15/09/2026
Our Govt would rather wait and see 🙄
We have experts ready to do vaccinations!
All paid for! Why would you not?
Just so stupid......
‘Ground zero’: A penguin colony on the edge
Kaikōura’s tiny remnant kororā colony is already struggling to survive and on the brink. Now a deadly strain of bird flu is closing in, and conservationists say the government is refusing to give the birds a fighting chance.
Nestled within nature reserves along the Kaikōura coastline, the local kororā population is already hanging by a thread.
Years of depleted fish stocks, fishing pressure and climate change have left the penguins facing chronic seasonal starvation.
Kaikōura Wildlife Centre Trust volunteers (KWCT) regularly step in to feed starving birds, raise chicks and rehabilitate sick and injured penguins.
Now the colony faces a new threat: the arrival of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu.
“Starving, immunocompromised penguins have zero natural capacity to fight off a virus as lethal as H5N1,” says KWCT’s manager Sabrina Luecht.
The trust fears that if bird flu reaches an unvaccinated colony, volunteers will be unable to enter reserves to rescue starving chicks or care for sick birds. Moving between nest boxes would help spread the virus.
Without vaccination, Luecht fears the trust could be forced to stop caring for the colony altogether.
The trust has a veterinarian ready to administer the vaccine and has offered to pay for the entire programme. It also argues Kaikōura’s small colony would be relatively straightforward to vaccinate because the birds nest in accessible, fenced reserves.
But conservation officials have repeatedly rejected the proposal.
New Zealand confirmed its first case of H5N1 on July 15, after the virus was found in a brown skua on Petone Beach.
Shortly after, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) approved a Department of Conservation plan to vaccinate up to 30 threatened native species, beginning with 300 birds from five critically endangered species.
Luecht made an urgent plea for Kaikōura’s kororā to be included. The local population has dwindled to fewer than 50 birds, despite kororā being nationally classified as “At Risk – Declining”.
Kaikōura MP Stuart Smith took the trust’s request to Conservation Minister Tama Potaka on July 21.
But nine days later, DOC’s director of terrestrial biodiversity, Tim Bamford, formally rejected the proposal in a letter to Smith.
DOC says its national biosecurity policy restricts H5N1 vaccination exclusively to species facing an imminent threat of total national extinction – such as kākāpō, takahē and black stilts.
Because kororā have larger populations elsewhere in New Zealand, DOC considers the species ineligible for the national vaccination programme.
The trust appealed again on August 10, this time directly to Potaka and DOC director-general Peter Chrisp. It offered to fully fund and run the programme using MPI-approved veterinarians.
Bamford reaffirmed DOC’s position on August 19, saying overseas experience showed wild bird populations could eventually develop natural immunity and recover.
He argued that controlling introduced predators and dogs would give penguins the resilience they needed to survive H5N1.
Bamford also said vaccination would be “burdensome” for the seabirds, requiring “increased handling, surveillance, swabbing and stress to the birds”.
Luecht strongly disputes that argument.
She says international outbreaks among South African and King penguins have caused mortality rates of 75% to 100%, with no evidence of natural resistance.
She also argues that handling is already part of the Kaikōura birds’ care, with volunteers routinely weighing, feeding and rehabilitating them.
The trust points to Australia, where authorities have launched a wild-bird vaccination programme targeting 6000 little penguins on Phillip Island and at St Kilda following the first confirmed penguin death.
Her appeal has also drawn local political backing.
Environment Canterbury chairperson Deon Swiggs wrote to Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard asking central government to “facilitate a pathway for population-specific assessment and vaccine access”.
Kaikōura mayor Craig Mackle also backed the proposal, highlighting the “considerable community and partner investment” made to protect the colony.
But on August 21, Potaka declined to order a ministerial review, saying he supported DOC’s decision and would only reconsider if “new information comes to light”.
In a statement, Potaka told the Sunday Star-Times that he acknowledged the “passion and advocacy” of the trust.
“The threat of a significant outbreak of bird flu in the future is confronting, and it is understandable people want to do everything they can to protect their local populations.”
But he stressed the focus of the vaccination programme is on species that are endangered.
“These species have such low numbers we don’t have the option to wait for natural immunity to develop.”
He said kororā are not threatened “although they are in decline due to many different pressures including predators, habitat loss, and changes in food availability.
“H5 bird flu may cause losses, but the national population is considered large enough to withstand this, and with time, will be well-placed to develop natural immunity. It’s important to remember that while bird flu is a serious threat, internationally no species have gone extinct.”
Potaka said New Zealand has had the benefit of time and learning from other countries’ experience with bird flu. “We don’t know exactly what impact H5 bird flu will have on New Zealand’s native species. However, it’s most likely to impact birds that breed in dense colonies such as red and black-billed gulls, gannets and terns; and birds that are scavengers (of dead birds).
“Colony nesting penguins are also vulnerable, however kororā don’t nest in very close contact with their neighbours in large colonies and are not known as scavengers (of dead birds).
“They are also not expected to be in close contact with other birds that are at higher risk, so the chances of transmission to and among kororā is relatively lower than for many other seabirds.”
Potaka said the strain won’t be eradicated and we “will need to learn to live with it.”
“We need to support native wildlife to do this too, to survive losses from bird flu as they develop immunity over time. This gives them the best chance of living with the virus in the long-term.”
This week Luecht said the threat has escalated further after Australian authorities recently confirmed H5N1 had been detected in migrating Hutton’s shearwaters returning to Kaikōura.
This detection means the virus is now dangerously close to the local penguin colony, she said.
And she has warned Potaka and Hoggard to expect a formal letter of legal notice, arguing that the Government’s inaction breaches its obligations under the Wildlife Act.
“The Kaikōura Peninsula will effectively become ‘ground zero’.”
“The primary argument by DOC and the Minister of Conservation is that kororā are not threatened enough — many local populations of Blue penguins are threatened and genetically isolated; whilst White-flippered penguins are endangered and endemic to Canterbury. DOC also argues that penguins will develop natural immunity over time - this is categorically false. Internationally, penguin species have developed no immunity to H5N1. In Kaikōura, kororā nest in incredibly close proximity (due to habitat constraints) and pairs interact with their neighbours nightly rearding direct contact. They are highly social colonial birds, inhabiting a communal space, using the same access points, trails, and nest boxes. Imminently, kororā will face viral transmission from infected gulls (ill/deceased/fecal matter) on the foreshore when coming ashore and departing for sea.”
“Once gulls pick up the virus from returning seabirds, it will be game over for penguins without vaccination. The Government’s failure to exercise its powers and authorise vaccination will condemn kororā to mass mortality.”
➡️ Sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/p/doc-mpi-protect-nz-penguins-from-h5n1-bird-flu-approve-vaccination
DOC & MPI: Protect NZ Penguins from H5N1 Bird Flu & Approve Vaccination
