The Kaikōura Wildlife Centre Trust is working to enable wildlife recovery across the region, with a long-term vision that includes establishing a wildlife hospital and strengthening local capacity for rescue, treatment, rehabilitation, habitat protection, research, education, and advocacy.
Alongside its emergency response work through Project WellBird, which provides critical care for threatened seabirds, the Trust has been expanding its conservation efforts for kororā through Project BlueBird, creating preventative supportive care and habitat protection.
This work comes at a critical time. Declining ocean productivity linked to climate change and overfishing is reducing prey availability for seabirds across the region. As a result, birds are forced to travel further to forage, leading to reduced body condition, lower reproductive success, and increased mortality. These pressures are now the leading reason seabirds are admitted into care in critical condition. In many ways, seabirds are becoming messengers of ocean health, barometers reflecting wider changes in marine ecosystems.
Kaikōura’s kororā are among Aotearoa’s most at-risk local colonies, with remnant populations now dependent on year-round intervention to support survival. Welfare checks during the breeding season and annual moult are essential, alongside in-situ supplementary feeding, chick transfers for hand-rearing, and rehabilitation for injured or underweight birds.
While no wild population should need ongoing intervention to survive, these measures are now critical to prevent the species being lost from the region forever. With breeding seasons underway, the Trust has been actively upgrading and managing existing reserves, while also establishing two additional urban safe zones to protect remnant breeding pairs.
These kororā safe zones include fencing, nest box installation, traplines, native planting, and ongoing volunteer patrols to reduce human disturbance. Visitor management is a key component, ensuring sensitive breeding areas are protected from unintended pressure in an increasingly shared coastal environment.
To date, this work has been delivered largely through volunteer effort and in-kind contributions. Support from WWF-New Zealand, in partnership with the Tindall Foundation, through the Community Conservation Fund has enabled the purchase of essential materials to help establish a third kororā reserve currently in development. The Trust is proud of achieving reserve construction and grateful to our volunteers and supporters.
Habitat protection sits at the centre of this work, alongside preventative care and emergency response, creating a layered approach to stabilising a declining population under pressure from both land and sea-based threats. On land, dog predation and human disturbance remain two of the most significant risks, both of which can be reduced through proactive community-led action.
Ultimately, protecting kororā in Kaikōura is not just about a single species, but about safeguarding the health of the wider marine environment they depend on. Communities across Aotearoa can play a role by respecting sensitive breeding sites and recognising that these fragile habitats are not visitor destinations, but vital refuges for a species.
How to help penguins:
- Don’t seek out Kaikōura’s last remaining penguins — these are not a viewing attraction.
- Don’t promote sensitive breeding sites as a visitor destination.
- Keep dogs under control on leashes in coastal areas.
- Adhere to local bylaws regulating pet management: e.g. Dogs Prohibited and Dogs On Leash zones; Desexing, Microchipping and Registering cats.
- Pick up litter and marine debris at beaches.
- Report unwell beach cast penguins.
- Take only what you need from the sea (Fish For A Feed, vs stockpiling in freezers).
- Advocate for an increase in Marine Protected Areas.