The Oamaru colony is on track to produce more than 700 of the diminutive penguins, also known as kororā.
Colony staff have seen 440 chicks fledge this season and there are up to another 300 to go, which would dwarf the colony’s previous record of 570 chicks fledged.
Oamaru Penguins science and environmental manager Dr Philippa Agnew said this was great news for the colony and the penguins.
"It’s come on the back of a couple of seasons of quite challenging sea conditions for the penguins at a really significant time of the year, so to see this year improving so much it’s really good news."
Coincidentally, the poor season in 2024 helped last year’s numbers reach record levels.
"At the start of 2024 ... the sea was really murky for ages while they were moulting and so that year started really late and it was a really poor season because we lost some breeding birds because they just didn’t return after their moult.
"Because of the 2024 season not being that great, they finished early, moulted early and the 2025 season could therefore start earlier."
The 2025 breeding season began when eggs were laid at the colony in April.
"We’ve never had eggs laid in April before and there’s very few records of that happening in the entire country," Dr Agnew said.
"The earliest we’ve ever seen them was the first week of May."
Egg laying would be "pretty much done" this week and the chicks fledged in late March.
"When you look at it, the season started technically in April [last year]. By April [this year] we will only just have had our last chicks fledged, so that is a very long season for any species of animal to be producing young."
