Affordable housing for penguins
Fifty penguin nesting boxes were dug into the newly created breakwater at Tarakohe last Saturday. Photo: Ina Holst.
Over 40 people, prepared with spades and muscle power, turned up at Tarakohe Harbour on Saturday morning to install affordable housing for penguins.
The 50 nesting boxes, built by DOC staff during a few rainy summer days, were dug into the newly created breakwater to discourage the penguins from crossing the road in search of nest sites, and to provide a safe place for them to live.
Tarakohe Harbour management had been fundamental to the penguin-housing scheme, said DOC community relations manager Greg Napp.
“They have been very supportive of the project, and harbourmaster Allan Kilgour organised it when the breakwater went in and they had topsoil put on it. This is stage one of a much bigger project. We will plant this bit in the autumn with low-growing shrubs which can tolerate the harsh conditions and seaspray, like taupata (Coprosma repens) and ngaio (Myoporum laetum), and then move onto the next bit, the outer breakwater.”
Despite the prevailing community spirit, doused only from time to time by a bout of seaspray, the digging was hard work in what Moira Tilling described as “random rock soil” and which Bob Kennedy assessed as “no country for old men.”
Motupipi headmaster Mark Cullen got stuck in, saying he appreciated the new penguin development as another resource to be used by schools and for people who had never seen a live penguin.
“I came down here today because I love the sea and because I can take my grandchildren down here with a spotlight, and it’ll give them such a buzz to see a penguin.”
However, it may take several years before penguin enthusiasts can see any significant degree of occupancy. The boxes, which will be numbered, will be checked regularly by putting a burrowscope—a wee camera—in the boxes.
“We are creating a village for penguins,” chimed Mary Stevens from Pohara. “I hope they have a friendly hierarchy or pecking order with a nice mayor and that they will live here happily ever after.”
Ina Holst
