Photos from Motuara Island

 

View of the island from Cape Jackson - with special thanks to Ron Marriot :-) Motuara ("Island in the path of the canoe") is a 58 ha island at the entrance of Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough, New Zealand. I spend six months on this island to study Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor) for my MSc.

 

Ecstatic male Little Penguin. On land, Little Penguins are strictly nocturnal. Little Penguins are found throughout New Zealand and along the southern coast of Australia.

MR with Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) pair (T. Jamieson). This is probably the most abundant bird in New Zealand with huge colonies around the southern end of the South Island and on The Snares.

 

Little Penguin chicks - always hungry. Starvation is a major cause of mortality for Little Penguins on Motuara Island.

The endangered South Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus). These birds were introduced to the island in 1989 and have thrived since. This subspecies was once at the brink of extinction when Ship Rats invaded their last remaining refuge on Big South Cape Island in the 1960s.