ready to head to sea soon, he's already moulted this year.

02/04/2026

Happy Easter! We hope you have a lovely long weekend and take the time to enjoy yourself!

01/04/2026

Pop in and see the penguins during the day this weekend if you're riding the train!

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