• Home
  • The Penguin
  • The Project
  • The Team
  • Research Diary
  • Download
  • Support Us
  • Satellite tracks

       
Copyright © 2023 The Tawaki Project

Tawaki numbers – increase or previous underestimate?

October 6, 2022 at 1:39 pm

For the longest time, tawaki have been touted as “the rarest penguin species in the world”. Until recently, the IUCN redlist gave a total world population of tawaki estimate of only 7,000 mature individuals. Yet, survey work carried out by the Tawaki Project but especially Robin Long in the past decade has cast some serious doubts on the validity of this claim. In fact, the IUCN has revised their estimate since to 12,500-50,000 individuals. (Although some still haven’t caught up.)

So what’s up? Are tawaki numbers increasing even though the official assessments still considers the species in decline? Or have tawaki numbers been underestimated previously? To answer this question, we have to look at where the 7,000-individuals-number comes from.

It is based on a series of surveys carried out in the early 1990s. These surveys were primarily financed through the participation of tourists that paid for the privilege to visit some of the remote sites in Fiordland and search for penguins in the process. With tawaki not the easiest bird to find there is certainly the suspicion that search parties consisting primarily of tourists lacked the necessary experience and potentially enthusiasm to crawl into every hole in the ground to see if there are penguins in there.

But then there are the John Islands in Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound.

The John Islands in Breaksea Sound

During the 1990s survey, the search parties found a total of 9 nests when searching four of the five islands in the group. So when we stopped at the John Islands on our way to Dusky Sound, we thought we had to look for a bunch of needles in a haystack. Well, turns out, in just a couple of hours we found 43 tawaki nests – more than four times as many as the 1990s survey.

One of the 43 tawaki nests found in just a couple of hours on the John Islands.

While we often had the suspicion that the inexperience of the search parties back in the day resulted in the low penguin numbers, it seems difficult to imagine that inexperience was behind the low return of just nine nests in the 1990s. You have to walk around blindfolded not to spot the burrow entrances!

Tawaki burrow entrances on the John Islands – pretty much impossible to overlook.

So, it would appear that penguin numbers on John Islands at the very least have increased in numbers since the 1990s. That is not to say, that inexperience of the search teams 30 years ago did not contribute to the low population estimate that we stuck with for almost as long. As with everything, it generally is a combination of different factors that determine what we see.

« Rātā has fallen
Tamatea tawaki – good and worrying news »

  • Recent Posts

    • Day 17 – Orde(al) Lees
    • Day 14 – Starlink drops, counts and loggers
    • Day 13 – Two team business
    • Day 12 – Misty again
    • Day 11 – Welcome to the Antipodes…
  • Archives

    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • June 2021
    • April 2021
    • February 2021
    • October 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • September 2019
    • June 2019
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • September 2015
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • June 2014
  • Categories

    • Bounties-Antipodes 2022
    • Field work
    • Field Work 2015
    • Field work preparation
    • Filming
    • General news
    • History
    • Penguin observations
    • Polls
    • Research results
    • Uncategorized
    • Video
    • Winter Tracking 2020