Mr Barker is the new manager of the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust, taking over from conservation academic Dr Wenna Yeo.
The brother of Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker, Mr Barker was formerly the director of Lanarch Castle, holding that role for 35 years before leaving in March last year.
Mr Barker plans to begin his new role by gathering information from stakeholders and building relationships with partners already working alongside the trust to save the hoiho, including the Department of Conservation, Opera (Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance) and Dunedin’s wildlife hospital.
There were further collaboration opportunities, including potential scope for joint fundraising, he said.
Meanwhile, three fulltime rangers had been recruited recently by Dr Yeo to work for the trust, meaning crucial tasks were ongoing, including predator trapping and native planting in coastal reserves managed by the trust.
Mr Barker had already been in the field with the rangers, watching hoiho going out to sea for the first time.
‘‘That part’s really cool. The rangers are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and smart.’’
He had been shocked to learn from a ranger that every chick now has to be lifted and treated in the wildlife hospital for various conditions, including malnutrition before being returned to its nest and, hopefully, making it to sea.
Once at sea, about 5% of chicks survive to adulthood. Adults are also dying young, resulting in a rapidly declining population. The birds face many threats including disease, malnutrition due to a warming ocean, being caught in fishers’ set nets and their place in the foodchain.
This breeding season, only 93 nests were found over the entire hoiho breeding territory, which ranges from Banks Peninsula to Stewart Island, down from an estimated 265 breeding pairs in 2019.
On the 376ha of land owned or managed by the trust, 19 chicks hatched and fledged from 13 nests this season.
