Of the 238 hōiho admitted to hospital in the six months since October, 2023 — including 178 days-old chicks and 60 adults and juveniles — just one fledgling remains in care. She is being treated for a very complex predator wound.
Dunedin Wildlife Hospital manager Jordana Whyte said the 178 chicks had been admitted during November and December for hand-rearing to protect them from diseases, including diphtheritic stomatitis and respiratory distress syndrome.
"We also admitted hōiho eggs from Green Island, incubating and hatching the viable eggs. The surviving chicks went to foster nests once they were past the vulnerable disease stage," Ms Whyte said.
The team was justifiably proud of its treatment success rate of getting 97% of chicks out of hospital and back into nests — meaning 172 chicks had been given a second chance, she said.
If there had been no intervention, it was estimated that 70%, or 124 chicks, would have died of diseases before reaching 10 days old.
"We also know that this intervention works, as chicks that were hand-reared three years ago have been re-sighted and have even been successfully breeding."
The hospital’s success rate for patching up predator wounds and providing intensive care for starving hōiho is just over 90%.
The Dunedin Wildlife Hospital was "extremely proud" of the contribution it made to hōiho conservation in collaboration with the "amazing organisations" it worked closely with.
These included The Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance (The Opera), Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, Department of Conservation, Penguin Rescue, Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony.
While this work was something to be proud of, the overall population of hōiho continued to decline on the mainland, she said.
"This would be occurring much more rapidly without the work that all of these organisations are doing to try and save them.
Last week, the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital asked Dunedin City Council for $75,000 in one-year bridging finance during its annual plan hearings.
Through previous long-term plans (2018 and 2021), the council provided the hospital with two terms of triennium (three-yearly) funding.
However, since the long-term plan process had been deferred by a year, the hospital requested funding to cover one year, with the aim of participating in 2025’s nine-year plan process.
