Shirley Alexander, of Napier, thinks she may have misplaced the medals awarded to Lance Richdale during a visit to Dunedin last year.
In April 2018 she spent several days in the city, which included a visit to the Dunedin Royal Albatross Centre on April 13.
On her trip south she brought with her two medals, a Hector Medal awarded to Dr Richdale by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1953, and an OBE for services to ornithology (1982).
"I'm just really concerned about the fact that they're missing and hopefully that they can be found," Mrs Alexander said.
"I'm really upset."
During the Dunedin trip, she had realised Ms Elmore, an Auckland Enviroschools co-ordinator, had shared Dr Richdale's environmental interests and had wanted her to see Taiaroa Head, where he had conducted his research, Mrs Alexander said.
Trust ecotourism manager Hoani Langsbury said he had photographed the two medals when Mrs Alexander visited the centre.
After Mrs Alexander recently rang him to advise they were missing, he urged anyone who knew of their whereabouts to call him at the centre so they could be returned, Mr Langsbury said.
Dunedin author Neville Peat, who wrote a biography of Dr Richdale, Sea Bird Genius (2011), said an initial set of medals had been lost from an Auckland retirement home after Dr Richdale's death in 1983.
This loss, and that of more recently provided official replacement medals had distressed the family, and he urged their return.
Dr Richdale gained international fame as the father of the Otago albatross colony from 1936 and for his research on the yellow-eyed penguin.
Time Magazine dubbed him as "the Dr Kinsey of the penguin world", in a review of his 1951 book on penguin behaviour.
