Motley

Another penguin that came through the rehabilitation centre at Penguin Place, Motley is a repeat offender! This is the second moult in a for this tawaki ended up in rehab. In late summer 2019, he was picked up from Ryans Beach, one of the two bays surveyed by Penguin Place. Besides being underweight, he had foot injuries for which he was treated at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital. After a full recovery and completed moult, he was released and disappeared into the big blue.

Until he showed up at Pilots Beach this summer beach that is across the Otago Peninsula from Ryans Beach. The area is frequented by anglers as well as the location of a tourism venue that offers little penguin spotting to paying customers. All in all, not the quietest place for a tawaki to complete the moult. So back to Penguin Place he went.

Hin soit qui mal y pense… surely Motley did not return this year because of his appreciation for the full catering services at Penguin Place?

He was ready to go on 12 February 2020 and became one of the three desperadoes to march straight off to the bushes rather head out to sea, Sandy and Danny being the other two heroes. But while Sandy started her journey the next day, Motley clearly had an affinity for Penguin Place.

He also hopped into the water on 13 February which triggered his satellite tag to start transmitting. But Motley was not ready yet to venture out into the great unknown. Instead for the next two days he explored the waters off the Otago Peninsula. However, on 15 February it dawned on him that more free fish wasn’t forthcoming from Penguin Place. So he started is winter journey that day.

Motley swam southwards keeping the New Zealand coastline in sight until he hit a spot off the Catlins that made him doodle around for a while, pretty much what Sandy had done a few days before him, a clear indication that both had met a patch of food.

And just like Sandy, Motley continued along the Snares rise, passed the Auckland Islands a couple of weeks into his trip. The past few days he swam a neat loop some 400 km due west of Macquarie Island.