Friday, 16 March 2018
A young Otago yellow-eyed
penguin's amazing odyssey has continued as the bird, dubbed Takaraha, reached
the Cook Strait last night.
The bird's unusual course has
continued and unlike other penguins being tracked by University of Otago
researchers, Takaraha has shown no interest in staying close to home.
As of last night the bird had
travelled almost 1000km.
After reaching just south of
Kaikoura earlier this week, by last night Takaraha had reached the Cook Strait,
and based on tracking data appeared to show an interest in crossing it, before
doubling back and heading towards the top of the South Island.
As of last night Takaraha’s
position was 11 nautical miles due east of the Wairau River Mouth, near
Blenheim.
Tracking data showed the bird had
travelled 954km and 665km from her Otago home, as the crow flies.
The Catlins-born juvenile is one
of 23 yellow-eyed penguins university researchers have fitted with 25g to 40g
transmitters so they can be tracked while on their ''OE''.
But unlike the 14 other
yellow-eyed penguins that have already left for open water for the first time -
and have stayed in North Otago or South Canterbury waters - Takaraha does not
appear to be looking back.
Earlier this week, the bird was
well over 500km away from home, near Goose Bay, south of Kaikoura, zoology PhD
candidate Mel Young said.
''The other ones have had short,
sharp movements which suggest that they've found some good food and have stayed
put foraging, but Takaraha is beelining it up the East Coast,'' she said.
The remaining eight trackable
birds would were expected to fledge from yesterday afternoon.
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