Ocean the kororā, little blue penguin, has completed her two-year journey of recovery from a rescue at Ocean Beach to return to Napier Port's penguin sanctuary. Photo / Supplied
Ocean the kororā, little blue penguin, has completed her two-year journey of recovery from a rescue at Ocean Beach to return to Napier Port's penguin sanctuary. Photo / Supplied
Ocean the kororā is thriving in the wild after an unprecedented two-year journey of recovery that began with a rescue at Ocean Beach.
The little blue penguin was first found by a member of the public on Ocean Beach in August 2020 with a fractured and swollen flipper, underweight and dehydrated.
She was taken to the National Aquarium of New Zealand for her initial care, followed by an operation and four-month rehabilitation stay at Wildbase Hospital at Massey University, Palmerston North.
National Aquarium staff first released her to the Napier Port sanctuary in January 2021, where she has now returned to on August 31 this year after surviving in the wild post rehabilitation.
Professor John Cockrem, a kororā expert from Massey University who works closely with Napier Port and the National Aquarium, said this is the first time in New Zealand that a kororā that has spent several months in rehabilitation is known to have both survived at sea after release and also returned to the colony where it was released.
"The survival and return of the released kororā is one of the outcomes from a collaborative partnership for kororā between Napier Port, Massey University, and the National Aquarium," Cockrem said.
"It's a fantastic achievement for everyone involved, and it's stories like these that give a real boost to those of us who study and care for this at-risk and declining species."
Ocean the kororā has been safely released into a nesting box at the Napier Port kororā sanctuary. Photo / John Cowpland
Napier Port's environmental adviser Paul Rose first discovered that Ocean had returned to the port's penguin sanctuary when he was carrying out his regular nesting box checks.
As part of the sanctuary's ongoing monitoring and research work with Cockrem, all penguins that visit the sanctuary are microchipped and added to an extensive database of kororā survey information.
"I don't normally have to go back so far in my records to find when a returning penguin was last at the port, so I knew something was unique about this particular visitor," Rose said.
He said they have helped to release a number of rehabilitated kororā at the sanctuary because it was a customs-controlled port safe from predators such as cats and dogs.
"It's quite incredible to have a rehabilitated penguin return back to the port, and it's encouraging to know the work that we're doing alongside John [Cockrem] and our friends at the National Aquarium and Wildbase is making a difference."
Napier Port has live penguin cameras set up inside two of their nesting boxes, available to for the public to view at: https://www.napierport.co.nz/our-business/our-future/6-wharf/building-sustainably/korora-sanctuary/.
