Tawaki Project

The Tawaki Project works towards unraveling the mysteries of the world's least known penguin species - New Zealand's crested penguins or tawaki.

The Fiordland penguin (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus) or tawaki is believed to be one of the rarest penguins worldwide. It is one of six crested penguin species (Eudyptes spp.), a group that has experienced significant population declines in the past decades. Climate change and associated reduction of oceanic productivity are likely an important determinant of population sizes in eudyptids. However, unli

ke most of its congener species that inhabit truly offshore, pelagic environment of the subantarctic regions, tawaki live and breed along the temperate, inshore southwest coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Compared to little and yellow-eyed penguins that also inhabit the New Zealand mainland, tawaki has a breeding range that is spatially restricted. It stretches from Haretaniwha Point, southern central West coast to Port Pegasus on Stewart Island – a mere 500 km of coastline. Yet, the species occupies a very diverse marine environment, probably the most diverse of all New Zealand penguin species. Along the West coast region (Haretaniwha Point to Martins Bay) diet studies suggest that penguins forage over the continental shelf (water depths 1000 m within 3 km from land. Finally, Solander, Codfish and Stewart Islands in the species’ southernmost ranges are located in shallow waters often less than 50 m deep, which the penguins may prefer to forage in as a diet study from the 1990s suggest. As a marine forager, tawaki have to adopt their at-sea behaviour to the local conditions. Considering the diversity of their marine habitat it is reasonable to assume that their foraging strategies will differ between sites. This in turn means that to fully understand how tawaki interact with their marine environment it is necessary to examine the plasticity of the penguins’ foraging behaviour across the different habitats. For an animal that spends more than 80% of its life at sea, foraging is obviously a critically important aspect of its ecology. The penguins’ access to adequate marine resources particularly during the chick rearing phase plays a significant role for population regulation. Yet we know next to nothing about tawaki’s marine ecology, their foraging ranges, which prey species they consume and at which water depths they forage. Critical information is missing to assess how human activities might impact on tawaki, be it ongoing climate change, fisheries activities or pollution of the marine habitat with mining effluents or oil-leaks. This project will address the key aspects of tawaki’s marine ecology. We will

- examine their foraging strategies across the different marine environments they inhabit
- study the spatial distribution of their diving activities to determine whether there are specific hot spots at sea,
- investigate which marine and terrestrial aspects affect the species’ population dynamics

16/04/2026

The 2025/26 Expedition Report is out! 🐧

From late November through to late February, the Tawaki Project team sailed to two of the most remote islands on the planet - the Bounty Islands and Antipodes Island - to study Erect-crested and Eastern Rockhopper penguins. Nearly three months in the subantarctic, tracking foraging trips, counting chicks, flying drones over colonies, and collecting samples. Tough, wild, and absolutely worth it.

The full report: https://bit.ly/bounty-antips-2025-26

26/03/2026

Brace yourselves! A significant storm is forecast to reach the Antipodes Island Group in around 36 hours - and it's arriving almost straight from the North. That's exactly the direction TawakiCam is facing. With wave heights approaching 6m, it's going to be a dramatic watch. The storm is expected to hit in the early hours of Saturday (NZ time), so tune in before noon to catch the action unfold live.

🌊🐧👉 http://tawaki.cam

16/03/2026

Uncle Rocky is home!

Just before 5pm today, Uncle Rocky made his return to the rock platform. 🐧Uncle Rocky is a one-of-a-kind character - a lone Eastern Rockhopper penguin who has chosen to live among the Erect-crested penguins here on the Antipodes Islands, ever since we first set foot on this place. Every season he stakes out his little patch of rock and calls out with everything he's got, hoping against the odds that a female Rockhopper will answer.

Sadly, the odds are long. Eastern Rockhoppers have become increasingly rare on the Antipodes - likely a reflection of shifting ocean conditions that have quietly eroded their food supply over recent decades. Uncle Rocky may never find a mate.

But here's the thing about Uncle Rocky: when the neighbouring Erect-crested penguin chick is left home alone, he's there. Watching over it. Unbothered by species lines. Every researcher who has ever spent time on this island asks after him. It's not hard to understand why. 🖤

You can check out Uncle Rocky on .cam over the next few weeks. He's likely going to hang around and go through the annual moult.

https://tawaki.cam

10/03/2026

Two different chicks, two different ways to wait. While Eastern Rockhopper penguin chicks huddle together beneath massive boulders on the south coast of Antipodes Island, a lone Light-mantled Albatross chick sits patiently in its nest on a rocky ledge. Both are waiting for a parent to return with food — the Rockhoppers foraging relatively close to the island, while the albatross makes the long journey to the Antarctic pack ice to bring back a meal for its chick.

06/03/2026

Moult season has arrived on Antipodes Island. Thousands of penguins - Erect-crested and Eastern Rockhopper penguins (the latter now sadly only in the hundreds) - are undergoing their annual feather change.

Penguins do things differently: instead of gradually replacing feathers, they shed them all at once. For a few weeks the colonies resemble a winter landscape, with feathers sometimes lying ankle-deep across the ground.

The largest colony in the southwest of the island - often dubbed the “Mother of all Colonies” - currently holds nearly 20,000 birds, all in various stages of the moult and all looking equally miserable.

In just four weeks they will be gone again, leaving only drifts of old feathers as a reminder that they were ever there.

04/03/2026

Two moonlit nights on the Antipodes.
The first looked like a lo-fi club. The second delivered the celestial spectacle of a full lunar eclipse.
The moulting erect-crested penguins, however, didn’t seem particularly impressed.

-> https://tawaki.cam

27/02/2026

An amazing moonlit evening is happening on Antipodes Island right now -> https://tawaki.cam

14/02/2026

Our ride back to the mainland has arrived! The Evohe in misty drizzle. And currently live and in colour at -> https://tawaki.cam

08/02/2026

There’s a bit of drama unfolding on the Erect-crested penguin platform right now. A juvenile Giant Petrel has crash-landed near the colony this morning and now finds itself (quite literally) between a rock and a hard place.

Expert fliers they may be, but take-off is not a Giant Petrel’s strong suit — so this youngster will probably have to take the plunge and hope for the best.

If you’re quick, you can catch the action live at https://tawaki.cam

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Location

Dunedin

Website

https://www.tawaki-project.org/

Address

Department Of Zoology, University Of Otago, 340 Great King Street
Dunedin
9016

Tawaki Project

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