Tereza

The first week of February was a pleasant one in Dunedin. Tereza Chudobova from the Czech Republic had been in the region for some time and, amongst other things, had volunteered with Yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho work. So Tereza had a keen eye for penguins. That pleasant weekend, she decided to try to climb around the basalt column wonderland at Blackhead, Dunedin, south of the city to reach the area called the Roman Baths. When she climbed up the first barrier of fallen basalt she noticed a small crested creature sitting in a cave, looking a bit drowsy and puffed up.

That night she informed Mel Young (with whom she had done the hoiho work) about the moulting tawaki, who, in turn, got in touch with Thomas. The photos that Tereza sent through showed that not only was the penguin a one-year old bird. It also was only beginning to moult so there was no urgency to go out and find her.

Thomas and Richard waited a week before they had a look for the tawaki. Equipped with all satellite tracking gear they scrambled out to the spot Tereza had described. The penguin was quickly located but, as it turned out, was still not quite ready with old feathers still dangling from various body parts.

The third weekend of February was another pleasant one in Dunedin. This time Thomas and Ursula tried her luck and they found the female penguin dozing in a small rock cave. Tereza, as the bird was named, was a quiet girl that did not object to getting a satellite tracker fitted. Within 20 minutes she was back in her cave.

And then she took her jolly time. For a week – Thomas and Richard made it to Doubtful Sound and back, more on that in the next few days – Tereza didn’t do anything. That is, here satellite tracker, programmed to start transmitting once she enters the water remained silent.

A week later, Thomas decided to have look for Tereza and went back out to Blackhead. He was not sure what to expect, but imagined that, if he was lucky, he’d find the satellite tag somewhere in or around Tereza’s cave; she wouldn’t have been the first penguin to preen off a satellite tag. But while he was still contemplating what to expect, he spotter Tereza walking across the rocks a few metres in front of him – tracker still attached. He snapped a quick photo and retreated so as not to spook Tereza.

She finally left the next morning. The next few days she travelled southwest along the continental shelf edge. When she was east of Stewart Island/Rakiura’s South Cape, Tereza went silent. And she hasn’t come back online.

What happened? Well, the most likely explanation is, that she managed to take off the device. Judging by the last photo of her, the device was already sitting somewhat skewed on her back as if she had been working on it for a while. Quite possible that the tracker was only attached to a few feathers by the time she went to sea. In this case, it doesn’t take much for water to loosen the remaining tape so that the device falls off.