The moult is upon us

While we’re still trying to catch up with posting stuff about the last breeding season, the Tawaki are already starting to come back to go through their annual feather change.During a brief visit to Milford Sound last weekend, to check our transponder bridge, surveillance cams, and re-bait our trapline, we came across this plump young female. Together with her partner she had chosen this lovely spot amongst the ferns to hang out while growing her new dive suit.

During a brief visit to Milford Sound last weekend, we came across this female about to go through her annual feather change. As new feathers are produced, the old ones get pushed out giving the birds a rather fluffy look. Interesting Tawaki almost double their weight in preparation for their annual moult. As new feathers are growing and thousands of old feathers a falling out, she will soon look like an experiment of a fire cracker and down pillow gone wrong. Don’t be alarmed if you see such a penguin. It’s perfectly healthy and doesn’t need any help! Best give them lots of space since they cannot go foraging for food but need to live of their fat reserves while they have holes in their dive suit.

Fantastic to see the first candidates returning so fat and healthy from their epic pre-moult journey. Over the next few weeks more and more tawaki will return to Southern New Zealand to moult. Let’s hope they’ll all find similarly lovely and safe retreats to hide away for their personal annual lock down.