{"id":2177680,"date":"2024-10-06T17:59:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T15:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2177680"},"modified":"2024-10-06T18:03:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T16:03:25","slug":"rare-smelly-penguin-wins-new-zealand-bird-of-the-year-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/rare-smelly-penguin-wins-new-zealand-bird-of-the-year-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare smelly penguin wins New Zealand bird of the year contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the world\u2019s rarest penguins has been crowned New Zealand\u2019s bird of the year, in an unusually sedate year for the competition, free from the foreign interference and voting scandals of previous events.<\/p>\n

The endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, is the largest of New Zealand\u2019s mainland penguin species and is distinctive for the pale yellow band of feathers linking the eyes.<\/p>\n

The hoiho, meaning \u201cnoise shouter\u201d in M\u0101ori due to its shrill call, lives along parts of the South Island\u2019s east coast and in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. The shy, fishy-smelling species tends to live in native coastal forests, scrub or dense flax.<\/p>\n

There are believed to be roughly just 4,000 to 5,000 left in the world, according to the department of conservation, and its numbers are declining. The number of mainland breeding birds has dropped by 78% over the last 15 years \u2013 including an 18% dip over just the last year alone, says the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis spotlight couldn\u2019t have come at a better time,\u201d said Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird, the environmental organisation that runs the annual competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa [New Zealand] before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The birds are \u201cbeing hammered from all angles\u201d including diseases, dog attacks, predation from introduced pests, she said in a statement. The penguin\u2019s fishy odour is irresistible to dogs, which can smell them from a distance.<\/p>\n

The penguins were also drowning in set nets \u2013 nets anchored to the seafloor with weights \u2013 and are struggling to find food, Toki said, adding the birds urgently need marine protected areas to secure their survival.<\/p>\n

\"A
A karure, or Chatham Islands black robin pictured on Chatham Island in 2016 is the runner-up Photograph: Oscar Thomas\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bird of the year competition was launched in 2005 to raise awareness about the plight of New Zealand\u2019s native birds, many of which are threatened, on the brink of extinction or already extinct due to the introduction of pests, human activity and declining habitats.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved \u2013 and often rare.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the contest has become a lightning-rod for scandal, from crowning a bat the winner in 2021, to accusations of Russian interference in 2019, and claims Australians attempted to rig the contest in favour of the shag in 2018.<\/p>\n

The two-week competition attracted more than 52,000 verified votes \u2013 a significant drop compared with 2023\u2019s event, which leapt to 350,000 votes across 195 countries after British-American comedian and talkshow host John Oliver ran a global campaign for the threatened p\u016bteketeke \u2013 a grunting, puking bird with an unusual repertoire of mating rituals.<\/p>\n

Oliver\u2019s self-described \u201calarmingly aggressive\u201d campaign, including buying up billboards in New Zealand, Japan, France, the UK, India and the US state of Wisconsin. A plane with a p\u016bteketeke campaign banner also flew over the beaches of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.<\/p>\n

His efforts were rewarded when the p\u016bteketeke was crowned the 2023 winner.<\/p>\n

The hoiho, which secured 6,328 votes to win, also attracted celebrity endorsements, including from conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan and former prime ministers Helen Clark and Chris Hipkins but the competition was a more \u2018homegrown\u2019 affair, Forest & Bird\u2019s Ellen Rykers told RNZ.<\/p>\n

This year, local campaigners sought votes in the usual ways \u2013 launching meme wars and getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.<\/p>\n

The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote.<\/p>\n

The Hoiho joins the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d as the only bird to have taken out the avian election twice. The k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d won in 2008 and 2020.<\/p>\n

The tiny karure, a small \u201cgoth\u201d black robin found only New Zealand\u2019s Chatham Island, came second, while the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d \u2013 the world\u2019s heaviest, longest-living parrot \u2013 came third.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> by Eva Corlett was first published by The Guardian on 16 September 2024. Lead Image: A hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin pictured on April 2, 2023, has won New Zealand’s annual Bird of the Year vote. Photograph: Hayden Parsons\/AP.<\/i><\/p>\n

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